Service Design Breakfast Lagos

                              INTRODUCTION TO SERVICE DESIGN

So you have heard about service design before or maybe not. But you now damn right that things are not the way it ought to be here: bad user experience on websites, delayed buses and disorderly queue in banks...And so on..
Digital and the internet has allowed companies to focus more on what customers want. But are we getting it right here? what do we change? How?

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Why Nigerian Banks Need Service Design

Conversation with a Bank Manager

Bank Manager (Bm): ''Welcome Sir. Why are you here today and how might we help you’’.

Idealist: ‘’I have come to ask you to lend small money to some villagers’’.

Bm: ‘’HAhaha (laughing out loud)!, I can’t do that’’.

Idealist: ‘’Why not?’’.

Bm: ‘’ermm, the small amounts these villagers need to borrow will not even cover the cost of all the loan documents they would have to fill. The bank is not going to waste its time on such pittance’’.

Idealist:  ‘’Why not? To the poor, this money is crucial for survival’’.

Bm: ‘’These people are illiterates, they cannot fill-out our loan forms’’.

Idealist:  ‘’Why must it be so?’’

Bm: ‘’Well, every single bank in the country has that rule’’.

Idealist: ‘’Why?’’

Bm: ‘’What do you mean why?’’

Idealist: ‘’Why can’t a bank just take money and issue a receipt saying, ’’received such and such amount of money from such and such a person? ,’’why can’t the banker do it? Why must depositors do it?’’.

Bm: ‘’Well, how would you run a bank without people reading and writing?’’.

Idealist: ‘’I don’t know.., there must be a simple way. It seems your banking system is designed to be anti-illiterate’’.

Bm: ’’Sir, banking is not as simple as you think’’.

Idealist: ‘’maybe so, but am also sure that banking is not as complicated as you make it out to be’’.

Bm: ‘’look,’ the simple truth is that a borrower at any other bank in any place in the world would have to fill forms’’.

Idealist: ‘’Okay, so after filling the forms, how will they get the loans’’.

Bm: ‘’Then they will get us collateral before any loan will be approved’’.

Idealist: ‘’Why do you need collateral as long as you get the money back?’’. ‘’that is what you really want isn’t it?’’.

Bm: ‘’Yes, ‘’we want our money back,’’ but at the same time, we need the collateral. That is our guarantee’’.

Idealist: ‘’These poor people have every reason to pay you back just to take another loan and live another day. That is the best security you can have- their life’’.

Bm: ‘’you’re an idealist. You live with books and theories’’.

Idealist: ‘’But if you’re certain the money will be repaid why do you need collateral?’’.

Bm: ‘’That is our bank rule’’.

Idealist: ‘’So only those who have collateral can borrow?’’.

Bm: ‘’yes’’.

Idealist: ‘’ It is a silly rule. It means only the rich can borrow?’’.

Bm: ‘’I don’t make the rules, the bank does’’.

Idealist: ‘’ Well, I think the rules should be changed’’.

 (Conversation Credited to Muhammad Yunus from his book 'Banker to the Poor')

Our banks are making life difficult for a lot of people in many ways. From zero access to loans, to technology we can’t use or understand to rules made by our forefathers. Our bankers need to reinvent themselves and banking should evolve into the future. This would mean letting go of assumptions and start thinking in a whole new direction. Putting the needs of customers first and while making use of the available technology to accomplish the goals.

Credit:IDEO/BBVA: http://futureselfservicebanking.com/

When was the last time we saw a meaningful innovation from the banking industry since the days of the short-lived ‘Flash Me Cash’ and the arrival of cheap sweets in bank branches. All other breakthroughs were a rip-off and duplicate (R&D) of technologies making-waves elsewhere.

I am amazed by the mockery that goes on in the name of banking services in Nigeria. Currently, nearly all the banks spend 60% of the customer service workforce in resolving ATM and debit card issues. Which is not sustainable in the interests of the bank, staff and customers. If they were to apply service design, I’d like to call it ‘service thinking’, they would start by collecting data on how customers are losing their ATM cards. My recent encounter with losing my ATM was getting excited in hosting a couple of old school friends. I collected some cash and forget to collect my card. I am not alone in this kind of problem.

Hundreds of customers are losing their cards every week through this same way.

But how the Nigerian bank’s ATM was designed encourages this sort of waste and it is simply okay by the bankers. This is why? ;<insert card>;<choose account>;<select amount>;<cash pops out>;<card ejects>; But then you collect your cash and in a hurry or delighted by the new notes you forget to pick up your card. The psychology here is that the card is secondary once you are done in a cash machine. What matters is the cash and that was why you came in the first place and not for some worthless plastic.

Credit:IDEO/BBVA: http://futureselfservicebanking.com/

Simple service thinking could have prevented hundreds of customers from congesting the customer service areas. Let’s rethink it this way; <Insert card>;<Select amount>;<card pops out>;<cash pops out>.The logic here is that you cannot leave the cash machine without the cash. That is why you are there. By redesigning the system this way, it reduces the chances of users leaving their card behind. The most priced asset is the card but the customer for some reason doesn’t care. What matters to them is the cash at that moment. Our banks would do well to help them guard that asset. The banking group BBVA of Spain embarked on this journey and totally ended up redesigning the future of the ATM with amazing design, increased usage, efficiency and customer loyalty. 

Many problems are lurking around in every corner of our banking system waiting to be solved. Banking can only get it right by seeking to use service design methods and working with service designers to imagine the future of services by helping to uncover how customers want to be served.

To learn more about service design follow  @SDN_Lagos on Twitter for updates on our meetups and workshops in Lagos.

SERVICE DESIGN LAGOS: A CLARION CALL

This is the first blog post from the newly formed Service Design Lagos. We established the service design Lagos chapter following successive runs from the service design network global chapter based in Cologne Germany and other chapters from around the globe.

With the growing influence of service design around the world and the transformational capacity of service design we think the time is right to start discussing and sharing the impacts of service design here in Nigeria. The growing IT sector and banking, entertainment, public sector, are all burgeoning industries undergoing a new form of reforms driven by young and passionate-creative people.

As more attention is being paid to experiences and the demands for citizens and customers for quality services and good governance.., service design can become a tool for organizations to refocus their offerings and the government to deliver citizen-driven agendas and policies.

Service design can be thought of as the design of end-to-end experiences that customers encounter on their journey through various 'touch-points' to access a product or service. This is very important because as a brand or an organization designing touch points to be effective and experiential means positioning yourself for how the customer sees you at every point on the customer's journey. For the government this is the most important channel to interact with citizens..and sometimes the only one.

Think of how the state delivers governance; power, healthcare, water..these are all service forms and also channels for the government to continue dialogue and interaction with citizens. But we often miss the point. Service design presents a unique process, language and tools for understanding customers and translating this understanding into value propositions that will delight the users. Every business or government is obliged to have a good knowledge of its people (citizens, customers, employees, stakeholders, community groups). 

The demand for compelling experiences, digital and internet shopping is putting pressure on brands. Never a time had brands and marketing been less important than in this age. For a market like Nigeria where every brand is looking for an artist to endorse or the next vacant billboard to sell with or yes,-- the talent show. Service design can be the leverage..as we move from persuasion to usability and experiences. The idea of service design takes marketing to the next level by focusing on optimizing service touch-points and delivering experiences, meaningful and authentic communication with customers. 

Service Design will be the thing that businesses focus on to make them compete better.--Ben Terrett

There is no industry that service design cannot transform and countless case studies from around the world proves that. See: Service Design Network and the UK Design Council for cases on service design. Everything is a service..Think of companies like hotels.ng, Truppr, Uber...All they offer is a service. They don't own many infrastructures even. But they are slowly disrupting transportation as we know it, travel, etc. By discovering new business models and value proposition in a creative way. 

Think about education, you don't have to own a school or a university to provide educational services..companies like Andela and BAUonline and many others are leading this change already in Nigeria. Elsewhere, Reboot a New York based social design agency recently setup in Nigeria and worked with the WorldBank to create a service delivery platform called MyVoice in Nassarawa state. This project also won the Core77 service design award.

hotels.ng has become a popular destination for travellers in Nigeria

Our mission at Service Design Lagos is to help share knowledge and cases on service design from Nigeria to the rest of the world through informal meetings, events and conferences.

If you are a professional in one of these fields: banking, healthcare, IT, entertainment, public sector, entrepreneur, marketing/advertising, media, telecoms, transportation/aviation, fashion, NGOs and many others. If you are curious about where the next phase of growth and innovation might come from. This is your moment!

Join the Service Design Lagos to network with other professionals to discuss and share tools and best practices on service design. There is no fee nor obligation to join. 

To join simply send an email with your name and profession to: charles@policylabafrica.org

You can also follow us on Twitter: @SDN_Lagos to receive updates on events and publications.

Now, let sparks fly!