This Is Service Design Doing

Chapter 1. Why Service Design?

Silo-breaking, hands-on innovation that starts with the experience – why organizations adopt service design.

Expert comments by: Chris Ferguson | Jeff McGrath | Lauren Currie | Mauricio Manhães

1. 1.1 What do customers want?

2. 1.2 The challenges for organizations

   1. 1.2.1 Empowered customers

   2. 1.2.2 Silos

   3. 1.2.3 The need for innovation

   4. 1.2.4 Organizations are reacting

3. 1.3 Why a service design approach?

1. This chapter also includes

   1. Services? Products? Experiences?

   2. United Breaks Guitars

   3. Why I choose service design

What Do Customers ¹ Want?

In your childhood, you might have played a game called Pass the Parcel. Before a party, a mystery gift would be wrapped in gift paper, then wrapped again and again until it became impossible to guess more than the basic form of what was inside. The kids playing the game would unwrap layers and layers, impatient to get to the middle.

The offerings made by organizations – the products, physical and digital services ² we want – are wrapped in much the same way. The outermost wrapping is the behavior, manner, and tone of the staff member (or technological interface) we are dealing with. Under this is a layer of subject and system expertise made of that person’s or system’s knowledge of the offerings and operations. Then there is a layer of processes carried out by staff – for example, the sales or refund routines. Next, we have the systems and tools run by the organization – logistics systems, billing, and point of sale ...