Alžbeta Ivanovičová

Service design is a tool for aligning customer expectations with the company's offer. It's an action of collective creation of people-oriented services. In practice, it means designing corporate resources (people, assets and processes) to deliver value to employees, partners and customers.

The value provided must be tangible to customers. The book This is Service Design Thinking, now essential reading for anyone aiming to create valuable services, reinforces this perspective. The authors outline five principles of service design, emphasizing that the services created should benefit not just customers, but also employees and partners.

1. User-centred – placing a human at the heart of the design process

2. Co-creative – fostering extensive collaboration throughout the entire design process

3. Sequencing – enabling examination of each aspect of customer service individually

4. Evidencing – demonstrating that the service provided delivers its value

5. Holistic – ensuring overall harmony and integration of experience across tangible and intangible services

I'll illustrate these principles with an example of an outdoor equipment retailer, although they are applicable to any industry and company.


1. User-centred

Consider the experience of all individuals involved in delivering the service. Understanding the customer is essential.

Initially, it's important to identify your customer base. Most businesses cater to multiple customer groups. However, when initiating service design, it's beneficial to temporarily narrow your focus. One effective tool for this purpose could be RFM analysis.

Internally, numerous stakeholders play a role in customer service. Understanding their perspectives, the challenges they encounter, and where they perceive opportunities for enhancement is vital.

For instance, consider the target audience of an outdoor store: adventurers, individuals actively participating in various outdoor pursuits. During customer research, our focus would be on comprehending their specific needs and issues throughout their customer journey.


2. Co-creative

Engage stakeholders with different expertise and roles in the design process.

The second principle of service design is close collaboration among employees from different teams, each bringing unique expertise. The most effective way is to create a multidisciplinary work team to enhance collective intelligence. Optimal outcomes are achieved when such teams embrace agile principles.

In the service design team of an outdoor store, participants may include individuals from marketing, production (procurement team), the e-shop or information system provider, and sales representatives from stores.


3. Sequencing

Facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the entire customer journey by breaking it down into manageable phases.

Another crucial principle involves mapping the customer journey, which entails understanding the customer's actions, decisions and interactions. It's essential to grasp the sequence of steps in the customer journey and identify opportunities to add value.

For instance, consider a customer journey where an adventurer realizes they need specific equipment for an upcoming trip. They browse and select a suitable product from the online store and then opt to collect it from a retail location. Their next step involves checking the store's opening hours.


4. Evidencing

Prove the value of the provided service and its components.

Evidencing can take various forms. One approach is visualizing services through physical artifacts such as customer journey maps or service blueprints. Another method involves researching customer needs with actual customers and testing prototypes in realistic conditions. My favorite form of evidence is when the value of the service is named/shown not only by the customers but also by the company itself.

A classic example of evidence is a neatly folded toilet paper in a hotel bathroom as a visible sign that the room was thoroughly cleaned after the previous guest.

Evidence in the context of the previously mentioned customer journey can be the number of product reservations and pickups on a given day, as well as a positive CSAT (customer satisfaction score). Thus, we can measure customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction and success/failure.


5. Holistic

Consider the entire ecosystem of the provided service with all interactions and channels.

The final principle ties all aspects of service design together. It's important to think not only about how individual interactions and channels work independently but especially how they function together. After all, the customer perceives the entire process as one continuous experience.

The key tool for mapping holistic services is the service blueprint or service map.

As discussed in the sequencing section, imagine a customer journey where an adventurer realizes they need specific equipment for an upcoming trip. In this scenario, the customer values the ability to reserve and quickly collect the item on the same day. Achieving such a seamless holistic service, however, demands well-refined internal processes and deliberate decisions (e.g., extending store opening hours).

Moreover, customer interactions with the outdoor retailer occur across at least two channels – the website and physical stores – with additional engagement from store employees. As part of the customer experience, interactions range from greeting customers upon entry to sending eco-friendly purchase receipts via email. Therefore, understanding the entire service ecosystem is essential.
When faced with challenges, adopting the customer's perspective and leveraging service design can be advantageous. For those interested in delving deeper into service design, feel free to reach out or explore excellent books by Marc Stickdorn, including the sequel This Is Service Design Doing.

5 principles of service design for easier service creation

Samuel Švec

Minimum Viable Podcast #26: Innovations in retail

Dominik Vaszily

When working in a bureaucratic or government setting, formal language and tone can differ greatly from how people normally communicate. Consequently, users experience problems and frustration gaining access to these essential, everyday services.

At LB*, we understand the challenges of good communication, especially in the digital world of expert environments. However, we can’t expect our clients to drop their customs and simply use easy-to-understand lingo overnight. As content in digital products is an integral part of any design, we act as the mediator between businesses and users. We spot gaps through which we can get clarity into digital bureaucracy. So what can be done to write better, intuitive UX copy?


1. Out-of-sync voice and tone

Maintaining a consistent voice across different channels and for diverse audiences can be challenging. Content may originate from policy makers, subject matter experts, designers, marketers, developers, or business analysts. A cohesive voice and tone are essential for upholding brand credibility. Any disparity between them risks confusing and eroding trust among the audience. But what if you're unsure about defining your brand's tone?

Solution: Brand voice workshop

Imagine that your brand is a person, then write down their personality traits: how they behave around others, their sense of humour (indeed if they are supposed to have one), and so on. You can even describe their dressing style, hobbies, personal preferences, anything that will help you characterise their personality and from it – how they talk.

For instance, Microsoft’s brand voice is defined as follows:

 * Warm and relaxed – We’re natural. Less formal, more grounded in real, everyday conversations. Occasionally, we’re fun. (We know when to celebrate.)
 * Crisp and clear – We’re to the point. We write for scanning first, reading second. We make it simple above all.
 * Ready to lend a hand – We show customers we’re on their side. We anticipate their real needs and offer great information at just the right time.

Once the voice and tone guideline is tested and ready for use, distribute it to all content creators representing the brand, including content designers, writers, editors, marketers, and designers, to gather feedback.

If you're unsure about how to conduct a workshop like this, don't hesitate to message us for assistance in discovering your brand's tone.


2. Inconsistent UX copy

We often observe inconsistencies in punctuation, acronyms, jargon, or technical terms across channels and products within the same brand. This can lead to confusion and misalignment. To address this, initiate a process to standardise language rules within your company.

Solution: Content style guide

How apologetic do we want to be in our writing? Should we use words “sorry” and “please” always or only sometimes? It’s all up to the consensus in your organisation – between you, your colleagues and stakeholders.

Start by documenting current practices within your company. If you identify inconsistencies, establish rules for how you believe they should be addressed. This initiative can proceed even without a defined brand voice (point 1), though having a predetermined tone can be beneficial. When uncertain, discuss proposed rules with stakeholders, ensuring the main decision-maker is clear.

Once you agree on rules, document them. A simple list of dos and don’ts will do. Besides grammar rules and date & time formats, define which components you would like to use for conveying specific messages. For instance, avoid expressing a neutral notification through a bold, red warning message full of exclamation marks. Having such guidelines makes UX writing easier, providing a reference when uncertain.

A guide like this is a living document, it’s alright to start small even with ten rules or fewer. You can always update it and add to it later.


3. Content not tailored to the target persona

Websites are not books and people don't read every word. Websites require content that users can quickly skim for relevant information. The general rule is to follow the context and the impact of the action the user takes. Governmental or bureaucratic environments regularly give legal texts more space based on their impact. Despite the fact that short texts are pleasing to read, in some situations the user needs more in-depth confirmation and reliable information.

Solution: Usability testing

After a long week of onsite design sprint in The Hague with the European Patent Office, we conducted testing sessions to observe how legal professionals interacted with our new solution. To enhance a specific confirmation screen's accuracy in legal procedure, we rewrote a neutral blunt message into a more specific statement providing clearer actions. The confirmation screen read: “We’ve received your submission. Please wait until we reply to you back as soon as possible.”

During testing, we discovered that patent lawyers, in-house counsels, and paralegals meticulously scrutinise details. In five sessions, all our respondents paused at the confirmation screen – expecting an immediate reply. The text read ‘we would reply as soon as possible’, however, in reality it would take weeks.

This particular example demonstrates the importance of precision in writing for your target audience. Not everyone skims pages. Sometimes they are expert users (lawyers, scientists, medics…) and they might behave differently than other groups.

Needless to say, usability tests during the design process can save a lot of uncertainty and validate most hypotheses – including copy testing.


Clarity can exist (even in bureaucracy)

Sometimes, entrenched norms are hard to shift because stakeholders struggle to envision alternative approaches. However, clear language forms a cornerstone of accessible products and services. So if you sense your users and customers will benefit from it, don’t hesitate to start changing things.

Start by enhancing communication clarity with colleagues through enforced collaboration and involving diverse roles in the product design process. Remain mindful of the target persona in every use case and utilise user testing heavily. And don’t forget to document rules and stove for organisational alignment. If I’m ever to be helpful, connect with me.

UX writing: How to make digital bureaucracy understandable

In my article 10 Commandments of Product Discovery, I wrote about the foundation of creating good products and services being a creative process called Product Discovery. This process aims to deliver a functional product to users in the shortest time possible, with the greatest certainty that the product team will achieve the originally intended goal and that the solution will be technically feasible.

I mentioned Discovery Backlog, which is a conceptual repository of ideas, opportunities, and issues ready for the product team to validate – meaning to assess which ones are relevant and should be included in the product roadmap. So, how does one go about building such a repository of ideas?


How to fill Discovery Backlog

Idea generation techniques are divided into quantitative and qualitative based on the type of data they rely on, and into generative and evaluative. Generative techniques help us find new ideas, while evaluative techniques help us assess the current situation.

Let's illustrate this with an example. I have an ecommerce store with the goal of increasing the shopping cart conversion by 1 %. I choose techniques from the four quadrants based on what I want to discover. The best results come from combining techniques from all four quadrants. Techniques from each quadrant can provide the following types of information:

Quantitative – Generative techniques:

 * I can ask all customers who place an order for feedback and thus obtain the CES (Customer Effort Score) of the purchasing process, that is, how difficult it was for them to complete the task. For example, I will ask: "How difficult was it for you to place the order?"
 * How to do it: Survey integrated on the thank you page after the order

Qualitative – Generative techniques:

 * As a customer leaves during any step of the purchasing process, I ask them through the Hotjar tool what they would improve.
 * How to do it: Hotjar survey triggered when a customer leaves the page

Quantitative – Evaluative techniques:

 * For the customers who completed an order and those who did not, I compare the conversion rates of individual steps in the purchasing process. I identify where most customers drop or where the greatest potential to increase shopping cart conversion is hidden.
 * How to do it: Data analysis based on data from Google Analytics

Qualitative – Evaluative techniques:

 * I conduct a usability test of the purchasing process.
 * How to do it: Usability testing of the website


Techniques for seeking ideas


Surveys

A survey is a quantitative technique primarily categorized as generative, but it can also be used to evaluate the current state. The advantage of a survey is that it allows you to gather a larger amount of data in a relatively short time.


Desk research

During desk research, you delve into your own knowledge base or public sources (internet, libraries, archives…). It provides you with both quantitative and qualitative data. Beware, don’t use desk research as a substitution for research with your own customers.

Get ideas from relevant and trusted sources only. Also, consider their timeliness as customer behavior can change over time. Interesting sources of information include archives in the field of social and behavioral sciences or open databases of scientific articles from social science journals published in countries of Eastern Europe.


Individual or group interviews

There is nothing more important than interviews with real customers. These can be conducted either individually (problem interviews) or in groups (focus groups). Before starting the actual qualitative interview, always make sure that you are talking to your real target customers through screening questions.

In interviews, try to capture stories. Don't hesitate to ask "Why?" to uncover respondents' real needs. In group interviews, use an experienced facilitator who can address the risks of groupthink and dominant participants. Our User Interview Cheatsheet will help you ask the right questions the right way.


Competitive analysis

Competitive analysis is a qualitative generative technique that helps you understand how other organizations solve a particular problem. It also helps you discover what can be done better, to gain a competitive advantage.


Data analysis

Analytical work with data is a quantitative evaluative technique. The conclusion of each data analysis should be the interpretation of the outputs, ideally with recommendations. The biggest challenge of data analysis is that either companies don't have such data or it's challenging for the product team to obtain it. However, it can provide very useful insights and even show that some ideas are not worth pursuing because there is no real customer problem or no opportunity arises from them.

If you don't have user and customer behavior data, map out two to three most important customer journeys, identify the key metrics, and implement your findings. The conclusion of each data analysis should include interpreting the outputs with any recommendations. Google Analytics can be a good starting point for websites and applications. To understand more advanced product analytics, I recommend reading the Lean Analytics book.


Usability testing

Usability tests are an evaluative qualitative method where you observe customers using the product. It evaluates the user's ability to complete the assigned task or the degree of difficulty and frustration experienced while doing so. In summative testing, you only need to observe six users to identify 80 % of serious usability flaws.


From collecting to exploring ideas

By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, the product team gathers a lot of ideas that can be validated during Product Discovery. Simply describe them briefly and add them to the Discovery Backlog. At Lighting Beetle*, we use the Idea Validation canvas. In the industry, you might also encounter terms like Business Problem Statement or Opportunity Canvas.

Discovery Backlog: How to seek opportunities for better customer experience

Minimum Viable Podcast #24: From designer to investor

Walter Lima

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Once a company brings customers to their service design process, the first thing they usually do is user testing. Running a usability study is quite effective in bringing stakeholders awareness to moments of frustration that their customers experience. However, user testings have limitations that many designers and managers overlook. They show us how customers might use a service, but very often they fail in telling us whether the customer would want to use the service at all.


How to test for desirability



The approach to determine the demand for your service among customers should be tailored to your current stage in the design process. Below are some tips you can start incorporating to assess desirability.

1. Examine desirability during usability testing

To begin, enhance your user testing process by incorporating desirability questions to the interview. This ensures that participants are not only focused on usability but also on evaluating whether your service addresses their problems, potentially motivating them to pay for it.

At the end of the session, ask the participant how helpful the solution is at solving their problem. Keep in mind it's crucial to carefully select participants who genuinely face the problem you aim to solve.

In a recent project focused on developing a portal to assist social workers in aiding vulnerable individuals, we engaged social workers closely involved with those in need for usability testing. When prompted, many of them eagerly expressed how the solution would significantly benefit their work.

2. Test early concepts, with a focus on problem-solution fit

The depth of feedback you receive correlates directly with the level of detail in your prototypes. In the initial phases, it's important to focus on testing broad concepts to see if your solution addresses an existing problem before assessing usability.

During this phase, it's essential to have well-defined problem statements and to target your riskiest assumptions, ensuring that the testing audience aligns with the problem you aim to solve; employ early-stage concepts to initiate discussions and confirm the existence of these problems while gathering insights on potential solutions. Be prepared to test multiple solutions and avoid attaching to one idea.

Tip: While qualitative insights are valuable, sometimes a blend of qualitative and quantitative data to validate the viability of an idea is beneficial. To add quantitative rigor, you can conduct surveys using established methods like jobs-to-be-done and KANO to quantify desirability in this phase.

We recently partnered with a mountaineering gear importer that directly sells products to consumers while also supplying retailers. To enhance the retail experience within the provider's system, we initiated qualitative interviews to delve into their challenges and introduced our own ideas for discussion.

Subsequently, we conducted a comprehensive quantitative survey to validate the alignment of our proposed solutions with the identified problems across a broad spectrum of retailers.

3. Launch quickly, iterate quicker

A common misconception is that success is conditioned by having a perfect product at launch. However, in reality, success lies in the capability of swiftly embracing and incorporating customer feedback and iterating your product.

While the technical development of your service may require time, gathering realistic customer insights need not wait. Moreover, adopting lean experiments offers a balanced approach. To help pick the right experiment, check our Experiment toolbox.

For instance, a landing page can effectively convey your value proposition, gauge interest, and begin cultivating a customer base without the need for a fully-developed service. You can even offer customers to subscribe to a waiting list or pre-order, prompting them to assess the service's value.

Just release

Ultimately, the most potent feedback regarding the customer’s willingness to pay for your service emerges when you launch it.

What truly sets apart CX mature companies is their adeptness in working with customer data and their recognition that shipping represents merely the initial step in a longer journey towards success.

Once you have proven your solution solves a problem, it's time to start adding new features. To help you find out which features to add first, we have published an Assumption Mapper canvas, that you can use to prioritize features based on their riskiness.


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Desirability: Why usability testing ≠ good product

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You need a good argument to make the case for customer experience improvement initiatives. One of them is ROI, or return on customer experience investments. We'll show you how to connect CX metrics with business ones.


Definition of customer experience

In order to consciously influence or improve the customer experience, we first need to understand what creates the experience.The Customer Journey Map and the Service Blueprint are the best ways to visualise the customer experience. Both help us understand what activities customers perform and what interactions they have with our organization over time. Besides interactions, the channels where these interactions happen are also very important. In fact, many customer journeys today are multi-channel – we also call them omnichannel – and consistency of experience across them forms a significant part of the overall customer experience.

An example of a customer journey could be a visit to the cinema. Imagine you want to see a new Pedro Almodóvar film. First, you check the website of a nearby cinema on your smartphone. When you find out when the movie is playing, as part of your afternoon email-clearing block, you buy a ticket on the web on your computer. You're glad the cinema has PDF tickets because you care about the environment and besides, you don't have a printer at home. You download the ticket to your smartphone. You arrive at the cinema where you are greeted nicely by the usher. You show them the PDF, from which they scan the QR code, and you go find your seat.

It is clear from the example that the complexity of the customer experience also increases with the device from which the channel is accessed – for the cinema website it was once from a mobile phone and later from a computer.


Metrics related to CX

Since we already know that customer experience is created through touchpoints and channels, let's take a look at metrics related to customer experience.

At Lighting Beetle*, we work with a mental model we call the Performance Pyramid. It is a hierarchy of performance measurement in organizations. In order to measure customer experience, organizations should know their operational and financial metrics. They should also work with KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) as a tool to evaluate their benchmark.

An example of a metric might be daily cinema attendance and an example of a KPI, an indicator that the cinema is performing as expected, would be average daily cinema attendance on weekend days, which is at a minimum of 2000 visitors.

As part of measuring customer experience, we work with:

 * CX metrics such as Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS) or Customer Effort Score (CES)
 * Business metrics such as Churn Rate, Retention Rate, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), number of orders, number of customer service responses, etc.

As an illustration, after leaving the movie theater, a visitor can leave feedback on how satisfied they were with the overall quality of service, which will arrive via email. In addition, we know how loyal this customer is, or we know how many cinema tickets they have historically purchased.


Return on CX can be measured

The moment an organization works with both CX and business metrics, it is possible to measure the return on investment in improving the customer experience. The process is as follows:

1. Choose the CX metric you want to improve

2. Choose a business (operational or financial) metric

3. Divide customers into groups based on their experience level

4. Determine the average business metric for each group

5. Calculate the value of improving your CX metrics*

6. Calculate the cost or investment invested in CX cultivation

7. Compare the benefit and ROI (Return On Investment)

*No. 5 is about quantifying the monetary benefit if your lower-rated customers have moved to a higher-rated group.

“An increase in CX metric will result in a change in core operational business metric, which will drive an increase in revenue or a reduction in costs, for an investment of expense of CX program.” (Source)


Let's look at the example of a cinema:



1. I will choose customer satisfaction score (CSAT) as the CX i.e. customer metric.

2. As a business metric, I will choose the number of cinema tickets sold per customer per year.

3. I will create a segmentation of customers according to their CSAT level. To simplify this for the sake of example, let's assume a customer base of 100 000 customers per year and divide them into 3 groups:

 * Dissatisfied – 25 % of customers i.e. 25 000 customers
 * Neutral – 35 % of customers i.e. 35 000 customers
 * Satisfied – 40 % of customers i.e. 40 000 customers

4. I'll look at ø business metric for each group. For simplicity, let's assume a flat ticket price of 8 €, but ideally we should calculate with real sales:

 * Unsatisfied – buy in ø 2 tickets per year = 16 € i.e. 400 000 €
 * Neutrals – buy 3 tickets per year = 24 € i.e. 840 000 €
 * Satisfied – will buy 6 tickets per year = 48 € i.e. 1 920 000 €
 * Total: 3 160 000 €

5. I will estimate the value of improving CX metrics, i.e. how much the business metric will change if I improve the experience for some part of the customer base. In our case, this might mean, for example, that if I convert 10% of neutral customers to satisfied customers, their ratios and purchases will look like this:

 * Unsatisfied – 25 % of customers i.e. 400 000 €
 * Neutral – 25 % of customers i.e. 600 000 €
 * Satisfied – 50 % of customers i.e. 2 400 000 €
 * Total: 3 400 000 €

6. Thus, improving CX can bring me an increase in revenue of 240 000 € after the first year, which is an increase of +7.59 %. If the profitability of the cinema is, for example, 15 %, it would be in profit of 474 000 € before the CX improvement. However, after the CX initiative, the profit would rise to 510 000 €, which is 36 000 € more.

7. From this example, I can then derive the potential amount of investment, which could be at 36 000–72 000 € in the first year if we want to hit the ROI level of 50–100 %.


ROX is the new CX ROI

There are various business and CX metrics and all departments or teams in an organisation should have them defined – not just those in direct contact with the customer. This allows us, CX specialists and service designers, to look for the intersection between operational or financial metrics and find the customer-related ones. We know from experience that finding the right customer-facing metrics is not easy. We talked about how to link business and CX metrics in practice in the episode of our Minimum Viable Podcast with Eva Šípková, Head of CX at Alza. You can listen to it in the Slovak language or read the English translation.

So if you're concerned about any of our business metrics, I'd love to hear from you. We'll be sure to find a way to help it through improving the customer experience. By the way, don't be surprised if you encounter the acronym ROX instead of "Customer Experience Return On Investment" – expert circles are replacing the term ROI with Return On Experience (ROX).


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CX and Metrics: How to measure the ROI of a good customer experience

Logistics is a complex discipline with many variables. Building a good customer experience within it is therefore even more challenging. However, Packeta proves that it's possible. Each year they rank in the TOP 10 of CX ranking compiled by KPMG.

In the 23rd episode, Michal Blažej speaks with Alexander Jančo, Managing Director of Packeta Slovakia. They discuss how Packeta came into existence, how they build customer experience across thousands of pickup points, and where they see the future of the delivery industry.

Minimum Viable Podcast is brought to you by the CX design studio Lighting Beetle*. It's usually recorded in the Slovak language, however, you can read an English transcription of this episode below. For more English content, including case studies and handouts, visit our Journal.

The first question is, what sets Packeta apart from the competition?

I think we have a team that can execute our strategy well. Also within the logistics segment, we are most focused on the customer. We look at the customer differently and we ask them how they would imagine these services, and what is comfortable for them.

You mentioned that you have a good team that can execute the strategy well. Could you give an example of something in the past that you accomplished? A strategic goal that made you exceptional on the market?

That's about two years ago when we grew acquisition-wise in the delivery to address product. Then we decided to acquire the company Remax Courier Service. I am very data-oriented as well as our company. We adhere to the idea that a person without data is just a person with an opinion.

So before, I did research, where I found out what people want and what they need and what bothers them about delivery to the address. Everyone was bothered by not seeing the exact delivery time. So with colleagues, we formed a team and I got into it and I said let's deliver at an exact time.

And we succeeded. Of course, it has a standard curve that happens with changes. Some people doubted it. We had to replace some couriers who refused to be under such scrutiny because it means that the courier doesn't plan his day according to themself, but the software creates a route for them. They choose some segments of breaks they need but they must stick to it precisely.

That sounds like a success story. So you are a Czech-Slovak company. I'm not entirely clear about the structure. Could you just tell me how you are divided?

I would start by saying that our founder Simona Kijonková is a very good boss who gives freedom to individual Managing Directors in each country. She says she hires us as experts in that specific market and we have to say what we need. According to that, we proceed either globally together, or we will only make local changes.

In this case, when we were preparing delivery to the address, we had an advantage because, with that acquisition, we were also buying a system for that service. And I am for one team, so it wasn't necessary to deal with it as a group. All other services run on a common system.

Packeta has many pick-up points, which are also stores of various kinds. How did you come up with this idea?

Let's go back to 2010 when Simona Kijonková founded Packeta, her husband Jaromír Kijonka was already doing business on the internet and selling sunglasses, prescription glasses, and contact lenses. He and many other Czech e-shop owners expanded to Slovakia as their second country. So they were looking for a cheap alternative to solve transportation from the Czech Republic to Slovakia.

And the system of pick-up points that Simona saw abroad was cheaper. That's why the idea of pick-up points was born.

What are all the components your customer experience consists of?

When I start with logistics, it has a lot of KPIs. The most important thing is how many shipments we deliver the next day. And then some parcel parameters. For example, we monitor individual couriers on how efficiently they function during the day. We also monitor partner pick-up points, how efficient they are.

So we monitor efficiency, process, and quality, and this happens daily. This also happens at our Z boxes. We have many qualitative parameters that our team monitors daily and this is transferred to the reward system and to the individual departments and people.

So you have KPIs tied to rewards, and that is the motivational factor you have?

Yes. And when it comes to customer care, we also check how many of the daily number of customers we serve called us and for what reason. Then the input is from our partners and then some quantitative surveys we do within a certain periodicity at least once per quarter. There we go from brand awareness, through NPS to daily satisfaction measurements by recipients.

Instant feedback is very important for us because it's the instant feedback that can move the company the fastest.

KPIs are my favourite topic. Who manages the KPIs initiative at your company?

We have a group perspective and then an individual entity perspective. But as a Managing Director, I put together the whole pyramid and KPIs. Of course, I have some expectations, inputs from the group.

That's a great point. We've talked here with Eva Šípková from Alza about how they set up KPIs, and I like it when the Managing Director owns this initiative and understands it because that sets the quality. What if the KPIs are not met?

We have a separate department that deals with processes and quality management of important KPIs. There is no long-term problem. A short-term problem may arise, such as increased illness in a given region or bad weather.

But these are just daily nuances. Long-term nuances don't happen. If someone doesn't meet the KPI at the level of quality we have, then they are not good enough to be in that position.

When I choose a package on an e-shop, what happens and what impact do the individual elements have on the customer?

Sometimes companies try to come up with a lot for the customer, and then it affects the price. In the case of our business, it is very important to know what to give to the client and at what price so that we achieve the market share we expect.

In the context of the two services we offer on the Slovak market from the recipient's point of view, there is either delivery to pick-up points or to boxes and delivery by courier to the address.

Sometimes companies try to come up with a lot for the customer, and then it affects the price.

In both cases, we offer the customer to choose the service using a widget our partners have implemented. You have all the information there and you can quickly choose the delivery point. We need to give the customer simplicity of choice right in the cart.

In the case of delivery to the address, we tried to solve the fact that most of the clients have to enter the delivery address, and some e-shop verifies it and some don't. When you enter the wrong address, the shipment will be delayed because we have to call you. There are costs associated with that.

We don't want to have extra costs, and we don't want to have an angry customer so we have to do many things as simple as possible. We made a widget where you select the point you want to deliver the shipment to, and you don't have to fill in anything, and the address is correct.

Here is one usability problem that often occurs. I choose a point on the map, but I don't trust that the mapping software finds it correctly. Do you test these widgets?

Sure, we test everything. Our colleagues in the Czech Republic do it. Either we do it to some extent in-house, or we call a partner to do it.

Yesterday I was shopping, I had it delivered through you, but there was no widget, so it probably depends on which e-shop decides how.

We still try to educate and talk about what is important. To some extent, it is sad that CX is underestimated in many e-shops. Often in the past, it happened that the e-shop didn't care which carrier they put in the basket, it was all about the price.

I'm glad that when those companies have CX departments, it's a different communication right from the start because they already ask about the NPS and so on. So the choice of a suitable partner is not just about the price, but also about quality. I am very pleased that we have been holding the first position in NPS in the market in the long term. Within KPMG, every year when they map 100 brands in terms of customer experience within Slovakia, we still rank in the TOP 10.

Do you compare these NPS with each other? Is it an open debate between DPD, Packeta, or other delivery companies? I'm curious because NPS for other agencies is difficult to find out.

We don't have this data from competitors. We pay for these surveys, and it costs a lot of money, but I assume that they do the same.

Again, we are going back to the cart. We selected the address via the widget, what else affects the customer experience?

The customer experience is subsequently influenced by the fact that the customer expects it to be delivered, in our case, the next day. When it comes to the pick-up point, they want to have an experience where they don't wait in a line, where it goes quickly, and where there is pleasant service. In the case of Z boxes, it's easier because the box doesn't talk, it can't mess anything up.

In the case of delivery to the address, the customer expects accuracy, so when we send it in the morning, if we say you'll have the package by 9:30, we usually hit that time frame. Until recently, couriers used terminals if you decided to pay by card. Sometimes it was out of battery, so they'd tell you that card payment wasn't possible.

With the Android devices they use for delivery, there's a barcode reader and NFC, so you just need to tap the card or phone, all within one device. Therefore, it can't happen that you can't pay by card with our courier. If for example, the provider has an outage, we offer an alternative solution - payment through our app.

With the boxes, do you always have to negotiate with each parcel owner and then pay them, or how does it work?

We've automated that already. We have two models. In each model, we pay some money. But I'm grateful for the help from ZMOS. When we started, we mainly went to villages. We know where lower-income people are, and it's a service that's usually 30% cheaper.

In the beginning, we had this strategy, and I'm glad that ZMOS helped us negotiate with municipalities when we pay a symbolic euro in some places. The truth is, in some villages, the box isn't as busy, and from our side, it's a considerable investment.

The second question I wanted to ask is that Alza boxes need to be connected to electricity, right?

Yes, they have a screen and each one is connected to electricity. Alza has about 600 units, we currently have around 1700. This year we plan to build 250 new and enlarge another 250.

Couriers are one customer-facing element, and then there are the pick-up points. How do you train those people?

Starting with partner pick-up points, we have a big checklist of how not only the partner's operation should look but also communication, and so on. So we already have some demands for those spaces, opening hours, to be open at least five days a week, etc.

I'm glad that up to 80% of partners are also open on Saturdays. From the data we have and compare, we have the highest quality network. As for how we train them, we track those KPIs I mentioned. So how quickly they accept shipments, when the courier brings them, how quickly they issue them, up to the email feedback we send after each issued shipment via the pick-up point.

And we have a point system, three strikes and you're out. I'm very proud that 98% of our partners meet these qualitative parameters, and currently, we have over 1200 partners. The reward is progressive based on meeting those qualitative parameters.

But that reward is for me something I would like them to pay us in the future. Because when you look at it from the other segment's perspective like Google or Meta, you pay them to bring people to your site, and they don't even guarantee that people will buy from you, so we bring that traffic there.

But that reward is for me something I would like them to pay us in the future.

It was very important to teach them to look at that customer who comes to the pick-up point as their average margin. We taught this one man who sells fishing supplies and mothers with children would come there for packages. I told him that even mothers with children buy for example repellents. Or they have men in their surroundings for whom they can buy gifts.

That was new information for him, which suddenly opened new horizons for him. That: “aha, I don't have to sell only to those fishermen who come here, but I can see the opportunity in everyone.” And then that person who comes to the pick-up point suddenly doesn't earn those few cents for issuing a package but earns because he sells his goods.

It's interesting how you transform the market of small retail. The world has changed, and with Lidl around every corner, those small convenience stores have to think differently.

I look at it in the context that, for example, colleagues who are responsible for partner sites and boxes are retail experts. Merchants who are in charge of our online stores are experts in e-commerce and expansion.

So in this context, this is how we operate, and nobody sells anything. Everyone just tells you how they could help you. That's very important in the way the company works, how it achieves those results, and then what impact it has on the customer experience.

I think you said it well, that the customer experience often doesn't stem from a well-laid-out process but from that value exchange that happens. Let's quickly talk about the couriers, and then we can talk about the future.

It's standard there that during onboarding, the courier is trained in the process and then they are regularly retrained. They also communicate daily with their partner who is at the depot and go over the daily results.

And of course, then we have trainer colleagues who show newbies or those who don't have good quality how to do it. And these are things we do daily. For some illustration, we deliver 10,000 shipments, but during a seasonal peak, it's several hundred thousand shipments per day.

Do couriers also have KPIs tied to the reward system?

Exactly, and there's also the modus operandi that if you don't meet the quality three times, you're out.

Let's talk about the future now. What new experiences will customers have, and how do you want to compete in the market? How do you want to be better than the competition?

Still keeping the customer first and, like Amazon has that encoded in their DNA, be customer obsessed. Because customer orientation is something that everyone claims, but that's very weak for me.

The company must have it encoded in its culture that we are obsessed with the customer, that we conduct surveys, collect feedback, and constantly monitor it, looking also into the future and in the context of competition, and so on.

We will also focus on our app, which is already used by about a million people in Slovakia today. Through it, anyone can send a package across four markets: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. We want to expand so this is possible in 33 countries, as we enable it for e-commerce today.

I see that the convenience of delivery is moving to extreme levels. I read recently that Walmart has a white-glove service, where they will place eggs in your fridge, for example. How do you see the future of delivery, where else will the market move in some medium-term horizon?

Another solution is to have a mailbox not just for letters, but for packages. And in general, it will be open so that when your neighbor calls you and says: “Hey, Michal, I made jam, and you're not home. Can you open your mailbox? I'll throw it in there, and then you can pick it up.”

There's talk, for example, that Samsung should also bring their own software to their appliances, so that when you run out of sth, the system will automatically place an order, and the goods will arrive. But this will firstly work in big cities, not in Bratislava. Even Rohlík hasn't come to Bratislava yet, because Bratislava is small, and a certain size is necessary for the service to be worthwhile from the provider's point of view.

But if I go to such fundamentals, certainly, it's the pick-up points and boxes, but mainly boxes, because they are 24/7. There will definitely be more and more boxes because there are about 12 points - pick-up points or boxes per 10 thousand inhabitants in Slovakia, not just ours. In Poland, it's 40.

Do you have a benchmark for how far it can grow?

The foundation of box delivery is simple. You can deliver many shipments to one address and don't have to call anyone like with the address delivery. If that network grows to such dimensions that the box will be everywhere, you won't even need to order something by courier. So I think delivery to the address will be a premium product and it will be the other way around that not the courier tells me they'll come at 9:30, but I tell them to come at 9:30.

Last question I ask every guest. What is your biggest design challenge you would like to solve?

My dream and desire is that every e-shop has the same checkout process. Even when I go to the smaller e-shop, I know that the checkout there will be ensured by a brand I know and trust. To some extent, the inspiration for me is Apple. Within the Apple account, I have the delivery address filled out, and when I shop, I pay through Apple's payment gateway, and at the same time, Apple knows my address.

Great. I heard that Shopsys tried such proprietary software, that they only do checkouts, and last week I sat with Jan Cifra from Dedoles, and he told me that all checkouts will look the same for it. That it's not possible, that today all checkouts are diverse...


Listen to the whole interview with Alexander Jančo in Slovak:

Minimum Viable Podcast is brought to you every two months by the design studio Lighting Beetle*, which focuses on creating an exceptional customer experience.

Design is all around us. Minimum Viable Podcast explores design with a small “d” – the one that looks for solutions to people's problems. In it, together with our guests, we address topics that are related to design, but we normally do not associate with it. Thanks to the Zeldeo production studio and our production manager Mojmír Procházka for the cooperation.

We are looking forward to every listen, follow, share, and suggestion for improvement. You can send us your tips for interesting personalities with whom we can talk about design to podcast@lbstudio.sk.

Enjoy!

Minimum Viable Podcast #23: CX in logistics

Minimum Viable Podcast #22: Future Thinking

Kamil Zahorjan

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In recent years, car manufacturers have become increasingly focused on delivering a digital experience to drivers through various digital products. Although infotainment (a dashboard multimedia touchscreen) as one of them has been around for some time, it is still in the phase of exploring and understanding the benefits it can bring to passengers.

Working with Škoda Auto for past years, we’ve witnessed the industry's shift towards a more digitized customer experience. Tons of iterations on infotainment products and collaboration with experts on in-car design helped us summarize these most influential factors to keep in mind when designing human-machine interfaces.


1. Safety all the way

The most influential factor for designing HMI is the environment. For cars, the primary interaction will always be driving and we must keep this in mind. Unlike other digital products where the goal is to keep users engaged, drivers’ focus must remain on the road to ensure safety. It might be similar for, let’s say, medical devices for surgeons.

To ensure the safety of the infotainment, first, we minimize the content and interaction elements as much as possible to reduce cognitive load and to increase focus on driving. There’s even policies, e.g. the law defines the maximum text length that can be displayed while driving. If content cannot be minimized, we implement driving distraction restrictions, such as simple pop-ups that prohibit viewing some content while driving.


2. Diverse range of languages

If you are aiming for an HMI design that is universal worldwide, keep in mind requirements of verbose languages. Good practice is to check the text length for each intended language even before you create the actual interface.

Škoda distributes cars to over 100 countries worldwide, so it is crucial to ensure that the designs can be easily translated and adapted to different languages. We achieve this by testing the copy in multiple languages and defining maximum text field lengths to avoid overflowing texts. In some cases, it’s inevitable to iterate a whole component to fit desired content.


3. Frequent testing

Even when following all best practices and design standards, we can never be entirely sure that our design will work without causing distractions while driving. Therefore, we conduct thorough testing with users, simulating the car environment as closely as possible.

In a recent testing conducted by the Škoda HMI team, drivers were asked to ride a simulated road while conducting a simple task on the infotainment screen. Such testing indicated an optimal position for various elements and a correct size for safe accessibility while driving.

Testing is an essential part of a design process and even if you don’t have a dedicated budget, improvise with lean and guerrilla tests. For example, when we were testing the calendar app, we mounted a tablet to a car dashboard. Other times we simulate the environment in our office.


4. Mapping design patterns

Škoda cars are used by a wide range of drivers and passengers, spanning different ages, countries, and cultures. It is important to design interfaces that are easily understood by all users. By following common design patterns and conducting frequent user testing, we make our designs accessible to a wide range of customers.

For example, while designing the parking app, we looked at how they are set up in different countries across Europe, so that our design would be universal. Seek for patterns your customer segment is accustomed to, and don’t forget to check for technical limitations, as well.


5. Seamless journey across touchpoints

To ensure a cohesive customer experience, we cannot work in a vacuum. Infotainment is just one part of the digital experience provided by any car manufacturer. If we are considering a certain design change, we must take into account all dependencies it causes on other touchpoints and streams.

The Pay to Park service, which allows a user to pay for parking based on the car position, is a good example. Besides infotainment, the feature is also accessible from MyŠkoda App, designed by a different team. While working on the app, we needed to meet with the mobile design team regularly to make sure we are delivering as close an experience between these two touch points as possible. If we want to keep the design user-friendly, it needs to be consistent.


Where do the roads of car infotainment lead to?

Compared to digital products, the slower pace of product delivery in the car industry has historically resulted in technical debt in many cars. As a result, relatively new cars might have interfaces that appear outdated. This delay can make it challenging for car manufacturers to compete with mobile apps providing similar functions or with mirroring services like CarPlay or Android Auto.

On the other hand, it creates huge potential. With the car becoming more of a living organism, we can expect them to be more about software and less about hardware. And infotainment will be a big part of the puzzle. For more visions of the future of the automotive industry, I recommend the episode of our Minimum Viable Podcast with Ondrej Homola, the Lead UX Designer at Volvo. You can listen to it in the Slovak language or read the English translation.


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5 principles of service design for easier service creation

Minimum Viable Podcast #26: Innovations in retail

UX writing: How to make digital bureaucracy understandable

Discovery Backlog: How to seek opportunities for better customer experience

Minimum Viable Podcast #24: From designer to investor

Desirability: Why usability testing ≠ good product

CX and Metrics: How to measure the ROI of a good customer experience

Minimum Viable Podcast #23: CX in logistics

Minimum Viable Podcast #22: Future Thinking

What designing for Škoda infotainment taught us about HMI

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Your journey
starts here

Get inspired!

All Stories

Podcasts

Events

Tools

Newsletter

5 principles of service design for easier service creation

Minimum Viable Podcast #26: Innovations in retail

UX writing: How to make digital bureaucracy understandable

Discovery Backlog: How to seek opportunities for better customer experience

Minimum Viable Podcast #24: From designer to investor

Desirability: Why usability testing ≠ good product

CX and Metrics: How to measure the ROI of a good customer experience

Minimum Viable Podcast #23: CX in logistics

Minimum Viable Podcast #22: Future Thinking

What designing for Škoda infotainment taught us about HMI

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

‌‌

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Your journey starts here

Your journey
starts here