Redesigning the Customer Experience

Rob over at Business Pundit points to a Business Week article on IDEO, a famous design firm. The article focuses on IDEO's work in redesigning the customer experience for Kaiser Permanente, the largest health maintenance organization in the U.S.

After just seven weeks with IDEO, Kaiser realized its long-range growth plan didn't require building lots of expensive new facilities. What it needed was to overhaul the patient experience. Kaiser learned from IDEO that seeking medical care is much like shopping -- it is a social experience shared with others. So it needed to offer more comfortable waiting rooms and a lobby with clear instructions on where to go; larger exam rooms, with space for three or more people and curtains for privacy, to make patients comfortable; and special corridors for medical staffers to meet and increase their efficiency. "IDEO showed us that we are designing human experiences, not buildings," says Adam D. Nemer, medical operations services manager at Kaiser. "Its recommendations do not require big capital expenditures."

This article got me thinking about how IDEO would redesign the customer experience for most law firms. Seeing a lawyer is also a social experience often shared with others (spouse, parent, business partner) and, like medical care, often starts due to some unpleasent situation. Read the full article, it is a fascinating take on the IDEO process.