SERVICE SAFARI
Savannah Coffee Roasters
Problem
Students must complete a common service design intervention—a service safari. Each team is required to conduct auto ethnographic research regarding a particular experience—in this case, Savannah Coffee Roasters, a local coffee shop.
Approach
While experiencing the service students are asked to simply observe, not to talk to other customers. The aim is to immerse themselves in an experience, to observe customers “in their natural habitat,” and to “hunt for insights.” They are encouraged to go on different days and times in order to gather divergent data.
Solution
Documenting their experience and observations with sketches, photos and/or video recordings is very useful for subsequent discussions. After visiting a coffee shop the student are expected to present their observations and insights using common service frameworks:
location map
floor plan
service encounter map
traffic flow
AEIOU (Activities, Environment, Interactions, Objects, Users)
pain points
key channel touch points
service blueprint
key insights
Result
My students learned that a Service Safari is really powerful as an intervention. It can be done by one person, or a team. When it includes people from management, from the client, or from various departments, it often helps participants gain a common understanding of a specific issue, building on a contextual bottom-up approach instead of a rather abstract description of an issue.