Storytelling, coffee and service journeys
Written by SimonC
I have been writing about the differences between products and services recently, and started to focus upon the aspect of time. Product and graphic designers traditionally haven’t had much practice designing for time – things that happen in sequence during service provision, or a long term relationship lasting years. The focus has been upon the instant, visual appeal of a product. Service designers however have to relate to time, and in this, lies a huge potential for using the principles of storytelling.
One of the things that time allows for, is the build up of drama along the service journey. This can have a negative side to it, like stressed queueing at the post-office but it can also be used to build a good story, in which the dramaturgy is carefully designed. An example that comes to mind here, (again) is the experience of getting a good coffee in a specialist coffee shop.
You go into the cafe, and the aroma of roasted coffee builds an expectation. This expectation is built upon during the ritual of the coffee production. The sounds, and activities used to make the coffee are important in raising the expectation (yes, they are making coffee just for you). This reaches a high-point when the coffee cup is placed in front of you, and the milk is poured in. The milk is carefully poured in, ending with a shake of the hand to create a delicate pattern on top of the coffee, just before it is handed over. This is a very important part of the ritual, and one in which a close connection is made between the barista and the customer. Its a communication of a deep love for coffee, and attention to detail from the barista and a shared moment of something good – a gift to you the customer. This peak, is then followed by the first taste of the coffee, still a peak, and then consuming the coffee over time, to bring you back down to normal.
The service-journey above follows the rules of storytelling perfectly (from Aristotle (link) to Freytags triangle (link)
I have written about how Starbucks has lost a lot of its appeal, and I think that its partly because they have automated out most of the positive aspects of the coffee “story”. The baristas cant communicate their skill to the customer any more, the automation of the process makes it invisible to the customer, so they dont feel like an individual or feel cared for etc.
So, when you next look into your service journey, go into a little more detail and see where there’s a sequence in which you can add ritual and apply the principles of storytelling. I think there is great potential here to rethink things as wide apart as receiving a ticket from a ticket machine to picking your car up from a garage.
Over at Work/Play/Experience (link), Adam Lawrence goes into the area of design and dramatic structure in a little more depth.