Session 7: ServiceExperience StrategyDr Gerard TocquerCollege of ManagementMahidol University

1.Consumers Needs & Targeting

3.Service Positioning

2.Service Concept

4.Customer Experience Strategy

5.ServicePackage

The Cornerstones of a Service Experience Strategy

1. Targeting Customers based on needs

• What are customers needs? How different are they?

• What are the customers profiles for each needs category?

• The context. When, where customers have these needs?

Start with Customer Needs

What are customers needs?Type of Needs

Explicit Tacit Latent

Description Customers talk about it Customers might not tell you about it

Customers do not know about it

Methods to know about it

Get it by asking questions(survey. Focus group)Get customers feedback(Complaints.Text mining on social media)

You can pick up them by observing customers (Users research. Contextual interviews. Shadowing. Diary...)

Rapid prototyping and ask customers to assess(...Oh my god I never think about this!)

Tools Traditional marketing research + Social network software analysis

Ethnographic research Design Process

Needs

Profile

Context

Coffee occasionsEmergencyStart the dayBetween mealsFor mealsWith friendsWith business associatesIn the evening

Profile:Start the day timersThe break timersThe connoisseursThe Y & X generation

Needs:I am thirstyI am hungryI need to take a pauseI want to enjoy a small luxuryI have a meeting

Why?

Who?

Context?

Source. Brand revitalization. Larry Light & J Kiddon. 2009

Not mass, not a niche market but multi segments

Seg A

Seg B

Seg C

Seg D

Seg E Seg F

Seg G

Prioritization is critical & multi dimensional marketing

Segmentation = Strategic Opportunity

Customers Needs (Why)

CustomersProfile (Who)

Context Prioritization(Needs-Profile-Context)

I am thirsty Occasional Emergency 5

I have a meeting outside

Managers With my colleagues

4

I need to take a pause

Day-timers With my friends

2

I want to enjoy a small luxury

Connoisseurs I am alone 1

I have a date Students Upscale & Convenience

3

Collecting feedback from customers

Source: Clarabridge 2012

DHL Major service innovation end of the 90’sFrom shipping parcels to inventory

Providing financial services for consumers who cannot be served by banks

“The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes…” Marcel Proust

2. Service Concept

-The heart of your service strategy-

Service Concept

Positioning Service Experience

ServicePackage

Service Concept

A detailed description of :1.What benefits and results for customers2.How the service is delivered (service

operations). What channels?

Twitter Original Service Concept

A service that uses SMS to tell small groups of people

what you are doing!

San Diego SUBWAY® Cafés feature an upscale coffeehouse ambience, an expanded menu, and Seattle’s Best coffee offerings including espresso drinks, lattes and frozen blended beverages, along with amenities such as Wi-Fi, and DIRECTV, to allow customers to enjoy local news and sports events with their sandwiches.

Service concept for the BMW 7 Series Sedan.Data on replacement parts and fluid levels is constantly monitored. The data is stored in your car key and can be accessed by your BMW Service Centre during your next service appointment. Customize, flexible, cost-effective and time-saving.

iPod iTunes iTunes Music Store

Play Manage Acquire

Our business idea is "To offer a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them."

24

Google map coordinateA service that help businesses to track activities and movement of their remote workers

Test Concept in a Focus Group

1. Do not understand2. Understand but not

interested. Nothing new

3. Interested4. Wow. Great idea.

Eager to try Now!

Check for clarity and relevance

3. Service Positioning

What are the points of difference in consumers’ mind between our service product and existing competitors. What are the points of parity?

-Indeed difficult to differentiate services products-

Provide to consumers a reason to buy

Service Positioning Statement

To ------ our target markets

-------- is the service in Mobile phone services (Service category) with_________ (Point of differences)

The rational for consumer choice

4. Service Experience Strategy

“It defines the intended experience & the emotions evoked” - Highly satisfied customers. Higher customers loyalty & NPS-

1. Improving service functional quality

2. Reducing customer efforts3. Making customer experience enjoyable

Focus on the customer journey. On the whole experience

Make customers reluctant to switch to competitors

Enjoyable

Usability. Intuitive. Easy to interact. Clarity

Useful. Meets needs

“ Is it fun?

“ I did not have to work hard.(no efforts). All touch points are easy to access & provide quick answers”

“ Functional quality. I got what I wanted and accomplished my goal”

1. Willingness to buy more2. Reluctance to switch3. Likelihood to recommend

With the focus on KPI’s

Require an understanding of customer service journey

“ How customers perceived their interactions with your company? ”

What is the customers experience in your industry?

• “ What had stuck me during my years of consulting with banks was how similar they all were--and how bland.

• You know from your experience that the typical brand is quiet, cold, and boring. It has ropes to keep people in line, empty desks, and stale coffee. You can see how bored people in line are. Often tellers aren’t much more animated. Sure, you ‘ll get a shy smile and a weak “thank you” but two minutes after you walk out, you ‘ll have forgotten the whole experience..”

• Ray Davis.President and CEO UMPQA Bank

Workshop. Set up a Service Experience Strategy

• Group work: Define a customer experience strategy for the following companies:

• True Fitness Center • Paolo Memorial Hospital• Central Department Store• SCB• BTS• Villa Market

Yin Yang

Positioning + Experience Strategy Rational Emotional

5. Designing the Service Package

Core Service

FacilitatorsValue added

Services“ differentiators”

Service Concept

Core Service

The basic reason for the hotel business to exist. Provide a room for a night

The core service

Services Facilitators

Services need to deliver the core service

Booking

Check in

Check out

Customer service

Information

LocalTransportation

SpaHealth club

Business centerRoom services

Mini barVideo on demandReward program

RestaurantsAmenities

Wireless roomLimousine services

Laundry on site

Value Added Services

Value added services

Normally help to differentiate…you core service

The Danger of Focusing on Differentiators

Added Value Services

“Differentiators”Facilitators

Core Service

Focus on basic customer needs

Necessary to deliver the core service

Services that ad value to your offer. Should help to differentiate with competitors…

Service Package & Customer Journey

The product is the experience

RestaurantsShow business

The experience is the product

Amazon Apple store SIA

The commodity trapCompetition on value added services. Late on sales promotions. Margins & Profitability drop Wireless Companies

Hotels. Banks

Core service Core

service

Core service

Value added services

All interactions are designed withcustomers in minds

Three Experiences Strategy

Service Experience Strategy

Service Delivery

Mkg Communications

Consumers Brand Experience

A framework to assess services brands on experience

How customers talk about their experience on social network

ServiceExperience Delivery

Connect & Attract targeted consumers What is the intended experience?

How the experience is delivered and touch points designed?

Service Experience delivery Key Drivers

ServiceProduct

S.STechnology

ServiceProcess

PhysicalEnvironment

People

Thank You