In business, the more empowered the employees are the better the customer experience becomes. However, for multiple reasons not all empowered employees are capable of delivering a positively memorable experience. For example, the employees own attitude and behaviour, restrictions by the design of the service itself and its value proposition, lack of knowledge about the brand and the service(s), and/or disbelief in what the company stands for, how it operates and what it offers . In philosophy, and in epistemology in particular, propositional knowledge (knowledge of facts) means for one to have justified true belief. Assuming that the company followed a suitable process to design the right service for its key target audience; what if companies can then develop employees with the right attitude and behaviour to have justified true beliefs about the brand and the service(s) it provides? Can Service Designers and Design Managers in this case design an environment fostering genuinely knowledgeable believers that have higher chances of delivering meaningful and delightful experiences to customers? I would argue yes, it is highly possible mainly because:
(Knowledge + Justification) ÷ Empowerment = Strong belief and sense of ownership
Quite often, employees are asked to do something. Most of the times they are trained on how to do it. Rarely, they are given reasons why this direction makes sense, how this service adds value, or asked if they are convinced with what they are trained to communicate. Maybe, philosophy has something to offer Service Design and management in general.
[2022 update]
The impact on CX
When employees focus on creating and improving their services the customer experience gets strengthened. As a result, customers stay longer, spend more and spread of word of mouth organically. Such behaviour leads to an average between 14-38% in compound annual increase in profit^. In general, the more you improve your services — i.e. answering what value to they add to customers' lives, what problems they solve, and focusing on delivering these services in the most suitable way for your customers — the more you are improving your customer experience. Simply put, customers experience your service design.
Loaay Ahmed (MDes, FRSA)
Strategic business therapist, academic and founder of The Outsider's Perspective. Loaay has decades of experience in guiding his clients, small and large, on how to navigate their business challenges. Through the 1-hour consultation, coaching and mentoring sessions called Strategic Business Therapy, you can address your business challenges in a one-to-one setup. SBTs are practical and effective. Book a free first session.
If you have a question and you would like Loaay to answer, send it to ask@theoutsidersperspective.com with the subject line "THiNK! Question"*.
This post first appeared on MDes.org, a website Loaay Ahmed dedicated to his writings during his Service Design Innovation masters degree studying years.
^ G consumer benchmark survey)
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