The one where Friends teaches you how to be a great service designer.
As someone that has grown up with Friends narrating every aspect of their life, I can say with confidence that there is no lesson worth learning that isn’t taught in Friends.
Service design has many names and guises, some know it as Customer Experience, Experience Design, Interaction Design…the list goes on, but here I’m talking about the end-to-end, back-to-front design of a proposition or service. These are the lessons I’ve learnt (read “mistakes I’ve made”) from many years of working with some of the UK’s leading brands — told to you through the evergreen medium of Friends.
1. The one where you make sure you’re solving a genuine problem (S06E08)
The mistake:
In anticipation of a hot date the next day, Ross decides to whiten his teeth, thinking the current colour is why he’s unsuccessful with woman. To be doubly sure, he leaves the treatment on a little longer than he’s supposed to and means he can’t open his mouth at all…
What you should do:
Before starting a project, get to the bottom of the problem. Where has this “problem” really come from? Is it based on real customer data or just a HIPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion)? Save your customers (and yourself) the pain of another unnecessary feature by sticking to facts and data.
2. The one where you talk to actual customers (S04E22)
The mistake:
When Chandler notices that his new girlfriend doesn’t “agree with me as strongly as she did with Joey” in bed, he asks Monica and Rachel (people who have been on the receiving end of this “service”) to explain the holes in his current performance. After a detailed diagram and trial, Cathy is delighted with the outcome and is a frequent returning customer!
What you should do:
Go out and speak to the people who actually use (or will use) your service. It’s tempting to take existing data or research as fact and never actually ask people what they want and need now. Watching people using your product (or related service), will teach you a lot about how it fits into their everyday lives.
3. The one where your customer’s experience starts way before you think (S01E09)
The mistake:
One Thanksgiving, Joey modelled for a medical advert warning against the dangers of VD. Whilst trying to chat up a girl on the subway, she realises where she’s seen him before and makes a quick exit.
What you should do:
Ask customers questions like “What made you start looking for a product like this?” to learn when they first became aware of their need. This will identify opportunities for influencing customers and driving them towards your service long before they see your brand. Also, capture interactions that aren’t directly related to your service; competitor visits, friend’s opinions. It may explain decisions they make further down the line.
4. The one where you design for employees as well as customers (S06E05)
The mistake:
Phoebe offers to babysit her brother’s triplets, enlisting the help of Monica and Chandler. They decide to look after the the babies “man-to-man”, it’s a disaster. They lose one baby, destroy the apartment and give Monica a nervous breakdown. They didn’t think through the reality of actually looking after one baby all on their own.
What you should do:
Employees will make or break your service. If your design is difficult or confusing for employees, it won’t be delivered in line with your vision. Interview employees alongside customers so you can evaluate both sides of the value exchange. Employees will help you get to the root cause of seemingly inexplicable customer experiences, and subsequently help design solutions that will actually work in practice.
5. The one where someone has probably solved your problem already (S05E14)
The mistake:
Ross is trying to convince Ugly Naked Guy to rent him his apartment. There are so many applicants Ross is struggling to get his voice heard (he only bought a small basket of mini muffins!). Rachel has already solved this problem — she suggests he finds out UNG hobby’s and use that to bond with him…naked Ross turns up 10 minutes later.
What you should do:
Customer’s are comparing their experience with you across every industry and category. They’ll compare their credit card application process to that of their gym or nursery. Whilst it’s tough to keep on top of their expectations, it also means someone may already have the answer or has tried to fix this problem. Get your customers (and employees) to describe a great experience, and steal like an artist!
6. The one where you design touchpoints together (S08E11)
The mistake:
When trying to find a suitable gesture to tell his girlfriend Mona “where he thinks the relationship is going”, Ross ends up giving her a key to his apartment in a panic. Unfortunately, he didn’t think of the overall impact of his decision and made himself “a homeless person, in a very serious relationship”. Mona returns to the flat to try her key to find the locksmith changing the locks.
What you should do:
Map out your customer’s end-to-end journey and make sure you understand the cumulative impact of each touchpoint on their experience. If you don’t think about the journey as a whole you’ll miss the downstream effects of each interaction and may unintentionally contradict or negatively impact future touchpoints.
7. The one where you experiment (S07E03)
The mistake:
As a wedding gift, Phoebe wants to give Monica her grandmother’s cookie recipe. Finding it was burned in a fire a couple of years ago, they set out to try and recreate the recipe from an old, frozen batch. They go through many iterations (we all remember batch 16!), before finding out it was a store-bought cookie her grandma lied about…
What you should do:
As the saying goes, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy”, this is also true of customers. You’ll never get a concept or design right first time and you’ll never learn as much about how customers will interact with your service as you will by just watching them use it. Never stop experimenting with your service, customer’s needs are never fixed.
8. The one where you have to meet the baseline expectations (S04E11)
The mistake:
After being appointed Ross’ best man, Joey loses the wedding ring. He spent so much time focusing on the bachelor party (stripper, t-shirts, beer) he neglected the sole duty of the best man.
What you should do:
Spend time understanding your customer’s needs and motivations. Establish their baseline expectations for your service, they may be benchmarking you against an experience from another industry. Your customers will see straight through your attempt to “distract” them from the lack of basic hygiene factors. The added difficulty is that customer’s expectations are always changing (see the Kano model), so you’ll need to constantly adapt.
9. The one where you help people walk in customers’ shoes (S08E15)
The mistake:
Rachel’s preparing for the arrival of her baby, and has read all the books she can find on the subject, but she still can’t picture what’s going to happen. Nothing gives her this insight quite like the birthing video of Phoebe’s friend Cookie. Unfortunately, Chandler accidentally mistakes it for porn and it ruins his Valentine’s day, “Remember the first time you saw Jaws…how long it took to get back in the water?”
What you should do:
Presenting research findings in a 30 minute presentation won’t help the audience emotionally understand their customer’s experience. Immerse them in the things customers go through every day. Videoing your interviews or user labs will give them first hand accounts of how their customers feel and make it harder for them to argue with.
10. The one where you build a case for change (S10E17–18)
The mistake:
The final one, the one in which the “will they…won’t they” question is answered. It’s only after Ross has gone over all their history, all the reasons they should be together, that Rachel realises there’s no reason big enough to keep them apart.
What you should do:
Help your clients support your recommendation. Build a business case from assumptions and data, add the cost of each touchpoint together to demonstrate the cost of the current experience. “If we make changes x, y, and z to the service although it will cost us £200k it will reduce the cost to serve to £10”. It’s not very romantic, but it usually works.
