Innovation and customer relations - the six thinking hats

Why exactly the idea of ​​hats?

As in the past, in which nothing more than a hat played a role (take a look at the old black and white photos, you will rarely find people without hair), today, paraphrasing and moving by analogy, we could intentionally wear a hat to to think.

Why apply it to our customer relationship? Because it will show us, in the first instance, the current situation, that is how we relate to our target, or potential such, and what we could do, from now on, to improve this action, with a decidedly important impact on the turnover produced and the loyalty generated.

First of all, let's list the hats in order of use and explain them in detail: white, red, green, yellow, black and blue (there are also other versions but, personally, I find this sequence more appropriate). We then use an example of common knowledge to understand how to develop an innovative strategy: the evolution of a restaurant.

The white hat is the starting point

because with this we focus on the available data.

This work step is fundamentally neutral and devoid of emotion and creativity, because it must represent a snapshot of our business, or if we don't have one yet, of the situation of the competitors who defiend the “normal” attitude towards customers. We need to collect data, information and have the ability not to judge them (the time for judgment will come later).

How to apply the white hat to the management of a restaurant's clientele? Simple, we have to follow the steps that the customer takes, from finding the place to paying the bill, and then:

1. the customer searches for the restaurant;
2. call the phone and book a table;
3. arrives and is made to sit in the place reserved for him by a waiter;
4. he is given a menu and, after reading, he orders the meal from the waiter;
5. it is served at the table in a suitable time;
6. he eats and spends his time at the table;
7. pays the bill and leaves;
8. it may, but it may not, leave a review on its dining and service experience.

Beyond the aspects of elegance or formality that accompany the restaurant customer in his classic path, it can be argued that these are the most common passages that have happened to us most of the times we went to eat out. With the white hat we try to analyze the useful information that emerges from the path.

We then move on to the second hair: red.

Here the emotion begins to surface, so it is important to express your intuitions, the liberating outbursts (without worrying about the impact of the same) and everything that is useful to look at the problem, using intuition. The color of the hat is deliberately lit and fiery: passion. The questions to be answered by wearing this hat are: what do we like and what we don't like about the process analyzed with the previous hat?

Let's go back to our example and extrapolate an innovative path related to point 2: do we like that the customer has to call or come in person to book a table? What if he could do it through social networks? Or would we like it if he could do something different than book a table? All valid questions and others could be found. So, the intentional thinking to use, wearing the red hat, aims to put the emphasis on the things we would like to happen and on the ones we want to change, because we have noticed that some steps can create tension with the client.

The third hat, the green one

intervenes right at this moment, to provide solutions: it is the moment of creativity, preferably unbridled.

The goal of the innovation group is precisely to indicate creative outlets, new ideas and unusual visions. That's why creativity should be limitless. This, inherent in the innovative process, is probably the most delicate moment and to be preserved, almost with jealousy. The use of this hat is therefore the engine that will then move the whole innovative process. A very important task that the moderator has is precisely to ensure that the participants are very free to express their thoughts. It is no coincidence that often, an outdoor location is chosen to develop the green hat.

And therefore, returning to the example of point 2, instead of booking a table, the customer books the home delivery service, through an app. Today it seems normal to us, also given the health situation, but, until a few years ago, it was considered a service dedicated to those who were sick or imprisoned at home. Through the red hat, perhaps, we have analyzed that, to improve the relationship with our customers and expand the turnover, we did not like the fact that we could only eat at the restaurant. And so, with the green hat, in the creative phase, we decided to devise an ad hoc service with delivery in order to stimulate demand.

Or, (4) what can we come up with in lieu of being given a menu? In the emotional analysis phase, with the red hat, this passage does not convince us. Given the particular organization of our restaurant, equipped, for example, with a very small and family-run kitchen for two people; in fact, it would be very risky to manage customers with satisfaction once the place was full. So what can we come up with? The green hat stimulates us to think of a fixed menu, not of a tourist nature, but which perhaps represents a journey in our territories, with food at km 0 and high sustainability.

Another example

instead of eating and spending time at the table, the red hat stimulates us to find, with the green, alternatives to serve the customer in the round; and here the take away or take away can find its own dimension, perhaps with some goodies like a picnic in a vintage sauce, for the most sophisticated customers. Or, why not, in a mix of various points analyzed with the white hat, we would like a customer to be teleported to our restaurant, so that he can be immediately seated at the table and with the appetizer served at the same time. Absurd? Certainly yes, but only because, to date, technology has not yet reached this level and who knows if it ever will. But we are not interested in this, rather we are interested in knowing how to use the green hat in an exciting and unconventional way.

And it is also interesting to express oneself in this way, that is, without ties, because we could contaminate the idea of ​​another collaborator who perhaps robs her at a lower level. And here the taxi service for the customer, instead of the phantom teleportation, is organized by the restaurant and not charged separately, but inserted in the receipt in a different form, leaving the customer the feeling of being pampered. These are all simple examples to better understand how to use the method.

Valerio Zafferani