What is Service Design ?

Here is a quick read to get fair idea on what is Service Design ?

Service is an activity which creates VALUE for customer who is using it and eventually drives GROWTH of the organisation who is providing it.

"Better SERVICE = Better GROWTH"

Service design is not limited to delivering a simple & easy user experience for customers; it can also improvise the organisation's working pattern & processes to deliver the service in the best way possible.

UX = enhancing product experience.

Here, focus is on customer experience.

Service design = enhancing service delivery experience. Here, focus is on entire ecosystem ( i.e people, products & processes)

Let's consider an example of Airline service. Refer the image below,

We will consider one of the Airline services running in India for eg: - "Indigo Airlines"

Focus on user’s need...

" To provide End to End smooth flying experience."

What they meant by End-to-End?

Here, end-to-end is not limited to taking passenger to their destination. Instead they refined the entire journey which includes

1. booking tickets

2. check-in

3. onboarding

4. in-flight

5. check-out services

They improvised or enhanced their services to make flying experience more engaging and smoother.

Indigo improvised its services by,

1. Booking ticket using app or website.

2. Multiple flights options. ( day,noon,evening, night)

3. Engaging In-flight experience. (meal, entertainment,etc.)

4. Smooth check-in, onboarding & check-out process at airport.

5. Flight maintenance & Ground staff assistance.

Elements of Service Design Ecosystem …

1. Props or Touch-points - Physical or Digital. (eg:- form, app or device)

2. People - who builds & uses the service.

3. Processes - Workflows or functions needed to deliver the service.

4. User actions - Interactions performed by the user to perform the service

5. Front stage - Steps or interactions that are visible to the user.

6. Back-stage - Steps or interactions that take place behind the scenes.

Service Design Process

Step 1: 

Start with the customer service scenario and highlights customers pains, needs, expectations, emotions & motivations. And by doing this, it will help to identify the real problem or experience of customer while using current services.

Step 2: 

Co-create E2E user journey to identify customer actions, processes, opportunities of innovations and enhancements by collaborating with users, technical teams, employees and other stakeholders whose are part of the service. 

Step 3:

As per the journey map, identify

• Front-stage process, 

• Back-stage process, 

• Support processes, 

• Evidences

• Time needed to perform actions. 

Hope so this article helps you get basic idea and understanding on what is Service design ? and why it is important ?