Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

Ron: Service is taking action that creates value for someone. Action that someone else doesn’t value is called waste.

Don: You know, it leads me kind of to the first question related to, you know, service is… have you seen service change now that it’s less in-person and more virtual? You know, the one maybe quick example that I would give is I typically don’t go into Starbucks anymore and sit in there to drink a cup of coffee. However, I do still occasionally have a cup of coffee from Starbucks and it normally comes through the app. 

So, I pull up the app on my telephone and what amazed me in my recent visit is that they called me by name similar to what they would do normally, whatever they would hand you your cup of coffee. and I noticed the change. and so, you know, I’m just curious what you’re starting to notice in terms of virtual versus, you know, live interactions with regards to service. 

Ron: Well, it’s a huge terrain that you’ve opened up there for conversation. I would say that let’s start with some fundamentals that service is taking action that creates value for someone. An action that someone else doesn’t value is called waste anybody in a manufacturing environment understands that. In a service environment we should understand that as well. 

So then the question is what is it that people have valued in this pandemic era when there’s less face to face? and there’s less interaction? and of course, we’ve seen the cloud-based world, the app-based world, the mobile-based world just basically explode. and you gave one example of that.

Now, you also pointed your finger at that interface between the human and the AI enabled service capabilities, and we’re at the earliest stages of that right now. Yeah. For sure. So, you realize that you know where we are with Siri being able to recognize your voice but still make spelling mistakes, or Starbucks, right, calling that because you use the app, they know it’s you and they’re going to call you by name. I would tease a little bit and say, well, when they actually handed you the drink, were they also playing the music that you love in the morning?

Don: No Not yet. Not yet. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, yes, I mean, in your way of describing service, you describe six levels of service. Maybe we should start, you know, just maybe backing up to those six levels because I think it gives everybody kind of a foundation of, you know, your perspective on service. 

Ron: Well, let’s be clear what it is that I invented when we talk about the six levels of service. Most people will go through their academic education and never actually have a class on service. It’s considered something for tourism in the hospitality department, or maybe it’s in nursing. Yet with the definition that says “Service is taking action to create value for someone”, then you realize that the assessment, the calibration of value is not from the service provider, it’s from the someone that’s being served. So then we need a language to be able to articulate clearly across internal and external service providers, or in my case, let’s say universally, that would help us understand what was the experience of service that the recipient received. 

Now, that could be a colleague between departments. It could be somebody who’s a distributor or part of your reseller network, or it could be the end customer.

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