We talk about innovation a great deal. Innovation means more than just products. It can also include the services that we provide to others.
Whenever we discuss innovation, we usually start with the product or service that we currently offer. It's only natural to view the future through the lens of the past. When your frame of reference is riding on horseback, it might be difficult to imagine that they would ever be replaced by a horseless carriage. This article by HBR talks about one of the best ways to come up with the next breakthrough idea. It recommends that we examine our customer touch points.
It discusses the effort of a bank to differentiate its products. If you think about banking, there is very little that any one bank offers that cannot be found at every other bank. How do you stand out in that crowd? Here is what they did:
Rather than trying to improve the product or beef up the instructions to make its function more clear, which the bank had repeatedly tried to do over the years, the redesign team decided to completely reimagine the initial touch point – the moment when their customers would first experience the product. They turned to Apple for inspiration.
The banking team ordered a MacBook Pro and marveled at how the product made them feel when they opened the box – the quality of the packaging materials; the simple elegance of the assembly instructions; the beautiful design of the product itself. Why, they wondered, couldn’t their financial product create the same type of emotion for their customers? After all, the line of credit was providing them with a sense of financial security.
With the Apple experience fresh in their minds, the banking team redesigned the touch points surrounding the line of credit product – from how the product was delivered (in a beautiful box with a luxurious feel that makes the user feel they are opening a gift) to the color-coded operating instructions. What’s more, they provided customers with a product playbook, which included several examples of how the product could be used with multiple scenarios. Within six months of making these changes, call volume had declined by more than 40%.
The article goes on to give several examples of other companies and their efforts to use customer feedback to help them improve their products or services.
Here is the link to the full article: For a Breakthrough Idea, Start by Examining Customer Touch Points - Brian Klapper - Harvard Business Review
How do you think you can use this example to help your department offer a new twist on your products or services?
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