next step after I collected customer stories

1. Future of
Customer Service

2. Every time you ship a package, withdraw cash from the ATM, or call your health insurance provider,
you’re experiencing a service system. Service design is choreographing the dynamic interactions
between companies and people, this cannot only transform a company’s image but also it can
improve people’s lives.
And today companies talk in terms of an even more holistic approach : customer experience :
“Customer experience is bigger than customer service in that it is full, end to end experience. It starts
when you first hear about Amazon from a friend, and ends when you get the package in the mail and
open it.”
– Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO

3. More than 50 years ago Peter Drucker wrote, “The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it
sells him. One reason for this is, of course, that nobody pays for a ‘product.’ What is paid for is
satisfaction.” Companies think they are selling products and services, but in reality people hire those
products and services to get jobs done in their lives. As marketing guru Ted Levitt quipped to his
students a generation ago, “People don’t want quarter-inch drills--they want quarter-inch holes.”

4. experience stories
I talked to people, read up on people view points on different domains where customer services form an integral part of
their working. The prezi presentation - http://prezi.com/wjtkf3x5eoww/customer-experience/ was used as a conversation
starter to discuss people’s view points on the problems that customer service can aid in solving.

5. Government

6. PS Ashok, 39, lives in the middle-class neighbourhood of T-Nagar in southern Madras. The detergent manufacturer, who is pursuing a law
degree, is an ardent fan of ageing Tamil film star Rajnikanth, who has asked his fans to vote against a rival politician allied with the regional
DMK party. "We obviously voted for AIADMK, following Rajnikanth's appeal.
"I don't know if our candidate (a newcomer to politics) will win, but I have to go by my guru's appeal," says Ashok.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/south_asia/04/india_voting_experience/html/7.stm
In the MNC company i work for, there was a campaign being run along with the "JAAGO RE" activists to enroll more and more voters and
to ensure their participation in the voting process in Election '2009. I would say that this was a great effort being carried out by all such
activists. I joined the "Jaago Re" campaign too and got myself registered online. In the MNC company i work for, there was a campaign
being run along with the "JAAGO RE" activists to enroll more and more voters and to ensure their participation in the voting process in
Election '2009. I would say that this was a great effort being carried out by all such activists. I joined the "Jaago Re" campaign too and got
myself registered online. This group somehow motivated me to vote through their active publicity campaigns. I got the felling to vote this
time. Would like to confess it that this VOTING was going to be my first ever. But better late than never.
http://udayrana.blogspot.com/2009/05/so-finally-dday-has-arrived-for.html
Indira Bhanupuri's most recent voting experience in India in 2009 was just like this. In fact, she did not get to vote at all. She physically
could not get through the lines into the polling booth, near Hyderabad in the south of India.
"The men just pushed me out. They shoved, and they laid their hands on me, and they pushed me away from the entrance. There are
supposed to be two lines, one for men, one for women, very orderly ... but it wasn't. The women didn't vote that day."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/features/5621629/Women-face-huge-obstacles-to-voting
How can we create a more engaging, user friendly and accessible voting experience for people?

7. The number of people paying income tax in India is quite surprising. The story has this number at 35 million, which is about 3% of our
population, and is quite low. Please note that this is not the total number of taxpayers because you pay indirect taxes on almost everything
you use, so in that sense taxpayers will be quite high.
Here is how that chart looks like:
www.onemint.com/2011/01/19/number-of-income-tax-payers-in-india-and-us/
The majority of India's income taxpayers are salaried employees working for the government or private firms, whose taxes are deducted at
source.
They feel they are overtaxed and underserved by the state, and they want the government to crack down on the shadow economy - or
what Indians call "black money".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3868073.stm
Can we motivate more people to pay taxes through creating a more transparent system, which they
understand better?

8. More than a quarter (28%) of employees in India are willing to take up a full-time job opportunity overseas for two to three years with at
least a 10% increase in pay increase, said a study conducted by research company Ipsos
- http://blog.timesjobs.com/2012/02/28-employees-in-india-willing-to-relocate-overseas-survey/
As freshers just entering the industry straight after graduation we often do not know the right salary quote, this is often a reason we get
exploited both in terms of how much we are paid and the work hours. I have particularly marked this trend in Engineering and
Management students.
- Final Year, Engineer Student
"The measures of daughterly guilt are much higher in Indian women than in the West," says Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the Center for
Work-Life Policy, a Manhattan think tank, who headed a study last year on the challenges Indian women face in the workplace. "And since
taking care of elderly parents usually becomes a reality later in their careers, it takes them out of the workplace just when they should be
entering management roles." In fact, gender disparities at Indian companies grow more pronounced in management's upper ranks.
- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_11/b4219010769063.htm
“I had a friend who hired a graphic artist to design his resume, and he ended up getting a lot of interest from employers mainly because
of the visual appeal of his resume,” Caldwell says. “At the same time, my cofounder was designing his wife’s resume and realized that
when he was searching for great looking resumes as guides, he couldn’t really find anything.”
- A solution : http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669119/new-service-gives-any-job-seeker-a-slick-custom-resume
What is an ideal employment interface? How can it match people’s aspirations, requirements, find
suitable opportunities and connect like minded people?

9. Healthcare

10. My mom is 68 years old, overweight, inactive, and suffers from a litany of “old-age ailments” including high blood pressure, high
cholesterol, borderline diabetes, arthritis, and hearing and vision limitations. Every Sunday evening, she loads her four-by-seven pill case
with her 12 prescription medications, three vitamins, and two over-the-counter pain relievers. She can’t remember or even pronounce the
names of most of these pills. She can barely recall which are for her heart and which are for her joints.
- http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664775/can-design-get-people-to-take-their-meds
As the smart folks at the British service design group Participle put it when talking about their compellingly progressive vision of mobile
services for chronic disease patients, “It is motivation, not medicine, that is required.”
- http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663872/to-solve-our-health-care-crisis-home-treatment-needs-a-makeover
The needs and expectations of patients with chronic conditions and of healthcare professionals who care for those patients have changed
considerably since remote patient monitoring devices were first introduced. To fulfill these needs, emerging technologies must go far
beyond simply monitoring standard vital signs, or just adding new technical features. Instead, they must be able to address the needs of
patients as people—connecting patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses, and others in an integrated, systematic, and interoperable way that
has not been done on a broad scale.
- http://www.careinnovations.com/Data/Sites/1/downloads/intel-ge_careinnovations_whitepaper_personal_health.pdf
How can we benefit lives of people with chronic diseases and people who take care of them better
through services?

11. One of the major factor of human ageing is one of inevitable ill-health and mental and physical incapacity leading to disability and
dependency. Although health and illness is perceived differently in different cultures, one must understand that growing old is natural and
biological and thus they deserve just as much attention if not more than what other health disorders do. We must understand their needs
and difficulties prior to aiding them.
- http://www.uk.sagepub.com/barryandyuill/Bond%20et%20al%20-%20Ageing%20in%20Society,%203e%20(Ch%206).pdf
In a society with 50 million family members supporting the sick, old, and frail (growing exponentially to 130 million in the next ten years)
we are looking for an easier and far more pervasive model distributed health care. The major problems that they fight with include
memory loss, depression due to lack of attention and heart ailments.
Restoring a sense of dignity and normalcy to the lives of elderly is priority today.
How can we design a better geriatric care experience?

12. What if we approached maternal outcomes by learning from and empowering the dads? A short video we did at IDEO in Munich to get
inspired about childbirth. But instead of talking to the mothers, we talked to the dads to get their take on it.
- www.openideo.com/open/maternal-health/inspiration/what-if-we-empowered-the-dads-to-get-involved-in-child-birth
From a design perspective, everything begins in either a linear or a circuitous fashion, with a creation—a birth. So, pregnancy as the
subject warranted pensive and playful consideration by Designs on. It addresses life, love, labor, and their attendant challenges in naked
form. The booklet offers design solutions to a host of challenges, including: the dangers of labor in the absence of an attending physician;
communication barriers between mother and child; anxieties borne by parents throughout a pregnancy; even questions of appropriate
transit attire en route to the delivery room.
- Design On volume 4, www.design-on.com
Understanding the journey of parents through pregnancy, maternal healthcare, neo-natal care, how
can we design a more interactive and happy experience through this phase of pregnancy?

13. When it comes to designing new medical devices, most of the talk is about how easy products are for physicians to use, noted designer
Kai Worrell at last week's Body Computing conference at USC. There's almost no conversation about the experience from the patients'
perspective, he said -- a shift which could radically change the health care industry.
- http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662382/creating-a-patient-centered-future-for-health-care-video
Hospital is one place that I dread going to, every thing about that place makes me feel repelled, the smell, colours, the thought of pain. I
think they should consider a change of approach, co-creating this space with patients in order to make patients feel more welcome and
comfortable, making hospital a place to heal instead of a place where I go when I am in pain.
2009 Ergonomidesign's research suggested that as we move towards the future of health care, people will increasingly need to feel
involved and in control of their own health. People will also need tools to help them collaborate closely with health care providers, doctors
and other people they trust to help them manage their health.
-www.core77.com/blog/case_study/case_study_minime_and_the_future_of_integrated_health_care_by_ergonomidesign
_21488.asp
One of the biggest drivers of health costs is the lack of coordinated care as patients are discharged after a surgery. One in three patients
discharged from a hospital to the community does not see a doctor within 30 days of discharge. These patients are at the highest risk of
being readmitted to the hospital.
One contributor to high readmissions is considered to be a lack of communication and coordination among the patient, care giver,
primary care doctor and hospital's physicians. The primary care physician may not even know that their patient has been admitted to or
discharged from a hospital and therefore is unable to reconcile the patient's medications, address questions regarding discharge
instructions or reinforce prescribed rehabilitation and/or behavior modification. And, patients are often unsure when or how to connect to
the physicians they need to see or to access the community resources that are important in their recovery.
- https://www.janssenhealthcareinnovation.com/connected-care-challenge/the-challenge
Understanding people’s perceptions on their course of treatment through an ailment. How can we
come up with a more patient centered design approach?

14. The top three causes of illness and preventable death are tobacco, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity. Reductions in these risk factors
could result in significant cost savings.
We spend 88% of our money on access to care and 4% on health behaviors.
Yet, health behaviors influence 50% of our health status versus access to care influences just 10%.
- http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/making-change/2011/jan/18/contain-health-care-costs-
behavior-change/
We can keep people out of hospitals with products that foster healthy behaviors. It’s pretty simple; an enormous number of people are
getting sick and dying because they eat too much unhealthy food and don’t exercise enough. As far as I can tell, one of the best ways to
improve the results of our health care system is to create products and services that encourage and support healthy behaviors with regard
to things like diet, exercise, sleep, work, and play. By doing this, we can keep people healthy and largely out of hospitals, which is by far
the most expensive part of our health care system.
- http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663565/five-ways-that-apps-can-keep-america-from-getting-fatter
Successful products and services identify and understand our deeply seated natural tendencies and the ways in which they can be used to
change our behavior. By leveraging game-like mechanisms to satisfy these needs and tendencies, we can create behavioral change across
a broad spectrum of pressing issues, from healthcare and finances to philanthropy and conservation.
- http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662460/method-4-things-video-games-teach-us-about-motivating-people
How can we create impactful behavior change experiences, (For issues like quit smoking, drinking
addiction etc.) ?

15. Continuous versus episodic monitoring of health can lead to better health outcomes. Periodic visits to the doctor, which are often rushed
and focused only on an immediate, pressing issue, may not be enough. Technology allows us to keep watch more closely, leading to more
timely and holistically informed health decisions. The devices and the online communities act as a vigilant safety net, making us feel less
alone, more empowered, and safer as we navigate the complex world of health.
- The Future of Healthcare is Social www.fastcompany.com/futureofhealthcare
Health care innovators have embraced the open-source mentality in creating new, low-cost solutions is just as exciting. Instead of research
and development being something proprietary - locked away in a company research lab - it is now viewed as something to be shared
freely. Also due to that, innovation is flowing from patients to their health care providers, it has become a two way approach.
What does all of this mean for the future of health care? It’s easy to see how fundamental concepts underpinning the growth of the Web -
from crowdsourcing to open source to the social graph - are now rapidly transforming the way we think about health care solutions. At
the same time, mobile devices with geo-location functionality and cheap, low-cost sensors are making it possible for anyone to record
data about their bodies. For example, check out Asthmapolis, which combines an asthma inhaler with GPS functionality to track patients’
medication use and, from there, discover high-usage zones.
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/the-do-it-yourself-health-care-revolution-gets-a-
boost/2011/07/08/gIQAcmVd3H_blog.html
How can we design for a DIY healthcare experience? Understand its scope and context? (e.g. self
diagnosis)

16. Finance

17. Our world is get instrumented, augmented, and enhanced at a stunning rate. Digital displays, touchscreens, and sensors are blooming on
even the most mundane surfaces from laundry machines to taxicabs. Each of these interfaces seem to have an internal logic that is not
self-evident. It is like they are speaking slightly different languages from each other. In addition, we all carry personal devices that can
download apps in an instant, providing another set of on-demand interfaces to the world. While we should feel a greater sense of control
over these interfaces, since we downloaded them ourselves, it usually feels the other way around--with all of these different apps vying for
our attention at once.
But as we encounter more complex systems in our daily lives, from mass transit to personal finance, the potential application of IxD has
broadened considerably. After all, it is usually human interfaces that shape the way we see, understand, and converse with these systems,
whether through ATMs, printed banking statements, or customer service calls.
- www.fastcodesign.com/1665022/why-does-interaction-design-matter-lets-look-at-the-evolving-subway-experience
Understanding self-service aspect of finance, future of ATMs, can we create a more user friendly and
personalized experience for users?

18. Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a
worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.
Peer-to-peer lending is one of the oldest ideas in finance. In its online incarnation, it doesn't have anything like the volume yet to fill
the trillion-dollar gap in the consumer credit market. But it does offer an intriguing alternative to the standard profit-happy credit model,
and it's been spreading as a close cousin of the microfinance or social lending movement. As a niche both for borrowers shut out of the
credit market and for investors looking for a better return than the stock market can offer, it's likely to grow.
- http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664993/infographic-video-kivas-incredible-global-web-of-microfinance
Today we take it for granted that borrowed money should carry an interest. The global economy rests on such interest-bearing money.
This practice of charging interest is treated almost like a law of nature. Yet the future of the planet may well depend on encouraging
money systems that are based on zero-interest or negative interest.
- http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/rbakshi/money2.htm
Understanding the mind set of Indians with respect to savings, insurance etc. How can we create
behavior change for benefit of people through micro finance schemes?

19. Retail

20. Prof Kumar says that Indian kiranas will continue to survive because they have one of four attributes of a successful retailer — either to be
the cheapest, the biggest, the best, or the nearest. In the debate over big retail and the battle between corporates and small traders, the
two principal characters have been completely sidelined — the consumers and the farmers, believes Prof Kumar. More than anyone,
consumers and farmers will gain the most from organised retail.
- http://www.sme.in/CurrentNews.aspx?NewsID=1666
I asked some kirana shop owners how they operate—massive inventories in tiny places, an accounting system that rarely gets more
sophisticated than a few lists in a notebook, and hands-on management for years on end—while adapting to the tastes of the
neighbourhood and changing times. Jamnalal’s son, Roop Kumar drew circles above his head, “My head is a mini computer because there
is no space in my shop for anything else,” he said.
Sagar Stores is all of 200 square feet in area, and operates out of a garage. It is impossible to step into the store, because it’s just a
warehouse with enough space for the staff to pull things out of storage. But like all kirana stores, it caters to the 2000 apartments in its
neighbourhood, and would likely send its customers into a tizzy should the owners take a vacation or decide to shut down.
- http://mumbaiboss.com/2012/02/17/the-business-of-kirana-stores/
How can we reimagine the experience of shopping at a street vendor, hawker, small store, sale on
the move, kirana stores etc. How can we rethink customer service for unorganised retail sector?

21. If there’s a mantra to designing a mobile sales application, it comes down to minimizing the number of clicks it takes to get a shopper
through the checkout – the proverbial “clicks to commerce.”
- http://www.theimpulseeconomy.com/book/
If I-Pad shopping has the potential of turning a person who hates shopping into a shopping freak, then imagine what it can do in the
hands of shopaholics! I simply love the customized experience, ease of sitting in my own home and looking through products. But I think it
is novelty factor which makes me buy online once it wears off I’ll be back to square one.
Online retail is at a nascent stage in India at present, it is growing quite slowly, blame it on poor internet connection, or low penetration of
credit card/ mode of paying online, but retailers are finding ways around these pit falls, with cash on delivery like concepts I think the day
is not far that people shall prefer online or more likely mobile retail due to the sheer convenience factor.
While dozens of electronic commerce firms have recently sprung up to capitalize on India’s growing Internet use, they have a problem.
Indians are not yet comfortable with shopping on the Web. Many of them remain unwilling to use credit cards online. So the Indian
retailers have gone to great lengths to gain customers. Customers may pay in cash on delivery, and the company fields delivery squads to
ensure shipments get to customers quickly. “More than 90 percent of retail transactions in India are in cash,” Mr. Bansal, Flipkart chief
executive said. “People like my dad and my uncle, they are much more comfortable with cash. If we have to increase our customer base,
we have to accept cash.”
- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/business/with-no-amazon-as-a-rival-flipkart-moves-fast-in-india.html
Understanding the scope of online retail in India, perceptions related to it, what is acceptable as
online purchase and what needs to be purchased only from a shop?

22. Users are constantly adapting to new technologies every day, I recently asked an audience of technology buffs how many of them used
their smartphones to help them shop in physical retail stores. Over half of the hands shot up. Now for the surprise. “Those with your hands
up, please keep them up if a salesperson has ever asked to help you to shop with your smartphone in any way.” All of the hands went
down. We wish to know things on our own and biggest challenge for retailers is to adapt and help new age users with their in-aisle smart
phone usage.
- http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664574/smartphones-in-retail
Frielick, vice-president, marketing, Asia Pacific region, NCR Australia Pty Ltd explained the rationale behind the company’s foray into the
Indian market with self service retail options. "Self-service technologies at billing counters will enable customers to operate cash transaction
kiosks by placing products on the bar code reader. This will help retailers get rid of long customer queues at billing counters," he said.
"Also, retailers will be able to deploy cashiers on the shop floor to enhance customers’ shopping experience. This is the right opportunity
to enter the Indian market," he added. Self service will give customers another advantage over shopping from unorganized retails,
increasing the profits of the super markets.
- http://www.financialexpress.com/news/retail-sector-braces-for-selfservice-technologies/391135/0
What is the future of self-service retail outlets? Can we redesign POP outlets for better human –
machine interaction?

23. We are living in an information age – where we are bombarded with email, television, iPods, cell phones with internet, text messaging, and
background music. It’s no wonder we sometimes feel like our brains are in overdrive! Soon we find ourselves confused and incapable of
making decisions, stressed out, and this can lead to depression. One famous study on information overload, by social psychologist Sheena
Iyengar, showed shoppers being given a choice of different jam samples at a mall. When offered a choice of only six items, 30% of the
shoppers went on to purchase one of the six items. When offered a larger choice, of 24 samples to choose from, shoppers became
confused and were less likely to go on to purchase an item. It seems the more choices offered the less likelihood the shopper was able to
make a decision.
- http://www.brainathlete.com/victim-information-overload/
The importance of the user in the adoption of self-service technology is also considered. Creating a self-service environment where the
user feels at ease is vital. Culture impacts on the adoption of self-service technology, from geographical differences in adoption to the
effect of corporate culture on users of corporate self-booking tools. Travel and finance are 2 fields that have been able to adapt to self
service atmosphere very easily. Although not a fad, and self service is definitely here to stay, it is important to understand business model
before applying self service ideas.
- http://www.amadeus.com/benelux/documents/corporations/Self-service_white_paper_V3_LowRes.pdf
Understanding perceptions associated with large format shopping places, concept of information
overload, simplifying and providing unique information to suit customer needs.

24. The idea for Milaap was born when Anoj, one of our co-founders, saw what a difference solar lighting made to underprivileged
households in Orissa while working at SKS Microfinance. He realised that one of the reasons such products failed to make a bigger impact
was because loans for these were unavailable at low interest rates. He teamed up with Sourabh (who having sold the product of his first
startup was looking to build a consumer-facing internet startup for social impact) and Mayukh (who was trying to build loan programs for
small scale retailers and kirana shop owners selling lighting products in rural Uttar Pradesh) and started Milaap in June 2010.
- Milaap is one example of the new culture of crowd funding. http://www.milaap.org/
Exploring the opportunity of crowd funding in India, how can we take ‘jugaad’ one step forward - to
convert one person’s unique customer experience idea and finding audience for it?

25. "A lot of people say they wake up in the morning, count their daily expenses and see any transactions that have come in since the day
before," he says. "They like to get a sense first thing in the morning of their financial position.
“Fundamentally, accounting is an information design problem. Its task is to answer, to the penny, the question "What happened?" Over the
course of the week, month, and year you and your authorized agents conduct transactions on behalf of your business. Keeping track of
these transactions is incredibly hard, as anyone who’s ever tried to balance a till at the end of the day or file their taxes already knows.
- review of the product recently launched by Xero
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669123/xero-reinvents-accounting-for-small-businesses-with-superb-ui-design
"Receipts in their current form just suck." Looking over at my desktop inbox of purchases to be filed, a dizzying mix of holiday gifts and
business purchases, I can’t say I disagree. It’s tedious to record the information and it’s frustrating to go digging for that one receipt that
you need when you need to prove a purchase, several months down the road. Fundamentally, this is a data translation problem. Receipts
are buried in emails from various services and companies and in piles of paper. There’s little standardization to how that data is structured,
which generally means a lot of manually entering information at the end of the month (or year, or never, depending on how organized
you are).
Retail receipts could make the most of the information systems that modern point-of-sales machines are plugged into. We’ve added semi-
useful info-visualisation of the foods ordered based on “what the till knows” – sparklines, trends – and low-tech personalisation of
information that might be useful to regulars. Customers can select events or news stories they are interested in by ticking a check box.
We think the humble receipt could be something like a paper “app” and be valuable in small and playful ways.
- Paper apps by Berg, http://berglondon.com/?s=retail+receipts
Rethinking customer experience at time of payment (e.g. with plastic cash replacing paper notes, how
can one rethink billing, how can we change return policy and warranty papers etc.)