This Is Service Design Doing
Marc Stickdorn , Markus Hormess
19 min
6 Key Points
5 RateWhat's inside?
Explore the practical application of service design thinking to improve customer experiences and drive business success in the real world.
You'll learn
1. What's service design thinking and where can you use it?2. Tricks to make service design work for you3. Making your services all about the customer4. Working together to create better services5. Why prototypes matter in service design6. Mixing service design into your business plan for happier customers and better results.Key points
01What's service design thinking all about?
Ever been to a restaurant where the food was great, but the service was so poor that you vowed never to return? That's a classic example of a business that could benefit from service design thinking. It's not just about the product or service you're offering, but the entire experience that comes with it. Think of it like a chef preparing a meal. They don't just focus on the food, but also the presentation, the ambiance, the service - the whole dining experience. In today's business environment, competition is fierce and customer expectations are higher than ever. Businesses can no longer afford to just sell a product or service; they need to deliver an experience. That's where service design thinking comes in. It's a holistic approach that focuses on the quality of service delivery and the customer experience. Take the case of a hotel chain mentioned in "This Is Service Design Doing". The chain was struggling with low customer satisfaction ratings. By applying service design thinking, they were able to understand their customers better and redesign their services to meet customer expectations. The result? Higher customer satisfaction and increased loyalty. Now, you might be thinking, "Isn't this just like product design?" Well, not quite. Traditional product design focuses on the physical aspects of a product. It's like building a house, where the focus is on the structure. Service design thinking, on the other hand, is more like creating a home. It's about the experience, the intangible aspects of service delivery. So, what does it take to apply service design thinking? It starts with a set of principles and a certain mindset. You need to have empathy for your customers, a curiosity to understand their needs and expectations, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. It's about being problem-driven, not solution-driven. Once you have this mindset, you can start to understand the customer journey and identify touchpoints - the points of interaction between the customer and your business. Then, you can design your service to improve these touchpoints. It's a process of testing and iterating, constantly seeking to improve the customer experience. Another example from the book is a bank that used service design thinking to improve its customer service. They mapped out the customer journey, identified pain points, and redesigned their service to address these issues. The result was a significant improvement in customer satisfaction. In conclusion, service design thinking is a powerful tool for businesses in today's competitive environment. It's not just about delivering a product or service, but an experience. By adopting service design thinking, businesses can better understand their customers, improve their services, and meet - or even exceed - customer expectations. So, why not give it a try?
02Understanding Tools and Techniques in Service Design
You're in the middle of a service design project, and you're feeling a bit overwhelmed. There are so many moving parts, so many people involved, and so many things to consider. How do you keep track of it all? How do you ensure that everyone's needs are met, and that the end result is a service that truly delivers value to its users? The answer lies in the tools and techniques of service design. One of the most powerful tools in your service design toolkit is journey mapping. This is a visual representation of a user's experience with a service, from the first point of contact to the final interaction. It's like a roadmap of a user's journey, highlighting the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Journey mapping can be used at any stage of the service design process, but it's particularly useful in the early stages when you're trying to understand the current state of the service. For instance, a hospital might use journey mapping to understand a patient's experience from the moment they walk in the door to the moment they leave, identifying pain points and opportunities for improvement along the way. Another key tool is persona creation. This involves developing fictional characters that represent your user base, complete with detailed backgrounds, motivations, and needs. These personas can then be used to guide your design decisions, ensuring that the service meets the needs of its users. For example, a bank might create personas for different types of customers - a busy professional who values convenience, a retiree who prefers face-to-face interactions, and so on - and then design services that cater to each persona's needs. Stakeholder mapping is another crucial technique. This involves identifying all the people who have a stake in the service - from users and employees to management and suppliers - and understanding their needs, motivations, and influence. This can help you to understand the broader context in which the service operates, and to ensure that all stakeholders' needs are considered in the design process. A city council, for instance, might use stakeholder mapping when designing a new public transport service, to ensure that the needs of commuters, drivers, local businesses, and others are all taken into account. Blueprinting is a technique that allows you to visualize the service from a systems perspective, showing how different components of the service interact to deliver value to the user. This can help you to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement. A restaurant, for example, might use blueprinting to understand how orders flow from the kitchen to the table, and how this impacts the customer experience. Finally, there's prototyping. This involves creating a tangible representation of the service, which can be tested and refined before the final version is rolled out. This can save time and money by identifying issues early on, and it can also help to get buy-in from stakeholders by giving them a concrete vision of what the service will look like. A tech company, for example, might create a prototype of a new app, testing it with users and refining it based on their feedback. In conclusion, understanding and using these tools and techniques can make the complex task of service design much more manageable. They can help you to understand your users, to consider all stakeholders, to visualize the service from different perspectives, and to test and refine your ideas before they're implemented. So, why not give them a try in your next service design project? You might be surprised at the difference they can make.
Continue reading with LeapAhead app
Full summary is waiting for you in the app
03How to Implement Service Design in Your Organization?
04How Service Design Transforms Businesses?
05How will emerging technologies shape service design?
06Conclusion
About Marc Stickdorn , Markus Hormess
Marc Stickdorn and Markus Hormess are experts in service design and innovation. Stickdorn is a trainer and consultant with a background in strategic management and marketing, while Hormess is a service innovator and co-founder of WorkPlayExperience, a company that uses theatrical methods for business innovation.