The Customer Is Not (Not!) Always Right

service design

The Customer Is Not (Not!) Always Right

The Resonance Test 5: Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O'Connell

January 17, 2017
by Ken GordonToby Bottorf
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Co-authors Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O'Connell

Should we be surprising and delighting our customers? Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell, who co-authored a new volume, Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight, answer: "Erm, let's stick with 'delight'..." Listen to this spirited conversation between our co-authors and Continuum VP Toby Bottorf to learn how service design connects strategy to customers, the critical importance of service delivery, and how the customer is—wait for it—not always right.

Host: Pete Chapin
Editor: Kyp Pilalas
Producer: Ken Gordon

The Resonance Test 5: Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O'Connell
filed in: service design

About the Author

  • Ken Gordon
    Ken Gordon
    Chief Communications Specialist

    Ken makes EPAM Continuum’s work visible to the necessary people. He creates superlative content, works with colleagues to do the same, and employs social networks to share it widely.

    A card-carrying humanist, Ken co-founded QuickMuse, the improvisational writing website, and JEDLAB, the Jewish education community. He has written for TheAtlantic.com, the New York Times, and many other pubs.

    Ken has an English degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MA in English from the State University of New York at Albany. He framed both diplomas long ago, but can’t seem to find them now—a fact he considers all-too-human.

  • Bottorf Toby
    Toby Bottorf
    VP, Service and Experience Design

    Toby joined Continuum to establish a digital design capability, and is now a VP in service design, leading teams to design solutions for complex human and technical systems. His work builds on a career in UX and interface design.

    Recent work includes Audi on demand, a premium mobility service; the design of a client communications tool for a financial services company; and the strategy and experience design of a digital coaching platform for a leading American health insurer.

    Toby holds a master’s degree in communications design from the Institute of Design (IIT) and a BA in art from Yale University.