This article is part of a comprehensive report published by the International Foundation for Customer Experience in Government, which aims to enhance the global dialogue on Customer Experience (CX) in the public sector. Drawing on innovative practices from around the world, the report establishes benchmarks for governments to improve their CX initiatives.
TRENDS OF PRACTICE – SERVICE DESIGN APPROACH
While service delivery has received much attention in CX transformation efforts, the design steps preceding this stage are equally important. Trends in the Service Design approach reflect dominant strategies on how services are planned and constructed, they exemplify the evolving methodologies employed to orchestrate and enhance CX.
Service Design is a strategic approach focusing on creating and optimizing services to meet customer needs and enhance their overall experience. It involves a holistic process combining elements of user centered design, strategy, and innovation to develop services that are efficient, effective, and customer centric. Service Design considers every touchpoint and interaction within the customer journey, aiming to align organizational goals with user expectations.
As organizations navigate this evolving landscape, embracing these emerging Service Design trends becomes paramount in achieving sustainable and impactful CX improvements.
1. HUMAN CENTRIC DESIGN
Human-Centric Design, also known as User-Centered Design, is an approach to creating products, services, and systems that puts the needs, preferences, and behaviors of end-users at the center of every decision. It involves empathizing with users, gathering their feedback, and iteratively refining designs to ensure that the final product aligns closely with user expectations, resulting in improved usability, satisfaction, and overall user experience.
Examples of How to Apply
- Combine various research methodologies and data approaches to understand customers and make evidence-based decisions during the design process that accurately reflect their needs and preferences.
- Starting at the policymaking level, analyze and design services to cater holistically to people’s needs and interests.
- Develop comprehensive service portfolios to solve people’s problems entirely, regardless of the responsible provider.
- Perform extensive user research and gather data from various sources to understand customer segments and preferences, including psychology and anthropology research for behavioral insights.
- Follow the customer journey and co-design it with customers and key stakeholders for an enhanced experience.
2. SIMPLIFICATION BY DESIGN
Simplification is the process of making services simpler and therefore, easier to use and understand. It emphasizes the transformation of public services into user-friendly and easily navigable experiences. By prioritizing simplification, governments aim to bridge the gap between bureaucratic complexity and user needs, ultimately enhancing the accessibility, usability, and overall effectiveness of the services they provide.
Examples of How to Apply
- Make customer journeys easy and seamless by removing unnecessary frictions and obstacles.
- Simplify journeys by reducing bureaucracy, such as rules, data requirements, and procedures.
- Improve communication and language to simplify understanding of official documents and legislation.
- Streamline the customer journey by making it shorter and with fewer touchpoints while providing clear visualizations and explanations of the process.
3. TRUST BY DESIGN
Trust by design is a principle to include in the system design process of technical solutions that ensures privacy, information security, and that the service experience is transparent and secure. By embedding trust within the design process, organizations not only safeguard sensitive information but also cultivate an environment where users feel confident, informed, and reassured.
Tokenization is a practice which can bolster trust by design as it minimizes the exposure of sensitive information while still allowing for personalized and secure interactions. Tokenization refers to the process of converting sensitive data or information into a unique identifier or token that retains its value but does not reveal the original data. This technique enhances security by ensuring that sensitive information, such as personal or financial data, remains protected even in digital systems.
Examples of How to Apply
- Build privacy and security safeguards into the service flow as procedures or into solutions as technical features
- Offer personal data management features for customers to control data access.
- Implement a secure authentication solution for trusted access to services.
- Log transactions in relation to services for traceability and transparency as a vital component of trust by design.
- Provide transparent and constant information, updates about application status.
- Communicate clearly and promptly with affected customers in case of incidents.
4. TRUST BY NUDGING
Nudging is a form of intervention informed by behavioural science, which proposes altering the immediate microarchitecture of a decision environment to influence behaviours. This approach is underpinned by the notion that customers retain the freedom to decide on their own but can be consciously or unconsciously guided toward a certain beneficial direction or decision.
Examples of How to Apply
- Use nudging to guide users towards easier ways of accomplishing tasks or create environments that encourage preferred behaviors without threats or restrictions (e.g., a tax agency may send a personalized letter to suspicious companies, urging them to review their declarations, rather than relying solely on punishment after tax fraud, which may be less effective).
- Implement nudging through anticipatory services by offering predetermined choices in CX flows to influence users’ decisions towards desired directions.
5. CO-DESIGN
Co-design involves designing services together with the customer – at all stages of the service design and development life cycle. This collaborative approach recognizes that customers possess valuable insights derived from their experiences and needs. From the initial ideation phase to prototyping, testing, and refinement, co-design encourages direct participation, feedback, and iteration from customers
Examples of How to Apply
- Engage in close interaction with customers to base the service design on specific personas. Ask questions and find solutions together, and not just provide feedback to ready-made designs or after the service has already been launched.
- Consider establishing design labs to foster a deep understanding of customers and apply various formats for co-design practices.
6. ACCESSIBILITY BY DESIGN
Accessibility is a design principle to be followed when designing and delivering services to ensure they are easy to use and find for all possible customers.
Examples of How to Apply
- Accessibility refers to providing equal opportunities to all customers across all suitable delivery channels.
- Ensure the adoption of new channels meets accessibility criteria. Moreover, build them in a way that supports alternate options, ensuring no potential service user is left behind. Examples include offering alternatives to digital services for individuals with low skills, disabilities, or non-digital preferences.
- To guarantee equal opportunity for all, extend this principle to the policy level. Ensure that no segment of the population is left out when deciding what public services to provide and how to provide them.
7. JOURNEY/LIFE EVENT DESIGN
Life events involve representing services in a new way and using design practices to integrate, coordinate, or co-locate services in a one-stop shop format. Life-events are grouped around specific real-life occasions, such as starting a business, starting a family, and losing a loved one, where multiple sequential/interrelated services are needed simultaneously for people and companies. These are then considered holistically as contributing to an impactful stage in an individual’s life and redesigned with the whole bundle of services in mind.
Examples of How to Apply
- Treat the customer journey as a complete solution for service needs related to life events (e.g., birth of a child, marriage, or employing new staff). Moreover, customize the list of events based on customer and service portfolios.
- If a complete solution cannot be designed immediately, start moving towards life event services by integrating the initial services into one customer bundle.
- Ensure seamless delivery without delays during life events by designing for smooth delivery over bottlenecks.
8. EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Employee experience design refers to how employees feel at their jobs and about their organization as they provide public services to people. It encompasses the interactions, environment, and culture that shape an employee’s journey within an organization. Focusing on aspects ranging from onboarding to daily work life and growth opportunities, optimizing employee experience fosters engagement, productivity, and overall job satisfaction. It is also a significant driver of overall customer experience.
Examples of How to Apply
- Recognize that customer experience is significantly impacted by employee experience, especially in situations requiring empathy. Take special care in managing the employee experience of those providing sensitive or complex social services.
- Emphasize a holistic view of CX. When simplifying customer journeys for end-customers, ensure it does not create excessive bureaucracy for government employees running the service. Design at multiple experience levels simultaneously and consider automating data flows to streamline processes.
In the next article, we’ll explore Experience Types Trends, offering insights into how end-users perceive services. Don’t miss out!