Comments on: Creating a better service experience by providing less choice

By: Andy Polaine

Andy Polaine — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:31:42 +0000

Good piece and a good point. There tends to be a general mentality out there that more choice (and more personalisation) is always better, whereas the tendency seems to be that actually people start to get paralysed by too much choice and end up making no choice in case it’s the wrong one. Barry Schwartz’s book, The Paradox of Choice is worth taking a look at. Or if you’re feeling lazy/pressed for time, he did a TED talk on it: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

By: Guts Service Design | Creating Brilliant Service Experiences | Goa, India » Blog Archive » The Marginal Utility of Choice

Fri, 22 May 2009 11:34:29 +0000

[...] 31Volts, a Netherlands based Service Design firm, talks about how a multitude of choice in ’service touchpoints’ is not always a good idea: http://www.31v.nl/2009/03/creating-a-better-service-experience-by-providing-less-choice/ [...]

By: Putting People First in italiano » La newsletter di Service Design Network è ricca di contenuti

Thu, 07 May 2009 09:53:55 +0000

[...] 31 Volts: Less Choice But Better Service? Marc Fonteijn di 31 Volts ha pubblicato di recente un articolo sul perché una vasta scelta non migliori necessariamente il valore di un servizio. Nel suo articolo “Creating a better service experience by providing less choice”, lui indica come esempio che dare ai clienti più scelta del necessario potrebbe persino peggiorare l’esperienza del servizio e causare confusione. Marc introduce l’idea di “functionally overlapping touchpoints” (FOTP), che accadono ogni volta che un cliente si confronta con più di un modo di portare a termine un compito specifico, come pagare un biglietto di treno online, ad un chiosco, alla biglietteria o sul treno. Leggi tutto l’articolo! [...]

By: User Solutions | Service Design Network newsletter is rich with content

User Solutions | Service Design Network newsletter is rich with content — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:44:32 +0000

[...] 31 Volts: Less Choice But Better Service? Marc Fonteijn from 31 Volts has recently published an article on how great choice does not necessarily improve the value of a service. In his article “Creating a better service experience by providing less choice”, he exemplifies that giving customers more choice than necessary might even decrease the service experience and cause confusion. Marc introduces the idea of “functionally overlapping touchpoints” (FOTP), which occur whenever a customer is confronted with more than one way to perform a specific task, such as paying for a train ticket online, at a kiosk, at the counter, or on the train. Read full article! [...]

By: Putting people first » Service Design Network newsletter is rich with content

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:33:27 +0000

By: Aidan Kenny

Aidan Kenny — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:46:45 +0000

Another aspect of this issue is the impact that the customer interaction has on your ability to deliver service excellence. Since delivering a service is a two sided process requiring participation from both provider and customer, the customer is an intrinsic part of the overall experience creation. If the customer has too many choices then it will be impossible or extremely expensive to deliver service excellence in every case. This is why restaurants have menus, because you have to have some boundaries to the service you provide in order to be able to deliver consistent excellence.

Good discussion topic, thanks, Aidan

By: Marc Fonteijn

Marc Fonteijn — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:16:30 +0000

Thanks for the comment Chris!

You’re absolutely right about the fact that some services should be really straightforward, or at least create that experience. The challenge is to maintain that experience while creating a more personalized (thus more complex) service. A too generic and standardized service will have the tendency to comoditize really quick. So it’s natural behavior of organizations to create more touchpoints in order to personalize the service. Too make a long story short, again you’re right, some services should straightforward for customers even if they are not for the company.

By: Chris McQueen

Chris McQueen — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:35:28 +0000

Thanks for an excellent article Marc!

Your train-ride argument is possibly more compelling, however it is something I have often thought when ordering a sandwich …do these additional touchpoints really add value? For example, at one *particular* American franchise, it can take up to three staff members to make one sandwich, each asking a series of questions, when all I really want is to order that one right there… you know… like the one on the picture!

Sometimes too much choice can be overwhelming, especially when you’re a newbie to the process! Let’s face it – neither lunch or a train-ride should really involve a detailed decision making process… it should be a straightforward customer experience, one where the outcome is expected and the touchpoints are clear and simple to comprehend.

Keep up the good work!

- Chris