Ask the customer's companion if he has questions

Daniele Catalanotto

Jan 15, 2022

A draft for a Service Design Principle about the people who are not your users but accompany your users.

Our little baby is just born. So the midwife comes at home for a check-in. Let's be honest. I'm pretty useless during the first days and weeks as a dad. What matters is the baby and the mom. But this midwife does something special.

She takes good care of the mom and the baby, obviously. But after that, she always finishes the check-in by asking me:

“And you, sir, do you have any questions?”

I feel a bit less useless now, even if I don't have a question.

This midwife understands something important. In most services, people don't come alone. They come with a friend, a family member or someone they trust. When my wife buys shoes, she wants me as a companion. When I do observations in emergency rooms, the same happens. In hospitals people, almost no one comes alone.

So what if more services would do what this lovely midwife does?

When you ask the companion a question you recognize, that I exist, you acknowledge that I have an essential role during that shared experience.

So let me ask you: “how you can involve the companion in the experience?”

Personal notes

I was able to reduce this principle by -10% compared to the first version
Once adapted even more, this principle will be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"

My doubts and questions

Should the title be: "Involve the customer’s companion" or "Ask the customer's companion if he has questions"?

3 comments

Daniel Tuitt

Feb 6, 2022

This is a great potential principle. There are so many services in the world that disclude users/ customers that will be important in the future. Providing support for this user a few stages before they carry out any actions can create moments of empathy and buy-in before they are needed.

Without giving too much away. I am currently designing referral services and the importance of involving stakeholders that are not needed until the later part of the journey as having context and information to prepare any support involves understanding the history of the user in need.

This will support the support worker when assigning the user in need to the right service.

Regarding the title: I like 'Involve the customer's companion'

Daniele Catalanotto

Feb 18, 2022

Thanks for the feeback Daniel!

Really interesting idea! It's a bit like the information you have to add in some forms where you have to enter your "Emergency contact" information :) Could be really interesting to use this idea for a broader purpose :)

I think you inspired a new principle that I'll work on in the next days! Thanks again Daniel for all the ideas, thoughts, feedbacks and examples you shared in the last weeks. There are really valuable to me!

Daniele Catalanotto

Oct 31, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

As our baby is just born, a midwife comes home for a check-in. She takes good care of the mom and the baby. Then, after that, she does something special. She asks me: “And you, sir, do you have any questions?”

At this stage of the baby’s life, I admit I feel a bit useless. But when the midwife asks me a question, she recognizes that I exist. She acknowledges that I have a role to play during that shared adventure.

In most services, people don’t come alone. They come with a friend, a family member or someone they trust. When my wife buys shoes, she wants me as a companion. The same happens in hospitals. Almost no one comes alone.

So let me ask you:

How can you involve the companion in the experience?

Daniele’s notes

This is the third draft of this principle.
I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 29 % compared to the previous draft.