Leave me with a physical reminder and summary of the service.
Daniele Catalanotto
Jul 22, 2022
A Service Design principle to turn an experience into a long lasting memory. This principle was co-created with community member Caio B. Nishihara de Albuquerque
Caio (1) is on a family holiday in Japan. There he visits a castle with his grandma. He gets the help of an accessibility service that brings a wheelchair. The staff helps transport the senior lady in the hills and stairs. That’s a great service!
One of the particular aspects of this service is that the team who helps the grandma wears ninja costumes. So that makes it definitely fun (2).
At the end of the castle visit, the accessibility ninjas greet everyone and, before they leave, hand a little paper leaflet as a souvenir to the family. Again it’s something ninja related: a paper shuriken. In the flyer, there is a reminder to ask for ninja service whenever needed.
A photo of the ninja star leaflet.
Caio obviously smiles. He now has a ninja star in his hand and knows real-life ninjas! So naturally, the little kid in him is excited!
I feel that for many services, we act in a way that is a bit different. We serve our customers as well as we can. We say goodbye. And things finish there for both the company and user... There is a missed opportunity here.
This ninja star leaflet is a smart service design moment that extends the service by making it a memory. It’s brilliant because it offers additional value before the service ends. As with any leaflet, it provides extra information. But instead of just a “stupid” flyer, this one has a shape that summarizes the service’s emotion well.
People can bring the leaflet back home and even keep it as emotional memory. So in some way, the service lives longer.
So let me ask you. As a service creator or team member of a service:
Is there something valuable you can offer at the end of your shared moment with your customer? How could the form of this object be an emotional summary of what happened?
What would be a good element that people can take with them as a memory of their shared experience with your service?
(2) More principles based on this story will follow, like one on why the ninja costumes are such a smart service design move.
Little side notes
This principle is based on a story shared by Caio from which we extracted together several different principles. Thanks Caio for sharing such an inspiring tip!
This is the first draft of this Service Design Principle.
As always feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.
5 comments
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 20, 2022
The second draft of this Service Design Principle
Caio (1) is on a family holiday in Japan. The family gets the help of an accessibility service to transport grandma. The fun thing? The service team wears ninja costumes (2)!
After the visit, the ninjas greet everyone and, as they leave, they hand a little paper leaflet. It’s in the form of a paper shuriken.
Caio smiles. He has a ninja star in his hand and knows real-life ninjas! The little kid in him is excited!
Many services aren’t as smart as those ninjas. We serve our customers as well as we can. We say goodbye. And things finish there for both the company and the user.
This ninja star leaflet extends the service by making it a helpful memory. It offers extra information. But instead of just being a “stupid” flyer, this one has a shape that summarises the service’s emotion well.
So let me ask you.
Is there something valuable you can offer at the end of your shared moment with your customer? For example, how could the form of this object be an emotional summary of what happened?
Footnotes
(1) A big thank you to Caio B. Nishihara de Albuquerque for sharing the service experience that inspired this principle with the co-creator community.
(2) More principles based on this story will follow, like one on why the ninja costumes are such a smart service design move.
Daniele’s notes
This is the second draft of this principle.
I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 45% compared to its first draft.
No I decided to separate them more as there are two different ideas in them:
Leave an emotional physical reminder
Use something silly to make the experience unique
That's why I've cut parts of each principle to make each more focused on its key idea ;)
Ravid Aloni
Oct 25, 2022
I think digital photos are also a great way to recall a great experience.
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 31, 2022
The third draft of this Service Design Principle
Caio (1) is on a family holiday in Japan. The family gets the help of an accessibility service to transport grandma. The fun thing? The service team wears ninja costumes (2)! After the visit, the ninjas greet everyone and, as they leave, give a little paper leaflet. It’s in the form of a paper shuriken which makes Caio smile. The little kid in him is excited! This leaflet extends the service by making it a helpful memory. It offers extra information. But instead of just being a “stupid” flyer, it has a shape that summarises the service’s emotion well.
So let me ask you.
Is there something valuable you can offer at the end of your shared moment with your customer? How could the form of this object be an emotional summary of what happened?
Footnotes
(1) A big thank you to Caio B. Nishihara de Albuquerque for sharing the service experience that inspired this principle with the co-creator community.
(2) But that’s not the most important thing here.
Daniele’s notes
This is the third draft of this principle.
I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 25 % compared to the previous draft.
