This paper is heavily based on the “Service/Value Profit Chain” work of Heskett and colleagues in 1994.

Heskett and colleagues’ work became an important element in the now popular Net Promoter Score. However, Maxham, Netemeyer, and Lichtenstein’s work goes beyond the basic constructs to quantify the linkages between beliefs and behaviors and introduces a predictive model (a kind of holy grail when it comes to making investments in retail).

My non-researcher’s translation of this line of work is:

Make the right promises (ones that matter to customers).

Keep them (put capabilities into your business design so that what customers want most is what the business does best).

Give employees the same kind of experience you expect them to deliver to customers (employee experiences matter too).

Design your experience as a story that engages customers, delights employees, and pays back shareholders (all at the same time).

Thanks to Anne Rein for bringing this work to my attention from HBR’s Daily Stat.

Tom Lee’s presentation at this year’s GEL Conference focused on how his healthcare organization, One Medical, is making tangible progress to making the experience of healthcare delivery better while maintaining profitability. Here’s the video:

In a very approachable style, Tom explains how hard the ‘medical system’ makes it for patients. They put up obstacles for patients to climb over (like voice mail systems); they use jargon that makes it hard for patients to understand them, and there are claim forms that separate doctors from the people they are trying to help.

Here’s what ‘medicine’ looks like to patients:

It’s no wonder people don’t feel good at offices.

One Medical’s offices vary by location. Here’s one from New York City.

Now, that’s the kind of environment that would lighten anyone’s spirit! One Medical doesn’t leave it to the ‘system’ to find new patients. They take accountability for finding their own. Clever advertising, like this subway sign, do the trick.

Summary

If One Medical can do it with the resources they have in a tough economic environment and difficult claims systems we have, larger systems should have an easier job because they have more resources to apply and much more to save. Of course, larger systems are weighted down by legacy behaviors and, sometimes, the lack of energy to drive toward a vision. But, that’s another blog post…

Unstuck does a great job at breaking mind-stopping problems you face into small, manageable pieces you can deal with. Unstuck really does turn a mountain into a molehill by giving you perspective on your issue so that you can detach from it and deal with it.

Unstuck is designed to be easy to use. By customizing content on-the-fly as your problem unfolds, the program ‘coaches’ you toward a successful outcome. It doesn’t promise quick fixes or miracles, just some objective perspective so that you can get through stuck moments more quickly.

Here’s a demo of the product followed by a quick analysis of how it works.

Unstuck Demo from Unstuck on Vimeo.
Unstuck deals directly with your attitudes about what’s holding you back. Instead of trying to clinically dissect the problem, the software looks at how you’re approaching your problem and deals with that. Just like a good friend would.

Unstuck introduces categories and personal styles of problem-solving. For example “Lone Leader” below. Then, the program matches solution strategies (like “Call in Calvary”) to suggest options.

Learning more about your problem-solving style in a fun, non-offensive way gives you most of what you need to solve your own problem. When you become aware of your own perspective, things usually get easier.

Unstuck doesn’t stop there, it takes you all the way to decision–and confirmation of that decision.

Finally, Unstuck helps you stay unstuck by sharing just the right tools to consider using on a regular basis so that you can avoid some of the stuck-ness in the future.

Here’s how the program is described from a marketing perspective:

When you ask yourself that question, it’s a sure sign that you’re stuck. When you ask yourself that questionrepeatedly—about the same situation—it’s time to do something about it. That’s where Unstuck comes in.

The Unstuck iPad app is a lot like having a life coach on call. Any time you’re feeling stuck, the app can show you where you’re going astray and then help you think differently.

Having trouble making a choice? Unstuck pits your gut instincts against the clock. Don’t know how to pull off your latest caper? There’s a planning tool for that. In fact, there are 11 Unstuck tools (and 50 some-odd tips) all aimed at propelling you forward.

We’re confident that Unstuck can help you answer “what do I do now?” But don’t mistake it for a quick-fix gizmo (you know there are no quick fixes, right?). It’s an innovative and personalized approach to solving your stuck moment based on proven understanding of how people behave. Best of all, it’s an approach you’ll find useful again and again. So whenever you find yourself asking that question, you’ll know how to find the answer.

The Unstuck app is free and is available in Apple’s App Store now. Read more at the  Unstuck website (http://www.unstuck.com) and download the free app at (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unstuck/id478421271?ls=1&mt=8)
 
Summary

Whether you like the application of this technology to getting unstuck or think it’s a frivolous waste of time, take note of the interface and approach Yamashita has introduced. It’s engaging, promising, hopeful, informative, and useful. I think we’ll start seeing more applications like this from instruction manuals to medication flyers, to problem-solving guides, to product selectors on retail shelves. Unstuck is a great example of using technology to make complex concepts easy to use on the first try.

Design gives everyone more of what they want.
Experience design does the same thing but also includes the delivery of emotions.
It turns out that emotions are just what’s needed for social services to be more effective on the front lines–where it matters most.

The presentation that follows introduces experience design for social workers and researchers using examples from Apple and Build-a-Bear. The verbal part of the presentation shows attendees how to map innovations they would like to make into a six-step buyers model so that their services can be relevant at each stage of the relationship.

This presentation was created using PREZI, a dynamic presentation tool that works in the cloud, on a Mac, and on a PC. For more information on PREZI and how it works, please visit this article on how to entertain and educate your audience at the same time.

Let’s see what this means for passengers and for Delta from several key perspectives.

• From a service design perspective, Delta is just experimenting with the service right now. In my humble opinion, they couldn’t offer it to all top-tier passengers because the fleet and drivers would be too difficult to manage. What makes it work at the ‘surprise’ level is that there are no commitments. No expectations means that customers can’t be disappointed. Imagine how you’d feel if you were told to expect a sports car shuttle and drive and it didn’t show.
• From a co-branding perspective, Porsche gets a great deal. For the price of several cars (probably less than a month’s social media budget) that it ‘donates’ to the Delta ground transport fleet, the car manufacturer gets dozens of great stories and thousands of retellings (like this blogpost). Porsche also gets valuable impressions on planeload after planeload of passengers who see fellow travelers get the red carpet treatment right before their eyes. “Yes, it sure would be nice to drive that Panamera,” many must be thinking to themselves. The brand connections to freedom, status, privilege, and speed aren’t lost either.

• From a customer experience perspective, Delta has really done something unique. Instead of just taking something away and charging us to get it back, the two brands have created a new kind of value for the best customers they share in common. This experience is an example of Delta doing something for its customers, not just to them.

• From a communications perspective, things get trickier. How would you like to be a top-tier passenger and see your seat mate get a ride while you’re left to navigate the escalators, train, baggage carousel, and long walks in the Atlanta airport? Are those $100K cars being paid for from tickets? (I don’t want to pay a premium for others to get that level of white glove treatment!). Delta has commented publicly about these easy-to-make assumptions by naming their VIP fleet, mentioning that Delta didn’t pay for the cars, in fact, they help bring many of them over from Germany to the US, and that their own execs don’t get to drive them.

Michael Koploy, ERP Analyst at software selection and referral company, Software Advice, shared four distinct benefits of integrating traffic analytics into POS software in a recent blog entry.

Building on the thinking Michael introduced, it makes sense to me that retailers should know their traffic just like McDonald’s operators know their hourly customer counts at the counter and drive through and like theatre operators know their ticket counts at the box office and their customer counts at the concession stands. It’s amazing that retailers have gone without this information for as long as they have.

In addition to customer counts, making web and call center analytics available to managers and to the retail sales associates would make it easier to know whom to serve, when, and how. Here are a couple of practical examples:

• Suppose, over time, we learn that a sudden surge of on-line activity on Friday afternoons translates into an uptick in Saturday morning in-store pick-ups. Available associates might be polled (possibly without management intervention) until one accepts the offer for an extra half-shift. This idea takes the work out of management, delivers a better customer experience, and keeps labor costs in line.
• If a smart call center managers digs into the details behind a flurry of price-check calls and learns that a key competitor is offering a lower price, they can quickly adjust the on-line price and get new pricing information onto the store floor instantly to avoid customer defections to that other brand.