Who is the customer?

It is quite obvious that the customer is central in service innovation. But sometimes it is not clear who the customer is. If value is gained only in relation with our customer it is very important to know who the customer is. Once we define who the customer is, we can focus on service innovation to make society better.

My work experience is only from the public sector. We often don´t use the word customer. We rather talk about citizens or inhabitants. Eventually it is the citizens that are the customers of public services. Even if not all the citizens use public service, all should feel some kind of satisfaction with the service available.

But who the customer is can be a bit fuzzy depending on where in the public sector you are as an officer. For example I work in an administration that serves a political body. All the officers produce papers for decision making. In everyday work that makes the politicians our customers. Based on the literature I draw the conclusion that the inclusion of citizens in both the definition of the problems and in the design of solutions for all kind of public sector is a good start for service innovation.

Accordning to Gustafsson and Johnson (2003) a service strategy is based on a triangle of maintenance, performance and innovation. If I try to apply that to my work and public transport the service maintenance is about getting the bus from A to B according to the timetable. Improve service performance is about things like the system of payment, information applications like travelplanner and wifi onboard. When it comes to service innovation it is for example travelhack for thirdpart developers or a service for combined mobility offered by the public transport company.

The Venn diagram is used by Gustafsson and Johnson to find a service advantage. Public transport competes with mainly the car but also with walking and cycling. For society as a whole walking and cycling are better since there are zero emissions. It is also better for public health. So if I then compare public transport with driving a car some interesting things appear.

Most of the time a car is faster except for longer distance trainrides or in areas with congestions. Public transport is always cheaper if people calculate with the correct cost of driving a car. Riding with public transport open up an opportunity to use traveltime for other purposes like working or reading. 

I think it could be a great idea to look at other similar businesses like airlines and try to learn about service innovation for regional public transport. I believe it is important to build a culture around the habit of travelling with public transport. And focus much more on linked activities that actually solve the problem for the citizen and at the same time be part of something bigger. Public transport is more about accessibility to workplaces, attractive areas than it is about busses and trains.

Peer to peer

MOOC, what a fantastic way to learn new things. Imagine what a possibility it is for people in remote areas with less resources. But it is also a great opportunity for a person like me, with no time available to attend a physical course. But the thing that I like most with MOOCs are a chance to meet people from different cultures but with a common interest here and now. The feeling of peer to peer is pretty cool. But in order for that to happen we need to share. So massive open online courses are really about sharing, learning and sharing. This course Mastering service innovation seems to focus on sharing and colleboration. Which is great! I have high expectations on myself for this course. I want to spend time and effort to make it work.

My academic bakground is basically a masterdegree in Geography from the university of Gothenburg. If I was young today I would have made a different choice since I'm very interested in economics and the innovation process. I'm curious about design thinking as a systematic way of working with innovation. Since I work in the public sector I'm curious how we can work with service innovation there. Especially when it comes to user innovation and citizen involvement. The concept of open innovation is very attractive. The question is if it really works. For the public sector it is much easier to be open with data for example. For some industries it might be more difficult. Well, lets find out more later in the course.

Fear

A blog, what is the worse thing that can happen. I suppose that someone makes fun of me. Well, that is not so terrible. I have had an idea to start a blog for about two years. Somehow something else always needed my attention. And if not, FEAR did stop me. Fear is absolutly my biggest obstacle for creativity. Fear of what others might think. Fear of failure. Fear of everything and fear of just being myself.

But here I am writing, and it is because I have to. I´m taking a class called Mastering Service Innovation. In order to pass the course we have to do a blog - it is perfect for a person like me, no turning back. I hate failure and I can´t fail the class before it even starts.

So, who am I? I´m a woman, a swede, a mother, a public sector worker, a runner, an investor, a pod and TED listener, a learner, a traveller and many many more things.

That´s it for now.

CreativeInvestor