What is co-design?
The customer experience : A key element in co-design
Customer Experience Management has been described in several different ways, but it was Bernd Schmitt, in 2003, who provided the most complete definition of CEM:
“…the process of strategically managing a customer’s entire experience with a product or company.”
Customer experience from this perspective is about the overall interactions that a customer has with a company; whether it is with individuals, business processes, or with the products themselves. Customer experience is a very important element of the product innovation many organizations rely on a well-crafted customer experience management strategy to succeed.
In my opinion, customer experience management is more about understanding the customer or taking their point of view, or measuring their customer satisfaction levels across touch points, a process that remains slightly more “removed” then actually fully immersing them in the product innovation process. In other words, customer experience management only scratches the surface, co-design strategies take customer engagement to a whole new level. Contrary to customer experience management, the co-design framework is one that encourages customer involvement at every stage of the product development process. It is about inviting your customers to participate and help design not only the actual product, but also to help shape the experience surrounding the product or service.
Co-design products using OneDesk
Onedesk is a suite of blended social innovation tools that help keep customers fully involved at every stage of the product development process. These integrated tools facilitate co-design and improve the customer experience:
- Break down departmental silos, and open the lines of communication between all stakeholders through the use of social collaboration tools
- Co-design products with with your customers in real-time , on a continual basis; and ask for their feedback across different touch points of the product innovation process.
- Keep customers in the loop: Provide a fantastic customer experience by keeping customers updated and notified of the progress of their requests or ideas.
Find out more about OneDesk’s social product innovation suite.
Share your thoughts: Will co-design eventually replace the customer experience framework or can they coexist?