Mapping and Visualizing Service Provider and Client Interactions: The Case for Participation Jeanette Blomberg IBM Research - Almaden 650 Harry Road San Jose, CA 95120
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Melissa Cefkin IBM Research - Almaden 650 Harry Road San Jose, CA 95120
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Yolanda Rankin IBM Research - Almaden 650 Harry Road San Jose, CA 95120
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setting where participants were asked to try-out touchpoint mapping to assess the feasibility and usefulness of our early ideas. This led to the development of a tool to support the mapping activities, paying particular attention to the fact that delivery teams were globally distributed and therefore were unlikely to be able to participate in face-to-face touchpoint mapping workshops.
ABSTRACT
The interactions between service providers and their clients (touchpoints) define the service experience for clients and providers alike. In the context of IT outsourcing services, where one company contracts with another for IT services, these interactions are frequent and occur across an increasingly globally distributed delivery organization. The scope and complexity of these interactions provide a challenge for managing the service experience in that it is difficult for members of the delivery team to be aware of the wide range of interactions taking place with clients. This project is focused on designing ways to enable delivery teams to create awareness of their touchpoints with clients and to make changes to improve the overall client experience.
As we developed the tool, we asked members of delivery teams to use early mock-ups, paper prototypes, and software-based prototypes to identify and map their client touchpoints. Not only did this enable us to make improvements to the the tool, but also gave us new insights into the potential value of touchpoint mapping. As we were developing the the tool for what we called our “self-directed” approach, we engaged the leadership of a number of service delivery teams to gauge both the feasibility of our approach given the business context of work intensification and the value that would be derived from mapping client touchpoints. Finally, as we move forward with the design and development of the client touchpoint mapping approach, delivery teams will continue to participate in the design by providing content that will inform a “reference” model or set of standards for client touchpoints that will be shared across the company-wide delivery organization.
THE CASE
The project was undertaken by a group of researchers in a corporate research lab of a major US IT Service Company. We set out to understand what shaped the client’s perception of service quality, particularly as it related to direct interactions between members of the client organization and that of the service provider. What made this question interesting to us was that there were many people, up and down the organizational hierarchy, who had reason to interact with clients, themselves a diverse group. It was not a simple matter to understand the scope and extent of these client interactions as they occurred frequently in some cases, at scheduled intervals in others, with a fixed or varying set of participants, and mediated by a range of technologies.
Participation has meant many things in the context of this project from participating as 1) research participants, 2) designers of the touchpoint mapping activities, 3) service delivery team members testing the tool to support touchpoint mapping, 4) assessors in gauging the feasibility of the self-directed approach, and 5) content providers.
Our approach was to begin by interviewing service providers and clients to better understand the range of interactions in which they participated, what shaped evaluations of these interactions, and what might help delivery teams provide better client experiences (Shaw and Cefkin, 2010). Out of this first phase of the project, we developed some initial ideas to enable delivery teams to identify, characterize, and assess their interactions with clients across the delivery organization. Specifically we devised a way for teams to collaboratively map and evaluate their touchpoints. We further explored these ideas by engaging with two delivery teams in a workshop
Organizational Structure
Organizational Structure
Business Divisions
Business Divisions
Global Locations
Global Locations
Provider
Incentive Systems Processes
Incentive Systems Processes
Expertise
Expertise Culture
Culture
Zone of Interaction
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Figure 1. Interactions between Clients and Providers 1. Research Participants
While being a participant in a research study does is not typically recognized as a participatory design activity, in our case these early interviews with delivery teams and 294
clients, some of whom would later participate in other ways, was critical to our ability to be good interlocutors throughout the project. It provided us with a critical appreciation for the context in which those providing service interacted with clients and for the enablers and constraints on the quality of those interactions. In a couple of instances this resulted in sustained dialogue over the course of the effort. 2. Designers of Touchpoint Mapping Activities
More typical for participatory design projects is the facilitated workshop, where designers, researchers, and practitioners interact to envision a future state where new technologies, artefacts, processes, policies, etc. define the environment in which people interact. In our case the workshop format enabled us to develop an approach by which members of the delivery team would name and map touchpoints onto a framework that was initially derived from the earlier research. Workshop participants also helped us understand the value of being able to visualize touchpoints.
Figure 3. Touchpoint Mapping Tool. 4. Assessor of Self-Directed Approach
Because our proof-of-concept was developed in the context of a facilitated workshop, we sought input from senior leaders of the 13 delivery teams (project executives and delivery project executives) on the feasibility of the “self-directed” approach we were developing in the context of the everyday work environment of the delivery teams. We shared with them our vision of enabling teams to conduct client touchpoint mapping without benefit of a facilitated face-to-face meeting. Their input gave us confidence to continue while having the side benefit of enlisting these executives as allies in conversations with project sponsors and other stakeholders. In this way they also participated in helping make the case for client touchpoint mapping. 5. Content Providers
The vision we have for client touchpoint mapping is that it will enable teams to become more aware of their interactions with clients across the delivery organization and to share the things that are working well and those that aren’t with other teams. In this way teams will provide the content for a company-wide client touchpoint reference model that is being built from the ground up. The potential to extend the value of touchpoint mapping beyond what can be achieved through individual team mapping will come from the continued participation of delivery teams in authoring the reference model that will become a company-wide resource.
Figure 2. Touchpoint Mapping in a Workshop Context 3. Service Delivery Teams Test Tool
We engaged delivery team members early in the conceptualization phase of the tool by embarking on a rapid prototyping development effort. We first implemented a prototype with limited functionality that was tested with user on a bi-weekly basis. During the user testing, participants attempted to create a map of their touchpoints. Participants not only tried out our prototype in relation to their workplace realities, but they also made suggestions for ways to improve the the tool and the overall approach,. They also surfaced other benefits to touchpoint mapping (e.g. as a team building exercise). Delivery team members were co-designers of the touchpoint mapping tool providing feedback that informed the design.
LESSONS LEARNED
We have looked for ways of involving practitioners in the design, development, and deployment of the client touchpoint mapping approach throughout the project lifecycle, from the research that opened our eyes to possibilities for enhancing the support offered teams in managing front stage interactions with clients all the way to the continued involvement of delivery teams in creating the company-wide client touchpoint reference model. We sought the participation of delivery teams for several reasons. Not only were teams able to point us to an area where our design and development efforts might yield benefits to them, but they also helped us move the design in a direction that would connect with their current practices and the ways they conceptualized the requirements of the work. However, what may be the most lasting benefit to the delivery teams is that together we have created a systematic way to represent and visualize their current
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work practitioners, but also to build ongoing participation into the artefacts we leave behind.
practices and to use their expertise as input to companywide standards in the form of the touchpoint reference model. In this way the ethic of Participatory Design (Blomberg, 2008), that points to the importance of acknowledging workers’ own knowledge as the experts in their work domain, not only influenced our design approach, but also was embedded in the designed artefact (the touchpoint tool and methodology).
REFERENCES
Blomberg, J. On Participation and Service Innovation, In (Re-) searching a digital bauhaus, Binder, T., Löwgren, J. and Malmborg, L. (Eds.). Springer, 2008, 121-144 Shaw, B. and. Cefkin, M. Design and behaviour in complex B2B service engagements Touchpoint: The Journal of Service Design, 2010. Volume 1:66-72.
CONCLUSIONS
Participation can mean many different things in the context of design within a commercial enterprise. As designers of workplace interventions it is important to be on the lookout for the opportunities to not only involve
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