With the help of LEGO bricks, Stefan Thomke helps business executives discover how design principles can serve as building blocks to create a great customer experience.
When it comes to providing the type of experience we gush about to friends, many companies are falling down on the job. A survey found that 65 percent of customers are likely to speak negatively about their experience, and 48 percent who had negative experiences shared them with 10 or more other people, according to a study in a 2010 Harvard Business Review article. Only 25 percent were likely to say positive things, and only 23 percent with positive experiences told 10 or more others.
“EXPERIENCE DESIGNERS ARE TOLD TO FOLLOW STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES AND PROVIDE CUSTOMERS WITH PROGRAMMED RESPONSES”
Sure, some customer experiences are just plain awful—like GE’s scanner-monsters before they were reimagined. Others suffer from being ordinary, mediocre, and forgettable. That’s because many organizations tackle customer experience by relying on haphazard efforts, Thomke says, like brainstorming, trial and error, and market research through focus groups.
In doing so, they often look to avoid terrible encounters at all costs, with a focus on creating consistency and weeding out variability. Experience designers are told to follow standard operating procedures and provide customers with programmed responses.