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Guy: Seven. Don't solve every problem you're
asked to solve.

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Guy: Welcome to Service Design Principles. I'm
Guy Martin, joined by the author of the Service

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Design Principles series of books. Founder of
the Swiss Innovation Academy and Service design

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practitioner, the enigmatic Daniele Catalanotto.

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Daniele: Hi Guy, it's such a pleasure to be here.

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Guy: Same here. Now, each episode we look at one
of the principles from your book, the Service

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Design principles 1 to 100. today, it's
principle number seven. Don't solve every

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problem you're asked to solve. Now, this is a
good one as naturally helpful people, and

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perhaps also people who enjoy a good puzzle, can
be drawn into trying to solve every problem that

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passes our way. Why isn't this productive?

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Daniele: I think now that I'm a dad, I have a
bit of an additional take on that, which is, you

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know, when you're kids, you know, they ask you
for help and they say that can you please open

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the bottle, you know, bringing you a problem,
you know, and got up to a certain age, you open

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the bottle for them because obviously muscular
elements and dexterity are in there and you

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don't want to get all the orange juice on on
your pants, obviously. But there are moments

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where later you have to just don't. So you don't
have to solve the problem because what the

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problem that that the your your little one is
giving you is like it's not I can't open the

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bottle. It's like I didn't learn how to open the
bottle. It's like, okay, and why didn't you

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learn about to open the bottle? Because I never
teach. Taught you how to do it. And now. Okay,

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let's solve the real problem. Which is we never
took. We never took a moment to see how can we

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open a bottle, you know, and. And do it at a
level where I maybe open the first part and you

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do the other parts, and. And you learn about it.
And so it's it's it's recognizing that first and

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there are problems which are not the right
problem. And therefore, you have to go back and

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ask, why is this happening? And then there is
another part, which is sometimes there are

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problems which are good because they are
learning opportunities and or they are good

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branding opportunities where it gives you then a
possibility to create an interaction.

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Guy: the. The five whys, for example, is was a
way of getting to the root cause of a problem.

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So we learn this doing diagnostics and
troubleshooting and those sorts of things. But

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you mentioned it's a branding opportunity. So
just go a little bit more into into what you

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mean by that.

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Daniele: So the listeners might know that we
love hotels, which is a thing that we speak a

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lot of that

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and I'm going to steal a story from another
principal. But but which goes really well with

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this one, which is a story about a air
conditioning, you know, And so there was a hotel

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where we went to and they had the problem was,
was air conditioning, basically. They didn't

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have all the rooms with air conditioning. But
instead of putting already the fan an extra fan

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in the room, what they make you do is they they
they ask they wait that you come back down and

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they say and that you say, oh, there is no air
conditioning. And in that room I said, Oh, I'm

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so sorry. Yes, yes, yes, it's terrible. But here
is a fan and a bottle of champagne. How is it

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there? There is an opportunity to say, let's not
solve the problem because we can't put air

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conditioning everywhere. And that's and these
these rooms are cheaper and they tell you the

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rooms are cheaper. They don't have air
conditioning. And they tell you that once you

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buy it. And so it's clear in the contract. But
once you come in Sicily and it's too warm, you

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just say, I need something. And here there is an
opportunity to say let's let's not solve the

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problem, but use it as a way and an opportunity
to create another interaction.

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Guy: That's interesting. It it makes me think
about and I don't know if there's a term for it,

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but I call it, The service paradox, which is
where something goes wrong and you're able to

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solve it, and your reputation with your customer
is actually higher than if nothing went wrong at

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all. Now, obviously, you don't want to create
problems for customers. You want to have things

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go smoothly, but at the same time, it's an
opportunity to demonstrate how good you are at

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solving problems. So yeah, it kind of ties in to
that. But this is a little bit more deliberate

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in a way, right?

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Daniele: Yeah. And and then it comes to ask a
question, you know, which is when we say don't

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solve every problem yours to solve, it just
means like there are problems which might not

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happen often where you say the cost of solving
it so that it never happens is way too high for

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us, that we could just say it might happen a few
times and we know that it might happen. And when

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it happens, we have a way to turning it into a
delightful experience. And so it's kind of like

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not trying to make it like a fake moment, but
saying, hey, there is good reason for us to not

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solve it because it's just not happening enough
or the cost of solving it is way too big. But we

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are going to be going to choose to turn it into
something that is quite cool

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Guy: And not everyone may have an issue with
their not being an air conditioner. Maybe some

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people like a warmer room or something like this.

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Daniele: you know, because many people, you know,
say air conditioning is especially today, you

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know, it's like

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Guy: Unsustainable.

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Daniele: sustainability. Not good. I'm in Italy,
so it's warm, it's okay. I'm going to open the

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window, feel the feel of the sea, you know, and
hear the seagulls, if that's an experience, too.

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You know, it's also part of the of the Sicilian
charm, that half of it is broken, you know, and

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that which is good, you know, because, you know,
I can say that because I'm half Sicilian, you

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know, And it's part of and it's part of our
charm, you know, it's like it's like this this,

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this, like and perfect world, which when you're
coming from Switzerland or other northern

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countries, you know, you're also searching (for)
that romantic. Kind of half broken half working

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experience, you know and and as you say, it's
like the problem from one is not the problem for

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the other. What is the problem for for everyone?
Obviously, it's it makes sense to solve it.

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Guy: So thank you very much again, Daniele.

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Daniele: Thanks to you.