10 'Basics' for Service Design

A colleague pointed me to the resources of the Service Design Network on the internet. There's a fair amount to plough through, but also some refreshing takes. Below are 10 basics ideas for Service Design from Prof. Birgit Mager. The material is somewhat B2C focused, so for some points I've added comments for a B2B & B2I (Institution or Govt) environment.

Service Design. Basics.

1. Look at your service as a product. If Service Design is to be used in a substantial and not in a ‘decorative’ manner it has to be connected to the business strategies. Do B2B or B2I companies expend the same effort in Service Design as product Design?

2. Focus on Customer Benefit. We’re talking user benefits not technical product benefits.  These could be with uses for the product, not the product itself.  (iPads are good examples of this - my use of an online banking app to save time, for example, or to keep  kids quiet by play Angry Birds.)

3. Dive into the customers' world. Think of their world of emotions and experiences.  Help them envision and describe more of their own desires.

4. See the big picture. The service experience might start long before the customer gets in contact with the provider – and the experience does not end with the “Goodbye” at the shop or training centre door! Services are embedded in larger systems of relationships and interactions.

5. Design an experience. The choreography of experience – or at least of conditions that enable certain experiences - is a major challenge in the Service Design process. Can you learn from performing arts, or Customer Service courses?

6. Create perceivable evidence. Making the invisible visible and the not yet existing perceivable is a contribution of Service Design. The invisible service needs to be transformed into perceivable evidences along the touchpoints of the service experience.

7. Go for a standing ovation. In many service encounters the success depends on people – the service performance needs to be supported by a designed setting that serves the needs of the “actors”. As well as being about recruiting, development, empowerment and appraisal of people, are your infrastructure and IT part of the “choreographed” setting?

8. Define flexible standards. A 100% standardization as often found in production sites is not applicable for services – the right balance of standardization and flexibility needs to be defined when considering the type of service that is being designed.

9. A Living Product. Services need to be designed for learning and development, an open membrane towards customers, employees and environment needs to be part of the service system.

10. Be enthusiastic. The corporate culture has a major impact on the quality of the delivered service. So an attentive observation of existing culture and a support of cultural change is part of the design process.