The world in which we provide products and services is rapidly changing as are the needs of the customers who are served. Frequently, a pressing customer need cannot be met by one specific entity at one specific point in time. The needs that customers manifest are no longer able to be reduced to a single voiced statement. We speak now of the customer journey. I see this journey as taking place within an ecosystem of multiple, diverse providers often linked together in networks. The contemporary challenge for designing how we do business or provide constituent services is to arrive at solutions that match this environment.
Several decades ago as we sought to improve our organizations, an important revelation was about the value of building in the needs of the customer to the design process. This endeavoring to hear "the voice of the customer" was largely due to the impact of Deming and the Quality Movement. We responded by conducting interviews or focus groups with customers or conducting environmental scans. The resulting key points were factored in among drivers of the design. Focusing on this voice of the customer was often a revelatory moment for clients.
We are now in the midst of taking another paradigm-shaking step in how the customer drives design. This is more complicated than simply "listening" to the customer and as such this new paradigm mirrors the character of our larger society. The step we are embarking upon is to consider the customer journey and the customer experience.
The customer journey is the process of putting oneself inside the context of the customer. This is to learn not just what the customer says directly that they need but to also learn about all of the pressures, influences, people, surrounding culture and environment that impacts what the customer needs. It is literally to be with them as they access and make use of your product or service. It is to "walk a mile in his or her shoes."
Dealing with the bureaucracy of a healthcare system in many places is an example of this. If one were travelling on a journey with the customer, in this case a patient, one would stop with the customer at a medical office and hear from one medical provider that the customer needs to see another kind of provider. One would be with the customer as the customer makes an appointment to see that second provider. One might wait along with the customer through various telephone voice prompts to secure the appointment. One would go with the customer to see the next provider and hear along with the customer that, in fact, the customer needed a different kind of provider and not the one in whose office the customer currently sat. Or, perhaps that the customer was lacking the proper forms and needed to return on another day. One would hear the exasperation of the customer as they vented to significant others and exclaimed, "if only there were a single point of contact that had all of the relevant knowledge that I could easily access and understand."
This reflects a customer journey that was not a particularly satisfactory experience for the customer. Some journeys are more pleasant and successful than others. As one can conclude, the fix is not necessarily a simple one involving a single organization though at any single point on this journey the interaction or process could be improved.
Understanding the customer journey provides a far deeper perspective on the situation of the customer than just hearing the customer's voice. One is able to understand all of the nuances of the customer's needs at various points in time. One understands that meeting these needs involves multiple parties - doctors, nurses, administrators and even the people in the customer's support system. It involves multiple organizations - hospitals, medical practices, HMO's.
This journey reflects that our world has moved far beyond the friendly family doctor who used to make timely house calls to a given patient and who usually resolved most of the issues on the spot. Ironically, those of us who remember the house call from the family doctor remember it as a positive experience.
We now live in a complex world and within complex networks. The journey of the customer takes place in a larger ecosystem. The ecosystem of the customer is an environment rich with organizations and networks many of which may be relevant to the customer's needs.
Unlike in past days when simply fixing the problems in the process would be sufficient to secure the ongoing business of the customer, we now live in a world where the customer expects more. The customer, thanks to Steve Jobs, has learned to expect a highly positive experience that extends beyond the specific service or product being provided. Life is no longer just a cup of coffee. It is Starbucks. Our process of design needs to be focused on the customer journey and experience and all those who in one way or another impact it. In doing so, we will be engaging in ecosystem design.
