How we‘re bringing Service Design to a Fortune 500 company in the Philippines
It’s a very exciting time to be working in the Philippines, especially in Service Design.
Change is afoot and Filipinos are embracing it. With over one million Filipinos employed in the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry, we know the raw materials are here to really differentiate on service. Our goal is to help the country become known for amazing service experiences that are consistently high quality.
“Everybody is experiencing services in the Philippines, though no-one is helping companies design them.”- Kristin Low, Director, On Off Group
In 2015, our team has engaged with over 7,500 individuals in one way or another. Roadshows with Y4IT, our partnership with SMART and events such as the UX Summit 2015 are starting to be covered by local media such as Inquirer.net. We’ve also done lots of custom events with Hewlett Packard, Unilever, Chikka and a host of others.
“It’s a testament to Filipinos in general, they’re very active and like to get involved.” - Russell Morgan, Director, On Off Group
At each event, we bring the core concepts of Service Design and related topics like UX to a wider audience. In order to help us maximise this reach, around 90% of the events we offer are free.
It is from this grassroots platform that we have been able to engage with a leading financial services company with 60% more in revenues than their second-place competitor.
Since we began working with them in August 2015, the work has been creating an impact across the organisation. The head of strategy has said the effect has been “remarkable”, while a member of the IT department notes that “we always design according to a list of specifications but this helps us to understand what the users need and want.” and their CFO has said “We need more of this.”
“We’re doing design with them, not to them.” — Kristin Low
The disruption that is happening in financial services means companies need to change how they think, work and respond. One of the goals of human-centered design is to help the people within such organisations become more resilient and self-sufficient. We do this by building their internal capability and capacity.
Like many others in their industry, our client’s products have become highly commoditised. While they have had success in the past operating as a product focused company, they are making the transition to a more service-oriented model. To maintain their position as a market leader, we’re helping them bridge the gaps and understand the relationships between products, services, distribution channels and experiences.
We’re helping them to expand their view of customer experience — not just when they buy a product but what happens before and after that, what (or who) influences their choices or motivates them to take certain actions.
As a result, they are moving away from checklists and specifications to deeper questions around the “why” of the product — “Why does this product exist in this way? What problem/s is it trying to solve?”.
They’ve achieved a lot in two months and as a team, we are excited about continuing the journey. When you’re trying to change the culture of a company of course there are many challenges to overcome but I’d like to share some of our experiences so far, for other companies to consider if they have similar objectives:
- Generation of detailed personas led to a more thorough understanding of customers by their team (transcending internal silos).
- Involvement from different departments across the business (including HR, IT, Marketing, Product, Sales and R&D) enabled people to rally behind a ‘customer-centric’ vision.
- Changing the mindset from “We provide this” to “Our customers need this” works best when customer-centricity is part of the business strategy.
- Using Rapid Prototyping to quickly build and test new ideas is very effective for aligning and validating customer and business needs.
- Understanding that everyone in the company has a role to play in a customer’s experience either directly or indirectly is critical.
- Employees have a wealth of knowledge about the customer experience and are often front-line witnesses to the impact of organisational inefficiencies.
- A good sign of sustainable success is when people within the business setup and say “I want to drive this.” without being asked or prompted to do so.
“Service makes or breaks your product.” — Madhura Chavan, Service Design Lead, On Off Group
To learn more about Service Design, look out for the Service Design Summit coming this April to Manila, Philippines. We’re on a mission to teach people how to design great customer experiences!
http://servicedesignsummit.onoffgroup.com
