Why bad service design can hurt your business without you realising it?

Panagiotis Kyrou
7 min readSep 16, 2022

--

Bad service design can have a negative impact on your business without you even realising it. It can make your service more difficult to use, less intuitive, and ultimately cause customers to go elsewhere. Service design is all about taking a holistic view of the entire service, from start to finish, and looking at how every touchpoint can be improved. This makes it ideal for businesses that want to provide the best possible experience for their customers. If you’re not paying attention to service design, you could be losing customers without even knowing it.

What is holistic service design?

Holistic service design is all about taking a comprehensive view of the entire service, from start to finish. It looks at how every touchpoint can be improved, making the service more intuitive and easy to use. This type of design thinking is particularly important for businesses that want to provide the best possible experience for their customers. By considering the entire service, businesses can identify areas where they can make improvements that will have a real impact on customer satisfaction.

There are many touchpoints that need to be considered in service design, from the initial contact with the customer, right through to post-purchase follow-up. Each of these touchpoints presents an opportunity to improve the customer experience. In order to deliver a truly holistic service, businesses need to consider how they can make improvements at each stage.

One of the best ways to do this is by using service blueprints. This is a tool that can be used to map out the entire service journey, from start to finish. By mapping out the service, businesses can identify areas where they can make improvements. This helps them to focus on the most important touchpoints and makes it easier to see how changes at one stage might impact other stages

How can bad service design hurt your business?

Bad service design can have a number of negative impacts on businesses. First, it can lead to customer frustration and dissatisfaction. If customers cannot easily use or navigate your service, they are likely to give up and go to a competitor. This can result in lost revenue and customers. Additionally, bad service design can also lead to increased operational costs. Poorly designed services are often more difficult and time-consuming to manage, resulting in higher staff costs. Finally, bad service design can damage your brand’s reputation. If customers have a negative experience with your service, they may be less likely to recommend it to others or use it again in the future.

This can lead to a decline in brand awareness and loyalty.

So, how can you avoid these negative impacts? The key is to focus on service design and design thinking. By taking a holistic view of the service and considering every touchpoint, you can identify areas for improvement. This will help to ensure that your service is easy to use and navigate, resulting in happier customers and increased revenue.

A study by SurveyMonkey found that bad service is costing businesses billions of dollars each year. The study found that poor service costs businesses an average of $1.6 billion per year in lost revenue. Additionally, the study found that poor service also results in increased operational costs. On average, businesses spend an additional $540 million per year on staff costs as a result of bad service design. Finally, the study found that bad service can damage a brand’s reputation. In fact, 71% of respondents said they would be less likely to recommend a company to others if they had a bad service experience.

These findings highlight the importance of service design and design thinking.

Why a holistic approach to service design is important?

Bad service design can have a big impact on your business, even if you don’t realise it. When service design is done poorly, it can create confusion and frustration for users, leading to lost business and decreased satisfaction. A holistic approach to service design takes into account the entire service experience, from start to finish, and looks for ways to improve every touchpoint. This helps ensure that users have a positive experience with your service and are more likely to return in the future. Good service design is essential for any business that wants to provide an excellent user experience and keep customers coming back.

So why is service design so important? Put simply, good service design leads to better user experiences and happier customers. And that means more repeat business and higher profits for your company. So if you want to keep your customers happy

Why is service design so important for any business that wants to make an impact?

Bad service design can hurt your business without you realising it. It’s all about improving the user experience of a service, making it more intuitive and easy to use. Service design takes a holistic view of the entire service, from start to finish, and looks at how every touchpoint can be improved. This makes it ideal for businesses that want to provide a great customer experience.

When service design is done well, it can result in increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, higher revenues, and even lower costs. But when it’s done poorly, it can have the opposite effect. Poor service design can frustrate customers, leading them to take their business elsewhere. It can also lead to confusion and inefficiency among employees, resulting in higher

There are many studies that have been conducted on the benefits of good service design. One study, by the Design Management Institute, found that companies that focus on service design outperformed their competitors by over 200%. Another study, by Forrester Research, found that every $1 invested in service design can result in a return on investment of $100 or more.

These studies show just how important service design is to businesses. When done well, it can have a profound impact on the bottom line. But when done poorly, it can be costly and detrimental to the business. That’s why it’s so important to get service design right.

How can you improve your service design with the ESPR framework?

The ESPR service design framework is a great way to improve your service design. It’s a holistic approach that looks at the entire service, from start to finish, and how every touchpoint can be improved. This makes it ideal for businesses that want to provide a better user experience for their customers.

There are three main elements to the ESPR service design framework:

  1. Empathy: What are the needs and wants of your users? How can you make your service more intuitive and easy to use for them?
  2. Strategy: What is your overall plan for improving the service? What are the goals you want to achieve?
  3. Execution: How will you implement the changes you want to
  4. Reward: Make sure you hit the right rewards both for you and your users

What is the ROI of holistic service design?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the return on investment (ROI) of service design depends on the specific project and goals. However, service design generally has a very positive ROI, as it can lead to significant improvements in the user experience. This, in turn, can lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. Additionally, service design can help businesses save money by streamlining processes and improving efficiency.

Many people think of design as something that is purely aesthetic. However, good design is about much more than just how things look. It’s also about how things work. Good design makes products and services more intuitive and easy to use. It can streamline processes and improve efficiency. And it can make a big impact on the bottom line.

So, if you’re thinking about service design, remember that it’s not just about how things look. It’s about how things work. And that can make all the difference for your business.

Service design principles that improve your business

There are many service design principles that can be used to improve your business. Some of these include:

- Putting the user first: Always design with the user in mind. Consider their needs and wants when making changes to your service.

- Taking a holistic view: Don’t just focus on one aspect of your service. Look at the entire service, from start to finish, and identify ways to improve every touchpoint.

- Simplicity is key: Keep things simple and easy to use. We live in a fast-paced world and users don’t have time to waste.

- Iterative design: service design is an iterative process. That means you should constantly be testing, refining, and improving your service.

By following these service design principles, you can make significant improvements to your business.

Conclusion

Bad service design can hurt your business in many ways. It can lead to customers being frustrated with your service, which can lead to them taking their business elsewhere. Additionally, bad service design can be costly, as it can lead to inefficiencies and process errors. And finally, bad service design can damage your brand reputation, as it will reflect poorly on your company if customers have a negative experience.

Service design is so important for businesses because it takes a holistic view of the entire service, from start to finish. This allows businesses to identify areas where they can improve the user experience and make changes that will have a positive impact on their bottom line.

The ESPR Method is a 4-word problem-solving tool that can help you declutter any problem and get you unstuck, increase awareness and impact, and design any strategy or process.

--

--