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Innovate Your Service for Greater Customer Value These days, if someone says “Times are bad!”,
you will probably respond by saying “Tell me something
new!”. In the market,
“something new” is what customers are always looking for. Not just in hard times but in any
time. Customers are always
looking for new experiences, new features, new solutions to reduce cost, new
ways to attract more customers, etc.
Companies, especially those in the service sector, should make
innovation a priority and use their creative and innovative capacity to
create greater value for their customers. Make time for innovation
We must make time for idea creation and innovation and not
do them on an ad hoc basis. We
always see high performing companies acting creatively and innovating for
their customers, constantly. The
low performers tend to be firefighting all the time. They find themselves having to attend
to their problems all the time and cannot find the time to innovate. They are caught in a vicious cycle. To break the vicious cycle, they must take a step back and
give themselves the time and space to think creatively and innovate. They must set aside time to work out
creative ideas to serve the customers.
For example, they could commit to meet half yearly or quarterly and
have the meeting focus on innovation for their customers. Companies that do not commit the time,
resources and energy will most probably find themselves postponing their
innovation session again and again, due to “urgent matters”. Customers do not know what they can have
Innovation is so important because customers do not know
what they can have. It is always
up to the service providers to think up new things for the customers. In service we often say, “ Give the customers what
they want.” But,
customers’ wants are just their perceived solutions. There could be better solutions and
services that they are not aware of. Through innovation we can give customers
better solutions and services that they did not expect to see. For example, many years ago
most holidaymakers would not have thought that going to the Antarctic region
for a tour was possible. So,
they would not have requested for one.
In reality, there was sufficient technology to bring tourists
there. If we went by what
customers wanted then we would probably not have provided any Antarctic
tours. Furthermore, if we just give what the customers want, we
will just be as competitive as the other competitors and not any better. With innovative services, we can
differentiate ourselves from the others and stay ahead of the competitors. Customers will also see us as a value
creating organization. Innovation needs not be complex
Often, we think that innovation needs high technology and
huge investment. This thought
could have stopped many from doing more in the area of innovation as they do
not have huge budget for innovation.
Though it is true that some innovations need high technology and big
money, many innovations, especially those in the service sector, are about
clever but simple modifications of things. So, we do not need to just focus on high technology to
innovate. Newness is customer defined
One useful principle to remember when we are innovating
is: newness is defined by the customers. That is to say, as long as the service is perceived new
from the customers’ perspective, it is an innovation. An innovation needs not be an
invention that the world has not seen before. So long as the newness brings new value to the customer,
it is innovation. Often,
innovation can be about repackaging, re-positioning and re-arranging of
things. Co-inventing with customers
We should work with customers to co-invent new ideas,
solutions and services. In a B2B
situation, we could work with our customers to co-invent solutions for their
customers. Co-invention should
be an on-going process where the supplier and customers work together on
innovation. It should not be a
one-off effort to innovate.
Usually, ideas have to be shaped and re-shaped before it becomes
feasible. Co-invention goes beyond the usual “listen to the
customers” sessions like focus group or customer interviews. Co-invention is about you and your
customers going into a creative mode together to create new ideas, solutions
and services. This method is
powerful because
We should continue to use the usual methods like focus
groups, surveys and interviews to understand our customers. However, we should also remember that
customers give their views based very much on their perception of what is
possible. As such, they could
exclude views that could help us make a breakthrough in our service
offerings. Getting the customers
into a creative mode can help them breakaway from their perceptions and they
will be freer with their ideas on what they really hope to have. Some areas to think about
Here are some areas where we could start focusing on to
innovate. It would be better if you
could tap on your staff and customers to get ideas on which areas to work
on. Nonetheless, here are some
areas that you might want to consider. Service products or concepts – This is probably the
most obvious area that we can start thinking up ideas for. For example, we can create new
service products and concepts like a new tour package, a new investment plan,
a new menu, etc Service experience - This refers to the experience that a
person goes through as a customer. We can create new ways to enhance the
experience of the customers. For
example, we give the customers a new experience when they are at the
reception or as they browse our merchandize. Delivery Mechanism – This refers to the ways that we
provide service by. For example,
we could use new channels to provide information, new ways to facilitate
refunds, new ways to collect items for repair, etc Positioning – This refers to the market positioning
of a service. For example, we
could think of ways to reach out to a different age segment with the existing
service. Or, modify the existing
service to suit another segment. Copyright 2001 ThinkingSphere Click here to Return |
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