Let’s (not) get (too) physical, physical • 8
While the shift from products to services – often referred to as servitization – is far from new, it remains a powerful framework for manufacturing companies and digital-first startups looking to embrace customer-centric, service-dominant business models. This blog post wraps up my eight-part series on thinking services instead of products, with a look at the Resonance Over Relevance principle.
8. Resonance > Relevance
The Resonance Over Relevance principle is about crafting deeply pleasurable, meaningful, and transformative moments and journeys. This one acts as a connective thread, weaving through and enhancing the other principles in my framework.
Purely utilitarian experiences help customers complete tasks, get the (functional) job done, and achieve their desired outcomes without any fuss, frustration, or friction. While customers may feel satisfaction or even pride from a job well done, a deeper level of value can be unlocked by elevating utilitarian experiences into something more emotionally engaging and resonant.
Note: Utilitarian experiences are built upon ‘utilitarian’ products, services, and environments that embody the right qualities to get the core job done. These foundational qualities are expressed with subtle differences across different domains:
The usability and effectiveness of physical products rest upon the twin pillars of discoverability (based on the effective use of affordances, signifiers, conventions, and constraints) and understandability (based on the effective use of clear conceptual models, good mapping, and immediate and informative feedback) (Norman, 1988, 1999, 2013)
The hierarchy of needs in the context of UX: functionality, reliability, usability, convenience, and proficiency (Bradley, 2010; Anderson, 2011; Walter, 2011)
The five dimensions of service quality: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance (credibility, security, competence, courtesy), and empathy (access, communication, understanding the customer) (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1990; Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016)
Service environments: navigability & logical flow, informational clarity, transactional efficiency, personal comfort & space, and product accessibility & interaction (derived from Bitner, 1992; Underhill, 2009; Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016)
The 10 laws of simplicity – such as reduce, organize, and learn – which can be applied to design, technology, business, and even life itself (Maeda, 2006)
In the context of servitization, the key to unlocking this deeper level of value lies in designing supplementary services, environments, and touchpoints for specific moments in end-to-end journey that eliminate negative emotions (remove friction) and cultivate positive ones (increase motivation). (Loosely based on Bau, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2015.) Since negative emotions hurt customer loyalty far more than positive emotions help it, the strategic priority should be to eliminate negative emotions (such as frustrated, confused, and annoyed) before layering in positive ones (such as calm, confident, and clever) (Burns, 2015). In the language of Jobs-to-Be-Done theory, servitization can help customers get their emotional jobs done and achieve their desired outcomes.
For this principle, it is beneficial to view every moment in the customer journey as a self-contained story with three acts: the lead-up (the pre-delivery experience), the main event (the delivery experience), and the resolution (the post-delivery experience). If these three acts represent the plot of this story, then the emotional arc is the corresponding journey of emotions experienced by its main character.
Note: From the customer’s perspective, each moment represents a significant stepping stone toward reaching their goals, whether at a phase or journey level. Each moment is shaped by multiple touchpoints that work together to create a seamless and cohesive experience. These touchpoints facilitate interactions between the customer and the product or brand. The journey is progressive (toward reaching goals) but not linear or sequential; rather, it unfolds as a web of interconnected moments, allowing customers to loop back to a previous moment or phase before moving forward again as their needs evolve. See my blog post about the Journeys Over Transactions principle for an introduction to multi-altitude journey mapping.
An emotional journey map shows the emotional peaks within, between, and across moments. Emotional intensity is determined by two core dimensions: arousal (the level of energy) and valence (the level of pleasantness). For example, peak positive experiences like excitement and elation combine high energy with high pleasantness, while peak negative experiences like anger and frustration combine high energy with low pleasantness. In contrast, low-intensity states like calmness or boredom are, by definition, characterized by low arousal. (Russell, 1980; Brackett, 2019)
The emotional journey maps tell us what is happening, but to understand why, we must turn to psychology: numerous frameworks attempt to explore the nature, cause, and impact of emotional peaks (see, e.g., Russel’s Circumplex Model of Affect, Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, Lazurus’ Appraisal Theory, and Kahneman’s Peak-End Rule). For the purpose of this post, we will focus on one important takeaway: emotional intensity is a function of what is at stake. Emotional peaks occur when events are appraised as highly relevant to the customer’s personal goals and self-worth, which explains why the same event may elicit a strong reaction in one person or be completely insignificant to another (Lazurus, 1991).
Finally, the emotional intensity of any given moment is not determined in a vacuum. Two powerful, moderating factors shape the emotional experience: ripple effects from previous moments in the journey (what is happening elsewhere within the system), and the customer’s pre-existing emotional state (what the customer brings to the system).
Emotionally speaking, no moment is an island – the end of one experience is the beginning of the next. Ripple effects describe the phenomenon where the feelings generated during one moment carry forward to influence and color the perception of other moments (both downstream and upstream). This phenomenon works in both positive and negative directions – positive ripple effects create a reservoir of goodwill (the halo effect), while negative ripple effects poison the well for all future interactions (the ‘starting from a deficit’ effect).
Closely related, no customer is a blank slate; they arrive with a world of feelings already in tow. Emotional context is the invisible lens through which every interaction is filtered, shaped by their temperament, preconceived notions, past experiences, immediate goals, and the environment they are in (Burns, 2015). It explains why the exact same event – a 10-second wait, a helpful pop-up, a friendly question – can be perceived as efficient and welcome by one customer, yet frustrating and intrusive by another.
Here are six strategies to turn mundane, utilitarian experiences into something more emotionally engaging and resonant (work in progress, subject to change):
Make first impressions count
Demonstrate radical empathy
Provide narrative guidance
Build immersive worlds
Craft adaptive experiences
Forge deeper connections
Make first impressions count
What it is
Customers make snap judgments based on their visceral response – the primal, precognitive gut feeling – to sensory cues along their journey. This applies to all significant moments and touchpoints in the journey, not just the very first encounter with the brand or product.
Sensory cues are the specific signals from an environment, object, or interaction that we detect with our senses – such as a colour, a shape, a texture, a movement, a sound, or a scent. These cues act as triggers for visceral responses; some triggers are universal (evolutionary hard-wired) while others are learned (culturally or personally specific).
For example, the signature scent of a hotel lobby instantly signals to the subconscious that this is a safe, high-status environment. The visual harmony of a website's homepage provides an immediate sense of order and trustworthiness. The measured tone of a customer service rep cuts through anxiety and frustration by signalling competence and control.
Why it matters
By intentionally orchestrating sensory cues and triggers in significant moments, innovators and designers can engineer positive responses, evoke appropriate associations, and build a foundational layer of trust. This will create create positive ripple effects for the remainder of the journey.
Pitfalls to avoid
The ‘lipstick on a pig’ effect: Masking poor service and product performance with superficially attractive sensory cues.
Functional interference: Obstructing or slowing down the user’s ability to complete a task.
Sensory overload: Bombarding the user with too many competing signals at once.
The weakest link: Overlooking seemingly minor negative cues that, by contradicting the experience, become the single point of failure that the customer remembers.
Cultural misinterpretation: Ignoring how the meaning and emotional impact can vary across cultural contexts.
Inauthenticity: Evoking associations that undermine the brand’s true or desired identity.
Examples: Abercrombie & Fitch’s dimly lit, nightclub-style flagship stores with pulsating dance music, signature scent, and shirtless male greeters (from the late 1990s through the early 2010s). Headspace's guided mindfulness experiences, featuring calm and reassuring voice narration, gracefully synchronized breathing animations, and soft confirmation chimes and haptic feedback upon completion (2012–present). Audi’s tactile physical switchgear (since 2001) and haptic MMI Touch Response system (introduced in 2018) working seamlessly together to reinforce a feeling of precision engineering and premium craftsmanship in every interaction.
(Inspired by Aaker, 1996; Schmitt & Simonson, 1997; Pine & Gilmore, 1999; Norman, 2004; and Salz & Roth, 2022.)
Work in progress – more strategies to follow.
References
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Anderson, S.P. (2011). Seductive interaction design: Creating playful, fun, and effective user experiences. New Riders.
Bau, R. (2006). Design av tjänster och upplevelser [Design for services and experiences]. Part of Executive education in Design Management [unpublished training material]. Berghs School of Communication.
Bau, R. (2010, December). Ten strategy paradoxes in service Innovation and design. Paper presented at ServDes 2010 (Service Design and Innovation Conference), Linköping, Sweden.
Bau, R. (2011, December). Strategy paradoxes in service innovation and design. In: Cai et al. (Eds.), Design Management: Toward a new era of innovation. Proceedings from the 2011 Tsinghua-DMI International Design Management Symposium, Hong Kong, China. IDMA.
Bau, R. (2015). Thinking services instead of products. In: Service Design Boot Camp, Day 1 [unpublished training material]. Veryday.
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Bradley, S. (2010, April 26). Designing for a hierarchy of needs. Smashing Magazine.
Burns, M. (2015, July 13). Understanding the impact of emotion on customer experience. Forrester Research.
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Wirtz, J. & Lovelock, C. (2016). Services marketing: People, technology, strategy (8th ed.). World Scientific Publishing.
