Tools and Methods used in Service Design

There are a lot of different tools and methods used by service designers to generate idea, test the idea, improve, and implement it. Here are some of these tools and methods that are introduced in the book, This is Service Design Thinking.

Stakeholder Maps: A stakeholder map is a visual and physical representation of the different groups involved in a particular service. It consists of employees, management, customers, business partners and other groups that will have impact or have benefit on that particular service.

Service Safaris: Gaining Valuable experience is only possible when people try different services and compare the good and bad customer service. In Service safari people will go to similar businesses and observe and explore their services.

Customer Journey Maps: A customer journey map is a structured and visualized map that explains the user experience. It will show where user will be interacting with the service.

Contextual Interviews:  These interviews will be conducted in the environment that the service will take place. Interviews are conducted with all stakeholders, customers, staff, and etc.

Expectation Maps: The usage of expectation map is to investigate what are some expectations that customers have from a certain service. It is essential to know customer’s needs to be able to deliver desirable experience.

Personas: Personas are fictional characters developed to represent particular group based on a shared interest. Most personas are developed from researches gathered from different stakeholders.

Idea Generation: There are different ways of generating ideas such as group discussion, brainstorming sessions, mind-mapping, and S.W.O.T. analysis.

Storyboards: A storyboard is a visual sequential story telling method. Designers will create a particular sequence of events illustrated in a comic-strip format. The kind of story being told is up to the designer; It can be a section of the service or the entire service experience.

Desktop Walkthrough: This is a 3-D small model of the service for visualization and more understanding of how the service will be implemented in the environment. The model is mostly very simple and it allows the designers to analyze a specific situation.

Service Prototype: A service prototype is a simulation of the service experience. It can be a simple role-play or it can be a user-participating model, which is totally based on the complexity of the service.

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Fields of Service Design 2

Strategic Management: Designing a service is just the first step, implementing is as important as the design process. There can be a great service designed but if it is not implemented appropriately the result will be a poor customer experience. This is why strategic management has an important role in the process for providing great customer service. Managers use three levels of strategy, corporate, business, and operational, to better demonstrate the reason for the decisions that have been made. In the Corporate strategy level the 5-forces model of Micheal Porter which includes Industry competition, Suppliers, Buyers, Substitutes, and Threat of entry is commonly used. Business strategy is dealing with the decisions made about the methods and techniques of competing in a certain market. The Operation strategy is where service design is highly involved. It is the segment where research and development takes place and the marketing and customer service are main concerns. The import thing to remember is that designers should be aware of the business language and the business world to be able to design appropriate services, to understand the process of implementation, and to better communicate with the stakeholders.

Operation Management: Kate Blackmon definition of operation management is clear and powerful “Operation management is concerned with the design, management, and improvement of the processes through which an organization’s product and services are delivered.” So operation managers and service designers are working side by side for a common goal in parallel direction. One of the operation management methods to deal with services, introduced by Ted Levitt, is to approach service as it is a product. The role of technology and customers are very important in the service design. The use of technology is important but it needs to be simple and user friendly. Customers, also, have a great role and impact on the success of a service. The interaction between employees and customers are a key point in designing a service and has to be emphasized.

Design Ethnography: Understanding the future choices and decisions by studying behavior and background of different people is the main point in the structure of ethnography. Ethnography is a method that uses different social sciences such as anthropology and sociology and it is learning about people and their behavior and choices they make in life. These studies gather data that can inform and inspire service designers for innovative processes. There is a strong connection between ethnography and service design which can result to a successful customer experience.

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