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Did you know that 80% of companies believe they deliver excellent value and superior digital service experiences, according to a survey by Bain & Company? Yet, only 8% of their customers agree. Over a decade later, this disparity persists. At Freehandesign, we can help bridge this gap and create digital services that truly add value to your customers and employees.

Addressing Internal Service Challenges

In today’s fast-paced environment, consumer services continuously evolve to become more user-friendly. However, internal services within organizations often lag, leading to inconvenient systems, complex processes, and unclear communication for internal users. How can you elevate your services to meet user expectations?

A product- or service-based worldview is no longer sufficient. Digital services must be viewed holistically, considering business objectives, user needs, and delivery efficiency. User experience is now a key battleground for competitiveness and growth. Simultaneously, services must be profitable and efficient.

The Power of Service Design

Service design offers a fresh approach to creating and improving services. It centers on understanding the user, engaging in the customer journey and processes, and agile experimentation. Essentially, service design is customer-centered business development. Here’s why service design is essential:

1. Eliminating False Customer Conceptions

Consider this scenario: Company X launches a new digital service, but usage falls short of expectations. Despite making the service more user-friendly based on feedback, it still underperforms. Why? The service does not meet the users’ needs. The development team failed to understand the user’s everyday life and the problems the service should solve.

Many organizations operate on outdated or incorrect customer assumptions. If users are not a priority, achieving business benefits from your services is impossible. Users should not be responsible for figuring out how to use services correctly, especially internal ones.

Service design begins with understanding people and their needs. It reveals the realities of customers and internal users, eliminating false assumptions.

2. Breaking Down Organizational Silos

Service responsibility often falls into “no man’s land” when divided among different departments. Marketing handles service sales, data administration manages background systems, and business functions oversee the service itself, resulting in chaos for the user.

Service design methods focus on user experience and service integration, shifting attention from local optimization to comprehensive examination. Genuine understanding and commitment arise when departments collaborate on service development, making the customer journey concrete. A service design professional helps challenge assumptions, prioritize functionalities, reduce overlaps, and simplify the service.

3. Balancing Different Requirements

Digital services can significantly ease life for customers and internal users by offering clear and automated service packages through various self-service channels. However, methodical design is crucial for effective automation and self-service utilization. Service design methodologies help balance the value derived from services with the time and energy users invest.

Effective service delivery requires identifying critical factors for users and focusing on efficient background processes. Service design guides users’ actions towards profitable service production.

Service design seeks a healthy balance between different requirements, maximizing user experience while ensuring business profitability.

Transform Your Digital Services Today

Is your employee experience outdated? It’s time to modernize it for the 21st century. Contact Freehandesign to discover how our service design expertise can revolutionize your digital services and create lasting value for your customers and employees.

Source: Bain & Company, 2005, Closing the delivery gap, by James Allen, Frederick F. Reichheld, Barney Hamilton, and Rob Markey.