Since I often refer to the famous quote, “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions” I was intrigued by an article in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled, “When Good Deeds Turn Bad” by Jefffery Zaslow. (Don’t ask my why the WSJ titles it one way in the paper edition and then titles it – “Doing Bad by Doing Good” – in the online edition. Also, don’t ask me why the search function on their website is so awful – that’s a topic for another post!) Anyway…

The article is a good one for anyone involved in service design. Zaslow points out a number of examples of people with good intentions, but bad results. While many of the examples are from the world of charity, the lessons directly apply to business and the design of services. From the article:

‘Most of us want to be effective, he says, “to make the world better. But before you help people, you have to ask them, ‘What do you need? What do you want?’” Every day, we see reminders of the limitations, and even the dangers, of good intentions. In Haiti, U.S. missionaries who said they only wanted to save orphaned children ended up arrested on child-trafficking charges. In Asian countries hit by the 2004 tsunami, residents still shake their heads over the warehouses filled with unusable donations, including winter coats and stiletto shoes. And earthquake-ravaged Chile is sure to receive its share of “useless aid” in the days ahead.

And from another section:

Ms. Hogan tells of going to a village in Peru where an aid group brought in tourists to help build public toilets. The group ran out of money and time, the tourists ended their volunteering vacations, and the toilets were never completed. The aid group had thought access to restroom facilities was needed to boost living standards, Ms. Hogan says. “But when I asked people in the community what they wanted, they said, ‘What we really needed was irrigation, and to have our bridge fixed, so we could take our goods to market.’” The never-completed toilets were gaping holes that had to be covered. Villagers feared their children would fall in.

We see these types of well-intentioned efforts all the time among businesses. At best, the companies really do (mistakenly) believe that they are working in the best interest of their customers. At the worst, the companies actually seem to have a sub-conscious contempt (see our previous post) for their customers and the very people who will be using the service. Either way, it comes down to a simple (almost too simple?) bottomline: JUST ASK.

This is what we do for our service design clients via ethnographic research; we go out and talk with their customers (internal or external) and have conversations. We observe, engage and ask questions. Then we compile those findings and bring them back to reveal what people want. This works for everything from service design, to volunteering, to parenting and spousal relationships.  It’s absolutely amazing what you can learn when you put aside what you think is right, and just ask.