A Service Design Principle on how to make any service memorable.
This principle is inspired by a story shared by community member Caio B. Nishihara de Albuquerque

A service that helps you transport your grandma in a wheelchair is helpful but definitely not something that seems exciting or surprising. Now imagine that the guy bringing the wheelchair is dressed like a ninja and not in a classical service uniform. Suddenly the whole service experience is surprising!

That’s precisely what happens to Caio and his family (1). They are visiting a castle in Japan during their holidays. Years later, Caio still remembers this moment. And he is proud to share the photos of the service staff members dressed as ninjas who helped them during that day.

Thanks to Caio for having shared with me this lovely photo of that experience

A boring service can become a family memory that people display proudly in their family albums.

Is your service staff in the photo albums of your users?

As service creators, we sometimes think: “Okay, this service is boring, but it works perfectly. We’ve done our job”.

This story of Caio and his family shows that a little bit of something special can be added even to the most boring service.

So let me ask you this:

What’s one part of your service or product that is boring? What a simple thing you could change to make that part exciting and memorable?

Footnotes

(1) You can watch the full 47 minutes conversation we had with Caio about this experience on the co-creator community. A big thank you to Caio for his contributions to the Service Design community.

Daniele's personal notes

• This is the first draft of this Service Design Principle.

• Once adapted, even more, this principle could be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"

• As always, feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.