An uncomfortable customer experience at my local tax office

According to Oxford Definitions, a service is “a system supplying a public need such as transport, communications, or utilities such as electricity and water.” We all have our own personal takes on what constitutes a good service or customer experience. For me nothing makes life stress free during this COVID 19 pandemic than to access various services online or via telephone to avoid facing heavily populated communal spaces. 

Just last week I had the manly duty to sort out some documents at our local tax office. In my mind, the game plan was to get there reasonably early to beat the congestion typically experienced by all visitors to this tax office based in Kingston. Unfortunately for me, other customers had also conjured up this bright idea and you guessed it, I had to join an untamed queue whilst watching approximately 3 hours of my time slowly disappear into some unknown blackhole. 

Observations/Insights
​To add more fuel to my discomfort, the piercing Caribbean sun was in good form. As the elements heightened the experience, my training as a designer took over and I started to observe and critique the various pain points (problems) that made this customer experience deeply unpleasant. My observations/insights are as follows:

• There were no security guard(s) assigned to direct the flow of customers approaching the back of the queue from the car park.
• Although there was a rudimentary queuing system in place, no visible markers could be seen on the pavement to help customers maintain the recommended social distance.
• Some customers went unchallenged to casually remove their masks and engage in open conversation with each other. I must admit that once entry was granted inside the main building sanitization of hands and the wearing of masks were firmly reinforced.
• The elderly customers were forced to bob and weave through a lengthy disjointed queue to get to a designated seating area.
• There was little to no signage and/or verbal instructions on display to remind all customers to wear their masks properly and maintain the recommended safe distance between each other.
• Some security guards were reluctant to listen to queries being fielded by customers anxiously waiting for clear instructions regarding which secondary queue to join to access a particular service inside the main building.
• Not enough tents or shading solutions were provided especially for customers located to the rear of the main queue to provide protection from the elements.

Basic Strategies Used to Survive the Ordeal
It’s amazing how quickly our brain processes information to make decisions to protect ourselves from clear and present danger. In that moment, I felt very unsafe and decided to employ a few very basic strategies to navigate some of these pain points.
They are as follows:

• I tried to maintain a reasonable distance from the person in front of me. This was an intentional non verbal signal to the customer behind me to do the same. 
• I kept vigilant and actively tried to regulate my distance from others by sometimes standing away from the queue.
• I did not speak with anyone unnecessarily to minimise any unwanted or prolonged conversation with customers in close proximity.
• I took some comfort in knowing we were all outdoors with adequate airflow (ventilation).​

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN DESIGN THINKING?

Design Thinking
By applying Design Thinking, many of these pain points can be easily remedied by the Jamaica Tax Office. It’s fair to say they could also learn a thing or two from existing case studies (organizations local and international) currently using a range of strategies to combat some of these pain points made worse by this ongoing pandemic. 

By Empathizing (the first stage of Design Thinking) with the end-users (customers), real data could be collected via user observation and other existing research tools. This crucial intel or meaningful insights gathered from the data collected would help define these problem(s) affecting their new and existing customers. Of course there are serious questions that need to be asked here. Does the customer’s needs really matter? What are the benefits of creating a human-centred customer experience that engages the end-user in a friendly, safe and efficient manner? 

By applying the 5 stages of Design Thinking (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test) real cost effective and practical solutions can be unearthed to create a cohesive and user friendly customer experience.