This curriculum spans the equivalent of a multi-workshop organizational change program, addressing the interplay between customer insight, service design, and operational execution across distributed teams, regulatory environments, and legacy systems.
Module 1: Mapping Customer Journeys in Complex Service Ecosystems
- Decide which customer segments to prioritize in journey mapping when data sources conflict across CRM, support logs, and field observations.
- Integrate frontline employee input into journey maps without introducing operational bias or anecdotal distortion.
- Align cross-functional stakeholders on a single version of the customer journey when departments maintain siloed touchpoint ownership.
- Balance depth of journey detail against usability—determine which pain points to elevate for executive review versus operational teams.
- Update journey maps in response to system outages or policy changes without triggering rework across dependent service blueprints.
- Incorporate regulatory constraints (e.g., data privacy laws) into journey design when capturing sensitive interaction points.
Module 2: Translating Insights into Service Requirements
- Convert qualitative feedback from customer interviews into measurable service-level objectives for operations teams.
- Resolve conflicts between customer desires (e.g., faster resolution) and operational capacity (e.g., staffing limits) during requirement definition.
- Document service requirements in a format that legal, compliance, and IT teams can validate without reinterpretation.
- Establish thresholds for when a customer insight warrants a process redesign versus a communication adjustment.
- Manage version control of service requirements when multiple pilots run concurrently across regions.
- Define ownership for requirement validation between product, service design, and operations leadership.
Module 3: Designing Frontstage and Backstage Service Interdependencies
- Identify which backstage processes (e.g., inventory reconciliation) must be redesigned when introducing a new frontstage capability (e.g., real-time delivery tracking).
- Allocate accountability for service failures that originate in backstage systems but manifest at the customer interface.
- Design escalation protocols that maintain service continuity when backstage dependencies fail during peak demand.
- Optimize handoffs between customer-facing staff and internal support teams to reduce resolution latency.
- Balance automation in backstage operations against the need for human judgment in exception handling.
- Map data flow requirements between frontstage systems (e.g., CRM) and backstage systems (e.g., ERP) to ensure real-time consistency.
Module 4: Prototyping and Testing Service Interventions
- Select pilot sites for service prototypes based on operational variability, not just customer density or convenience.
- Define success metrics for prototypes that reflect both customer experience and backend operational load.
- Secure temporary waivers from standard SLAs to test alternative workflows without violating contractual obligations.
- Manage customer expectations during testing to avoid creating dependency on unproven features.
- Document failure modes from prototype rollbacks to inform risk assessments in future designs.
- Coordinate access to live systems for testing while maintaining data integrity and audit compliance.
Module 5: Scaling Service Innovations Across Operating Units
- Adapt a successful service design for regions with differing labor regulations, language requirements, or infrastructure constraints.
- Sequence rollout across business units based on change readiness, not just strategic priority.
- Negotiate shared service ownership between central design teams and local operations leaders.
- Modify training materials for different roles (e.g., agents vs. supervisors) without diluting core service intent.
- Integrate new service workflows into existing performance management systems without overloading KPIs.
- Monitor variance in execution quality across locations and trigger targeted recalibration efforts.
Module 6: Governing Service Performance and Evolution
- Establish a cross-functional council to review service performance data and authorize design changes.
- Define thresholds for when declining CSAT scores trigger a formal service redesign process.
- Balance investment in incremental service improvements against funding for transformational initiatives.
- Archive outdated service blueprints while preserving institutional knowledge for audit and training purposes.
- Reconcile conflicting feedback from customer surveys, frontline staff, and operational dashboards during review cycles.
- Incorporate competitive service benchmarks into governance discussions without triggering reactive decision-making.
Module 7: Embedding Customer Intimacy in Operational Culture
- Design feedback loops that route customer insights directly to frontline teams without executive filtering.
- Revise incentive structures to reward behaviors that support long-term customer intimacy, not just short-term metrics.
- Train managers to coach staff on empathy and judgment, not just process compliance.
- Institutionalize customer storytelling in team meetings without reducing experiences to stereotypes.
- Measure the operational cost of ignoring customer intimacy signals (e.g., repeat contacts, escalations) to justify investments.
- Maintain continuity of customer context during staff shifts and role transitions to prevent repetition of effort.