Service Design

Service design is about the processes and implementation of interactions that occur throughout the customer journey. Service designers also design the elements that ensure that experiences are delivered as intended.

Service design makes a service easier to use, more useful and more desirable for the customers who need to use it: the service user. Whether creating an entirely new service or improving an existing one, service design focuses on what customers really need at each stage of their interaction with an organization.

Service design is a relatively new term used to describe a set of methods and processes which have been used widely in user centered design, product design, marketing, and strategic management for some time. At its core, service design focuses on the service user to design new services or improve existing ones. In service design, a service can be anything which helps a user to complete a goal.

Five stages need to be followed to adopt a service design methodology:

Stage 1: Defining design attributes:

a. Identify the key customers of the service.

b. Determine the needs that customers expect the service to fulfill.

c. Prioritize the needs in order of importance.

d. Specify the attributes required by a service that meets these needs.

e. Create quantitative measures for design attributes.

f. Establish the relationships between needs and attributes.

g. Determine the most important attributes.

Stage 2: Specifying performance standards:

a. Identify the customers’ desired performance level for each attribute.

b. Analyze the performance of the competitors.

c. Determine the relationship between performance and satisfaction.

d. Specify design performance standards for each attribute.

Stage 3: Generating and evaluating design concept:

a. Define the key functions needed to provide the service.

b. Assemble these functions into processes.

c. Document these processes using flow charts.

d. Create alternate design concepts for the service.

e. Evaluate and select a concept for detailed design.

Stage 4: Developing design details:

a. Partition concept into process-level design components.

b. Generate design alternatives for each component.

c. Predict performance of each design alternative.

d. Evaluate and select alternatives for each component.

e. Evaluate and select design for implementation.

f. Test performance of overall service design.

g. Make any necessary modifications to the design.

h. Specify detailed functional requirements.

Stage 5: Implementing the design:

a. Develop implementation project plan.

b. Develop a service construction plan.

c. Develop a pilot and testing plan.

d. Develop a communications plan.

e. Develop a rollout and transition plan.

f. Implement all the plans.

Stage 6: Measuring performance:

a. Select key attributes to be analyzed.

b. Measure performance of attributes relative to standards.

c. Measure capability of attributes.

d. Measure efficiency of key processes.

e. Develop reporting and analysis procedures.

f. Identify attributes whose performance does not meet standards.

g. Analyze the root cause of poor performance.

h. Perform any corrective active, if necessary.

Stage 7: Assessing satisfaction:

a. Measure customers’ satisfaction with performance of service.

b. Measure satisfaction relative to customers’ expectations.

c. Measure satisfaction relative to the competition.

d. Validate these results against those from Stage 2.

Stage 8: Improving performance:

a. Estimate relationship between financial objectives and overall satisfaction.

b. Set strategic satisfaction targets.

c. Estimate relationship between satisfaction and attribute performance.

d. Select one or more attributes for improvement, and set targets.

e. Estimate relationship between service — level and process — level attributes.

f. Select process — level improvement alternatives.

g. Evaluate the benefits and costs of different improvement alternatives.

h. Select and implement optimal process improvement initiatives.