What it Takes to do Customer Experience Work

I've been reading the fantastic customer experience newsletter Good Experience by Mark Hurst, founder of Creative Good, for several years now and I always enjoy his insights into learning to understand what your customers want.  This week, he proposed a quiz of sorts, asking readers how they would solve a real problem.  He posits that in order to be good at customer experience work, you need to be good at three things:

1. Empathy: being able to see things from the customer's perspective
2. Analysis: noticing all the little things at work leading to an issue
3. Synthesis: putting together observations and insights to create real solutions

Mark's answer to issue of patrons sitting on a bench that is actually part of an art exhibit is to change the wording of a small sign on the floor from "Do Not Touch" to "Do Not Sit." I think this is a good start but my first thought was to put some kind of barrier, like clear glass or plastic, around the installation.  Then I thought about it a little more and maybe that would disturb the flow of the piece or something. (I am not that familiar with art and museums, though.)

My solution would be to raise the installation and place it on a platform about two feet high so that it is high enough to discourage sitting but remains visually unobstructed.