eService Design Factors

He identifies the key activities of delivering any type of service, and the series of interactions between customer, employee, operations and IT and shows a much simpler way to illustrate them than use cases, at least when it comes to the initial analysis or redesign of services.

In addition Yves eService Design approach emphasizes the lines of interaction as being visible or non-visible...an important distinction in e-service design.

1. eliminate fail points
2. achieve direct delivery of the service at the customer's location
3. eliminate non-value added steps in the process
4. enable self service (with the appropriate customer education).

These four key objectives of eService Design are surprisingly overlooked or not given enough thought...with designers too often recreating existing services.

Failure points often occur at crossover points between different departments or agencies and knitting together processes is an integral part of e-service design.

Direct delivery is an area of eService Design that will most likely yield the greatest return (savings, productivity) and customer satisfaction when undertaken properly...one only has to look at banking services as an example of this, where customers now do what bank tellers once did at locations that are far more convenient - using eftpos at shops and businesses, online and at 24x7 terminals (ATMs).

Field delivery of services in many areas from health to licensing and other forms of service delivery can yield a more effective services, faster response times, and deliver savings on office space.

Eliminating non-value added activities There are usually many opportunities to do this - particularly in situations where multiple departments or agencies are needed to complete the entire process and meet the full customer's needs.

In addition, moving workers to the front line along with an e-service capability, i.e. field delivery of services; can often reduce the number of iterations a process (particularly government processes) have to go through to get the right information.

A good example of this is the benefits process in UK local government...which often timed out as a result of having to continuously go back to the customer for more information. Having the fieldworker sitting next to the customer can eliminate many of these delays.

Self Service Whilst the objective of e-services is often to move to self service it must not be forgotten that anything less than 100% self service represents additional transaction costs to the service provider. Therefore Yves recommendations regarding customer education should be taken on board.

One way to do this is to provide mediated service centers or one-stop-shops where trained representatives can assist the public to use the e-services in a 'do-it-for-me-approach'. With a flexible 'servicescape', i.e. the physical space where the service is delivered, using a modular architecture the service can transition from conventional office layout to self service without costly upgrades as more and more people become conversant with the service and are able to do it themselves.

Self determination One area that should also be considered is the self deterministic service, typically e-participation...where increasingly the customer is determining the type of service they want or would give their vote of approval. This consultative service can help refine new services for the future and new amalgamations of services that may encourage greater use ... this can often be achieved through bundled services from perhaps both the public and private sector, e.g. vehicle licensing and vehicle insurance.

Providing a rounded customer experience is vital to e-service delivery and adoption.

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