Offer a little help during big life changes

Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 11, 2022
A Service Design Principle to surprise people during big life changes.

It’s Saturday morning. I’m a bit bored. The kid is still sleeping (amen!), and my wife is working on pastor stuff. So for the first time, I have time to go through my physical mail. There I see the recycling calendar of my city, Lausanne in Switzerland. It's a little booklet that tells you what type of trash you can put out and where you should do so. On the last page, it says something like this:

For each birth, the city offers a one-time gift of 80 “35 litres” of trash bags to the parents of the newborn (1).

It’s as if the team recycling unit or the city asked itself:

As the recycling guys, what can we do to help new parents start their family life? Offer free trash bags for the diapers!

These little extras don’t cost a ton for the service. But they provide a sense that the service is really here to help when it matters.

So let me ask you: what are the tiny bonus help your service can offer during special stressful life moments (death of a loved one, moving to another city, having a baby, changing job, getting married, etc.)?

Footnotes

(1) Interestingly, the city offers a similar gift for incontinent people.

Daniele’s personal notes

  • You just read the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • The length of this principle has been reduced by 47% compared to the first draft.
  • Once improved 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.

Like 1
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 30, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

I open the recycling calendar of my city, Lausanne, in Switzerland. It’s a little booklet that tells you what type of trash you can put out and where you should do so. On the last page, it says something like this:

The city offers a one-time gift of 80 “35 litres” (1) trash bags to the parents of a newborn (2).

It’s as if the city staff asked itself:

“As the recycling guys, what can we do to help new parents start their family life? Offer free trash bags for the diapers!”

These little extras don’t cost a ton for the service. But they show that the service is really here to help when things are shitty.

So let me ask you.

What bonus help can you offer during special stressful life moments? (3)

Footnotes

(1) That’s about 9.25 gallons for my friends using the imperial system.

(2) Interestingly, the city offers a similar gift for incontinent people.

(3) For inspiration, think about the death of a loved one, moving to another city, having a baby, changing job, getting married, getting a divorce, etc.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 32 % compared to the previous draft.
  • I translated the volume of the trash bags in gallons for my American friends who don’t use the metric system.