My wife goes to our local bank to make a deposit in the ATM. The rain has soaked the deposit envelopes stored outside. She walks into the branch to let someone know. She approaches the teller line, where there is a short line. A woman sitting at a nearby “Customer Service” desk asks brightly, “Hi, is there something I can help you with?”

“Yes, actually. I wanted to make a deposit at the ATM outside – but all the envelopes are wet from the rain.”

“Hmm. Okay, thank you! I’ll tell Bill to replace them at three o’clock…” She smiles and returns to her paperwork.

My wife looks at her watch. It is one o’clock. She replies, “Well, I think there might be some people who will want to make a deposit over the next two hours…”

The woman looks up with an expression of consternation. “Well, I’m not changing them!”

Without missing a beat, my wife replies, “OK, well if you give me some envelopes, I’ll just put them out there.”

Now the woman behind the desk is perplexed. “Uh no, wait. I, uh, can’t have you do that…..”

The woman puts down her pen, gets up from the desk and approaches my wife. “I have an idea – I’ll just take your deposit and process it myself! I’ll be right back…”

With that, the woman disappears behind the counter for nine minutes. The wet envelopes stayed in their holder that day, and surely the next time it rains they will get wet again.

Is this an example of poor customer service? A crashed user experience? A broken golden rule? Actually, it’s a multi-part service design challenge that points out the importance of understanding “service eco-systems.” From the culture of the bank to service protocols to customer touchpoints to the physical layout of the ATM and building – everything is inter-connected. Service design looks at the big picture to make things better not only for customers, but also for employees. Everybody wins.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a call to make…

Thanks to Mark Davis and his staff at Bentley University, in Waltham, MA. Their “Art & Science of Service” conference last week was a big success, with attendees from industry and academia who came from as far away as Germany, the Netherlands and Israel. There were lots of good contacts and networking opportunities. Our workshop, “Thinking Outside-In: Identifying New Service Revenue Opportunities” on Friday (see photo), generated some good interaction among the attendees. Thanks to all who contributed!

Some key takeaways from my conference notes:

• Out of IBM’s $103 billion USD of annual revenue, services now respresent more than half – $57 billion USD.
• IBM: Service science is more like biology (focused on classification) than physics (focused on mathematizing).
• “Service is value co-creation” – not just about money, but also about knowledge.
• At one hospital in the Boston area, a 1% turnover equals $250,000 USD. At one point, their turnover (prior to a new management team with a service design focus) was up around 20%.
• Why not show the wait times in an emergency room, similar to an airport terminal or deli counter?
• M2M acronym equals “machine to machine”
• Technology which enables M2M is exploding – both embedded devices and the back-end services. (Can security risks/opportunities be far behind?) This will have big impact on service design.
• What’s needed is a conference specifically focused on “service design in healthcare.” Lots of best practices and case studies, but it such a large sector that it needs its’ own vertical focus.

We recently attended a meeting at Turbine Hall on the shore of the Delaware River, just south of Philadelphia in a town called Chester. What an amazing rebirth of a building that was designed for something completely different.

We love these types of conversions because they are perfect examples of service design. After all, for decades this building housed massive electrical generators, which provided essential services to both consumers and businesses. As technology advanced over the years, a new power generation plant was built in a new location, rendering this massive structure obsolete – until a group of visionaries saw the potential and applied service design principals to re-imagine new possibilities.

Built in 1916 by The Philadelphia Electric Company, and completed two years later, the Chester Power Station is an example of early twentieth century greatness.  The building was designed by architect John T. Windrim, and engineer W.C.L. Eglin. It was also Windrim who designed The Franklin Institute, The Academy of Natural Sciences, and The Free Library of Philadelphia.

In 2001, the building underwent a $75 million transformation and now hosts a wide variety of high-technology businesses inside. The great open area that once housed the power-generating turbines is now a mixed-use event facility aptly named Turbine Hall. The space is 40,000 square feet with 100 foot high arched ceilings, and a beautiful view of the water. If you’re looking for a dramatic space to host a large event, check out this space.