design
for service
for both service and manufacturing businesses
design
for service
contents
01 Introduction
02 Why it is beneficial to your company
03 How you can apply this to your company
04 Using design to improve services: examples
05 References
01
Introduction
A new competitive
environment
Companies are under increasing
pressure to provide personalised,
customer-focused services. We
live in a world where products and
services are getting more and more
commoditised, and companies are
struggling to compete solely on
price. In order to stand out from
competitors, companies need to
recognise themselves as service
providers and strive to make what
they do more useful, usable and
desirable for their users.
Everyone loves a great experience.
Whether going to the grocer’s, or
shopping on-line, people always
appreciate when things are easy and
make sense. This makes them happy,
and happy customers are worth more
to every business.
This guide is intended to give an
overview of how you can use service
design as a tool to win the hearts and
minds of your customers by providing
memorable experiences.
2
01
Introduction
Like products, services
can also be designed!
Put simply, businesses can use design
holistically to identify where, when
and how a service can be improved
and made more valuable to those who
provide and receive it.
provider. These are usually called
‘touch points’, and include the brand,
customer-facing staff, environments,
sales and communications materials
and channels.
Products and services differ in a
number of ways. The main implication
of those differences is that services,
as opposed to products, rely on the
interactions between the users and
providers of the service.
For this reason, design for service
is a very practical approach to
implementing a wider, design-led
business strategy. Small businesses
can use design as a creative and
accessible form of business planning
to align their strategy, brand and
communications around propositions
that enhance customers’ experiences.
The design of services must include
an analysis of all the points of contact
between the user and the service
3
02
Why it is beneficial to
your company
We are living in the
service century
Today 89% of SMEs in Europe operate
in some form of service industry.
Twenty million people in the UK work
in service organisations. The service
economy now accounts for 72% of the
UK’s gross domestic product (1). The
importance of services to the economy
will continue to grow, especially
in industrialised countries where
services account for the majority of
GDP. For example, services comprise
80% and 71% of the GDP (2) of the USA
and France, respectively.
In this new economy, the added value
created by services is far greater
than that of products. As a simple
example, when coffee beans are sold
as an unprocessed commodity they
have little value unless sold in bulk. If
source:
(1) Office for National Statistics
(2) WP Carey School of Business
those beans are roasted and packaged
the added value, potential price and
opportunity for differentiation is
much greater. Several steps beyond
this would be to offer a freshly
brewed cup of coffee, at which point
the opportunities to add value
through service become even greater.
Companies such as Starbucks take
this even further by employing
experienced baristas to serve a wide
range of drinks (but still focused on
coffee) in a comfortable environment.
They are no longer simply offering
a cup of coffee, but a consistent
experience to be shared with friends
that will encourage customer loyalty,
allow differentiation from the
competition and increase profit.
4
02
Why it is beneficial to
your company
Everyone, like it or not, is
a service provider
The inclusion of good customer
service is becoming a key
differentiator for any type of
company, be it product or service
based. In this new economy it is the
whole experience, before, during or
after the sale that really counts.
Customers are willing to pay a
premium for products and services
that help make their lives easier,
more enjoyable and exciting.
In the service century, even big
product brands like Apple and IBM
are developing services for their
customers, realising that their
products act as gateways or enablers
of these services. The classic example
is Apple and the integration between
the iPod and iTunes. IBM is also no
longer positioning itself as a hardware
manufacturer, but rather as a service
provider by offering full IT solutions
for its clients.
Because every organisation, like it
or not, is a service provider, staff
need to realise that they are service
providers too. For example, the
telecoms engineer who goes up the
mast to make sure that everything is
working properly has an enormous
influence on the service experience
that customers have. Or a courier,
whose manners and behaviour have
a significant impact on customer’s
experience.
5
03
How you can apply this
to your company
Five fundamentals of good
service
Services are delivered through
dynamic service systems of people,
processes and things – and often
other services. This means they can
appear complicated to improve – but
they aren’t.
In order to design better services,
companies can look at the five
fundamentals of good service to
understand where, when and
how things can be improved.
These fundamentals can help you
understand how different parts of a
service system relate to each other
and how each aspect of a service can
affect a customer’s experience.
6
The five fundamentals
of good service
Systems
Value
Journeys
People
Propositions
Services are provided and
experienced through systems and
relationships. Most services are
produced and consumed within, or
rely on other services. Good service
design always looks holistically at the
service infrastructure. This involves
understanding how the different
parts of a service interconnect and
how the service relies on the support
of other services.
Different services create and
measure value in different ways, but
most services try to provide the best
value for both users and producers.
Good service design is often about
aligning the sometimes superficially
different interests of producers and
users to create the best value for
both. Service design can be about
cutting costs, but it is normally more
focused on adding value.
All services are experienced over
time. People also take different
journeys to, through, and from
a service. Good service design
recognises these differences and
examines what happens before,
during and after the central service
experience, for both producers and
users.
Services always involve people
and rely on both the user and the
producer working together. Some
services are very product-centred,
but a service is never just a product,
it is always about people. Good
service design always puts people
first and should involve users and
producers actively participating in
the design process.
Services are generally packaged as a
‘proposition’ for users to buy into. A
service proposition is a useful term
to describe competing service offers
in a competitive marketplace. Good
service design is about developing
and designing valuable, innovative
propositions for users and producers,
and creating exciting visions to take
existing propositions forward.
This means that to improve an
experience you may look to change
things behind the scenes, such as
implementing training programmes
to customer-facing staff.
Companies like FedEx create
value and save money by helping
customers help themselves. By
providing an on-line tracking system,
customers can check when their
packages will be delivered. This helps
to avoid using a busy call centre to
deal with customers’ enquires about
deliveries.
Ultimately, frontline staff are the face
of a company. In order to provide
enjoyable experiences, you might
need to ensure that your customerfacing staff are properly selected and
trained.
This means that successful
companies usually translate
intangible service propositions into
tangible and desirable offerings. For
example, Innocent, the fruit drink
maker, was founded on the desire to
make it easier for people to maintain
their health.
To provide enjoyable experiences
companies need to understand how
each point of contact between the
user and provider affects the service
delivery.
7
03
How you can apply this
to your company
Six elements of
service design
We can learn a lot about how to
deliver great service experiences
by looking at organisations who are
excellent at it. When you look at these
organisations, they usually excel
under six headings:
•Vision
•Resources
•Reliability
•Responsiveness
•Reassurance
•Communication
The following guide can be used to
stimulate discussions about how your
company can reveal areas
for improvement.
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03
How you can apply this
to your company
Element 1: Vision
Excellent service organisations
exhibit a clear vision about their goals
and strategies.
A vision for the future has to be based
on an understanding of where the
business is now, who you are serving
and how you came to this point.
Questions to ask should include:
• What does your business offer your
customers?
• How does it afford to operate?
• How did the business start?
• What were the important
landmarks (difficulties and
successes)?
• What is your turnover and how
profitable is your business?
• What are your core capabilities and
strengths?
•Who are your customers and how
can you identify which ones provide
most income?
• Why do your customers do business
with you?
• What are your customers’ needs (in
addition to what you offer them)?
• Who are – and how do you compare
to – your competitors?
•Are there any legislative,
technological, market or cultural
trends that will impact on your
business?
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03
How you can apply this
to your company
Element 2: Resources
Excellent service organisations
ensure that their appearance is
appropriate and aligned with the
service proposition.
In order to get the appearance right,
companies need to think about how
the environments, staff, equipment
and branding impact on the
customers’ perceptions.
Questions to ask should include:
•Does your organisation design the
environments that staff work in and
customers are served in?
•Have you made any changes as a
result of customer and employee
feedback?
•Are there appropriate training
programmes in place?
•What are your brand values?
•Can all employees articulate what
these values mean to their
individual jobs and responsibilities?
•How do they want to develop the
brand going forward?
•How do staff request resources
needed to serve customers?
•How often is the equipment used to
serve customers re-evaluated?
•How does the organisation measure
its performance, and the
performance of individuals
within it?
10
03
How you can apply this
to your company
Element 3: Reliability
To develop loyalty, customers and
employees need to trust that the
service is reliable and consistent
– being the same or better each time
they experience it.
Being consistent also includes making
sure that you don’t over-promise and
under-deliver by raising expectations
that can’t be met in all aspects of the
business.
All interactions with a customer
during a single transaction should
also be consistent in terms of your
brand values and ease of use.
As an example, an airline that offers
easy on-line booking is not being
consistent in offering convenience if
once customers arrive at the airport
there is a shortage of check-in staff or
no facility for automated check-in.
Questions to ask should include:
•What does your organisation
promise your customers through
your marketing and
communications channels?
•Do you deliver on these promises?
•Are there any measures in place to
ensure that your organisation does
not over-promise?
•Can you ensure that your services
are consistent over time and across
different channels?
•Does your organisation deliver
services that are easy for customers
to use?
•How usable and clear is your
organisation’s website?
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03
How you can apply this
to your company
Element 4: Responsiveness
Being responsive means offering a
service just when and where it is
required by a particular customer.
Being able to respond to the specific
needs of a customer might be
the difference between offering a
mediocre or an enjoyable experience.
In order to do so, employees might
require some level of autonomy and
flexibility at the point of delivery.
If this is the case, staff will need to
understand what their boundaries
are and you will need to be aware of
possible process barriers that might
prevent a customer being happy.
Questions to ask should include:
•Does your organisation provide
service when and where it is
required?
•How does your organisation measure
the speed and effectiveness of its
services?
•Does your organisation recognise
the needs of different customers?
•How well does it respond and react
to these differences?
•Do staff have the necessary
autonomy to deliver a personalised
service?
•What are the barriers to providing
more autonomy?
•How willing are staff to serve
customers?
•How willing are they to go out of
their way to ensure the customer is
happy?
•How willing is the organisation to let
them do this?
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03
How you can apply this
to your company
Element 5: Reassurance
Everyone in your business should
be competent, credible, honest and
courteous.
These capabilities and values will
reassure your customers that they
should be doing business with you.
Getting this right will probably
require a training and development
programme to ensure employees
have up-to-date customer service and
technical skills. As well as offering a
competent and credible face to your
business, appropriately trained staff
are more likely to take pride in their
work, be more enthusiastic and stay
with you for longer.
Questions to ask should include:
•How courteous are your staff?
•How does your organisation
encourage a courteous working
environment?
•How does it train staff to be polite?
•How secure and well managed
are your organisation’s sensitive
documents and customer
relationships?
•How effective are staff at managing
customers’ expectations of the
service?
•How honest is your organisation
with its customers about what to
expect, and how honest is it when
things go wrong?
•What training programmes are in
place to ensure that your employees
have the necessary, most up-to-date
knowledge to satisfy customers’
requirements?
13
03
How you can apply this
to your company
Element 6: Communication
In order to build long-term
relationships with both internal and
external audiences, companies need
to be able to communicate efficiently.
progressing. This helps to keep staff
motivated and ensures that everyone
is clear about the company’s
objectives.
Communication is a two-way channel:
companies need to advertise their
offerings, but they also need to
listen. This means understanding the
fears, concerns and expectations of
customers from different segments.
For example, customer-facing
staff should be able to engage in
dialogue with customers and pass
on any potential concerns to the
management team.
Questions to ask include:
•Do all people in your organisation
understand the needs of different
customers?
•How does your organisation
categorise its customers?
•How do staff engage in dialogue
with customers?
•What happens to the output of this
dialogue?
•Does your organisation build
long-term relationships with its
customers?
•Does your organisation regularly
meet as a team to discuss progress?
Companies also need to focus on
internal communication. Successful
companies have a participatory
culture in place, where staff can share
ideas and discuss how the company is
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04
How design for service can help
Using design to improve
service: examples
Developing a service
vision and strategy
•Assisting organisations to become
more service focused
•Developing and communicating a
service-led vision and strategy
•Designing-in service innovation
processes
Designing the
new service
These fictional examples are intended
to be inspirational, not exhaustive.
Service design could exist in many
forms and be delivered in many ways
depending on the business context.
In these near-future case studies we
have assumed that each SME worked
with an experienced service design
consultant or consultancy.
Broadly speaking, design for service
can help SMEs in six ways:
• Developing a service vision
and strategy
• Focusing on customers
• Designing the new service
• Developing internal processes
• Creating better experiences
• Creating and maintaining a brand.
Each case study will start by
outlining the company’s current
position and its business strengths
and weaknesses. It will then go on
to outline what a service design
consultant might suggest so the
company can capitalise on its
service strengths, negate its service
weaknesses and push the business
forward in the service century.
Outlined in the table on the right
are some specific activities which
companies can benefit from. In order
to exemplify how service design can
be applied in practice, these methods
and activities are highlighted in
orange on the side of each example.
•Helping organisations to visualise the
services they offer and how they
offer them
•Identifying new opportunities for
innovation by looking at the whole
system of service delivery
•Working with internal teams and
customers to innovate new services
•Generating ideas, modelling,
visualising and specifying new services
•Managing risk through service
prototyping
Creating better
experiences
•Measuring customers’ experiences
across all the touch points of an
organisation
•Developing service values and
principles that can be applied across
the business
•Designing the experiences that
customers have of customer-facing
staff
•Working with customer-facing staff to
improve these experiences
•Designing the opportunities for
customers to provide feedback and to
participate
Focusing on
customers
•Working with senior managers to
explore customer focus
•Developing new insights into customers
and the means to use them
•Developing methods for customer-facing
staff to provide feedback to senior staff
•Developing customer-centred business
metrics and designing-in the means to
measure
Developing internal
processes
•Looking at what customers value most
as a means to organise resources
•Focusing internal processes around the
needs of customers
•Developing organisational structures
that support staff who have direct
contact with customers
•Identifying opportunities to reduce
overall costs to serve customers
Creating and
maintaining a brand
•Developing service brands
•Helping internal teams to interpret
their brand into new services and
customer experiences
15
04
Using design to improve
service: examples
Business context:
4.1 TildaTech
Using a better understanding of their
customers to inform the design of the
service and to inspire new products
and services.
Based in North Wales, TildaTech has 55 employees and a turnover of
€14.8 million. At their factory they manufacture an electrical beauty
therapy product. The equipment sells for €3,000 and requires annual
servicing. Effective use of the equipment requires one day of training.
Current customers of TildaTech are mainly beauty treatment salons
and boutiques. These range from very small hair or nail salons
wanting to offer a broader service — to established chains of private
sports and health spas.
Strengths:
TildaTech promote their product via adverts in trade journals and
attendance at key beauty therapy and health trade shows around
Europe. The company have a website that is essentially an on-line
brochure with technical details and regional agent contacts — a
well- established network of distributors comprising 28 approved
suppliers in 15 different countries. TildaTech were one of the first
into the market and have an established presence. Their brand is
known and respected in the beauty treatment sector.
Weaknesses:
Unfortunately for TildaTech, developments in technology are now
lowering barriers to entry – meaning more competition. Until 18
months ago TildaTech’s product was one of only three products
available for this treatment. Now more companies are offering
inferior quality products at a lower cost that can achieve similar
results. So far, TildaTech have focused on getting the technology and
manufacturing quality right and developing a network of agents to
aid distribution. The owners and senior management have all come
from manufacturing backgrounds and consider TildaTech to be a
manufacturing company.
16
Working with service
design consultants
Through a workshop with TildaTech’s
marketing team and three beauty
therapists, the service design consultants
helped the company to develop a customer
segmentation model. This allowed them to
understand the attitudes and behaviour
of end-users – the people that actually
use their products. After checking this
model with some of their larger longstanding customers, the service designers
helped TildaTech put together a panel
of experienced end-users who now meet
once a month. TildaTech use this panel to
understand more about how, why, when
and where people use beauty and health
products and services.
Developing new insights into customers
and the means to use them
Working with internal teams and
customers to innovate new services
In a parallel project the service designers
worked closely with the product
development team to understand how
they design and innovate products. It
was essential that the user panel was
integrated into the development process.
The designers also helped the product
development team to commission a
customer insight programme that enabled
them to learn even more about the people
that use their products.
Designing-in service innovation
processes
Although initially surprised by some
of the ideas and opinions coming from
the insight programme, the product
development team came to see the value
of putting users at the heart of their
Looking at what customers value most
as a means to organise resources
creating the segmentation model
17
development strategy. After six months
the user panel was helping TildaTech to
impress their customers by suggesting
new service features and product
functionality that the salons, spas and
gyms had never considered.
discover
In a further workshop the development
team looked at the sales processes that
take place in salons, spas and gyms.
The team identified an opportunity to
provide more support to staff in their
customers’ businesses. The designers
were commissioned to carry out a detailed
analysis of user journeys and to develop
some simple support materials and web
pages that helped to train staff when
and how to explain the benefits of using
TildaTech products. The brief to the
designers was aimed at helping everybody
to get the most out of TildaTech.
Developing organisational structures
that support staff who have direct
contact with customers
The success of the user insight
programme gave the management team
the confidence to hire service designers
again a year later to help identify new
customers for new higher-value products
and services. Working closely with
management and the sales and marketing
teams, the service designers ran a series
of customer-spotting workshops where
they invited a range of people from
diverse sectors to help anticipate future
needs and markets. TildaTech identified
cosmetic surgeries and other medical
Working with senior managers to
explore customer focus
evolve
excite
optimise
inform
understanding the design process
18
practices as a high growth, high margin
sector. With their user panel already
in place TildaTech were able to test
early product and service ideas quickly,
reducing risks and time to market.
TildaTech has now established a welldeserved reputation amongst its
customers for its user-focused product
development, and is now a regional leader
in the use of user insight and service
innovation in manufacturing.
Working with internal teams and
customers to innovate new services
Managing risk through service
prototyping
Developing service brands
gaining user insight
19
04
Using design to improve
service: examples
Business context:
4.2 Brecon Furniture
Remaining competitive by translating
a reputation for quality products into
quality services.
Brecon Furniture manufacture high-end task seating for offices
across Europe. Principal customers include corporate buyers of task
seating for the office, independent office furniture retailers, and
architectural and interior design specifiers. Seventy-five employees
work in modern premises in Mid Wales, and last year the company
reported turnover of €26.7 million.
Strengths:
Brecon Furniture have a strong in-house design team. They have
a clear design-led approach, with excellent attention to detail on
product design and advertisements. They occasionally use highprofile external designers, and have effective ergonomic design
techniques and good brand awareness amongst customers. They
sell directly through their website, and they also have a single
London showroom. However, most sales come through a network of
independent, approved suppliers across Europe.
Weaknesses:
On the downside, Brecon Furniture have high manufacturing costs as
all assembly and 50% of component manufacture is based in Wales.
There is little scope for cost reduction on the UK manufacturing
side of the business. Meanwhile competition is increasing as larger
multinational manufacturers with foreign production bases are
driving prices down. In addition, Brecon Furniture faces a new
competitive threat from office solutions provided by companies such
as IKEA, whose products are now of higher quality than before.
20
Working with service
design consultants
Brecon Furniture have an established and
deserved reputation for quality that comes
from the high standards they employ at
their manufacturing facility in Mid Wales.
Quality in manufacturing can be mirrored
by quality in service, but only if a company
understands and supports its customerfacing staff — as Brecon Furniture found
out to their advantage.
With new and large competitors closing
in, Brecon’s management team knew that
they had to avoid competing on price,
and that they risked losing competitive
advantage on quality as the standard of
their competitors’ products increased.
They identified ‘service value’ as an
opportunity to remain distinctive, to
evolve their brand in the light of new
entrants and to retain share at the midvolume, premium end of the market.
Assisting organisations to become more
service focused
Through Design Wales they invited a
service design consultancy located in
the region to organise a series of open
workshops with Brecon’s employees to
explore how they could add ‘service value’
to their products.
Many of the staff that serve Brecon’s
customers directly were invited. The
furniture delivery agents, not normally
included in management decisions,
identified ‘help and advice with
installation’ as a major customer need.
Developing organisational structures
that support staff who have direct
contact with customers
open workshops
21
Research with customers carried out by
the service designers after the workshop
confirmed this. The management team
agreed that this was a real opportunity.
Delivery agents and the service designers
worked to develop a training package
— and to train themselves — in providing
advice to customers on installation. The
new ‘Total Delivery’ service was designed
and prototyped through the Brecon
Furniture website with the help of the
designers. This meant that management
could carefully monitor and control
the number of customers requesting
the service, and ask for their feedback
anonymously on-line.
With feedback from customers very
positive, and direct sales through the
website up, Brecon Furniture were
confident in the delivery agents as a
vital source of customer intelligence – as
well as a means to add ‘service value’.
Brecon began to apply their own tried
and tested approaches to quality to the
‘Total Delivery’ service. They integrated
customer feedback from the delivery
agents into the service development
process and held
bi-monthly meetings between designers
and delivery agents.
In one such meeting the agents reported
that customers, becoming used to help
Identifying new opportunities for
innovation by looking at the whole
system of service delivery
Managing risk through service
prototyping
Designing the experiences that
customers have of customer-facing staff
Helping internal teams to interpret
their brand into new services and
customer experiences
generating ideas
22
with installation, were commenting
that they wished they had asked Brecon
Furniture more questions in advance of
placing their order. As Brecon already
had significant expertise in ergonomic
and human factors design, they realised
that they could also assist (and profit
from) offering customers office design and
layout services to match their furniture
product portfolio.
During the following year, sales and
delivery agents were trained to offer
advice to customers to determine their
requirements. Brecon developed expertise
in advising on storage, the design of
furniture solutions for flexible and
multi-use spaces, and in the commercial
analysis required to justify investing in
quality.
With a reputation for manufacturing
quality and a new reputation for service,
Brecon Furniture’s new ‘Total Office’
service proved very popular. Brecon
Furniture’s expertise in translating
human factors research into office
environments, combined with their
ability to design, supply and install office
furniture, has won them new, larger
contracts. The company now plans to
extend their ‘Total Office’ service to a
growing number of smaller customers by
opening retail stores in three of the UK’s
fastest-growing small-business districts,
with customer service specialists as
managers.
Generating ideas, modelling, visualising
and specifying new services
Developing service brands
planning environments
23
04
Using design to improve
service: examples
Business context:
Green Taxis is a very small start-up company in Cardiff, Wales’
largest city. The company wants to operate Cardiff’s first eco-taxi
service with a fleet of hybrid petrol/electric vehicles. They aim to
have 10 cars within 12 months.
4.3 Green Taxis
Using service innovation and design
to overcome the barriers to entering a
well-served market with a new idea.
Strengths:
The company’s principal target market are corporate clients
interested in demonstrating their corporate social responsibility
through the use of environmentally-friendly services. It is intended
that a relationship can be developed with corporate clients so that
the majority of fares are paid for on account. In addition, Green Taxis
want to target the public who want to book a taxi for travel around
the city with the minimum impact on the environment.
Weaknesses:
Due to the significant cost for buying a licence to pick up from the
bus, train station and airport, all passengers will need to be prebooked. There are 12 other well-established taxi firms operating in
Cardiff. Green Taxis is the only eco-taxi service in the city. This gives
them an advantage but also exposes the risk they are taking, as
there is no sustained demonstration of demand. As they can’t pick up
passengers at the kerbside, they rely on word of mouth, their brand,
and a well-designed experience for their passengers of booking Green
Taxis.
24
Working with service
design consultants
Understanding the co-productive nature
of service branding means working
closely with customers. This is especially
important for a service such as Green
Taxis where their core service offer is
based on selling a ‘lifestyle’ choice rather
than low prices or efficiency. Service
design helped Green Taxis understand
this from the very beginning, making
their approach a model for many new ecoservice companies across Europe.
Initially, the service designers helped
Green Taxis research the environmental
position of large local corporate
organisations. Once they had identified
the most progressive organisations in the
area, they contacted the personnel in
charge of corporate social responsibility to
tell them about the new service.
Prior to the meetings they worked
with the service designers to develop
and visualise a range of marketing
propositions they could offer the
companies. After the meetings they went
away and developed unique, co-branded
service options for the companies. Some
firms opted to sponsor individual taxis,
some wanted a taxi outside their offices at
all times, others decided to use their PR
teams to highlight the relationship to the
local media.
Helping internal teams to interpret
their brand into new services and
customer experiences
Developing new insights into customers
and the means to use them
Helping organisations to visualise the
services they offer and how they offer
them
Generating ideas, modelling, visualising
and specifying new services
customer thinking
25
This carefully co-produced service
branding meant that Green Taxis’
marketing and PR budget was completely
financed by their customers — with plenty
of profit left over to invest in acquiring
more cars and drivers.
The publicity from the large companies
led new private customers to contact
Green Taxis through their website,
asking how they could be sure of always
getting a Green Taxi. Working with the
service designers again, Green Taxis
identified two ways they could help these
new customers access the taxi service,
whilst keeping overheads low for the new
company.
First, Green Taxis’ knowledge of green
activities and organisations in the area
meant that they could set up a new
website to promote green initiatives
in Cardiff. The website encouraged
smaller businesses to sign up to the site
to receive tips and ideas on going green
(and profiting from it). The site helped to
build awareness of Green Taxis. Data on
smaller firms was then used to identify
the ‘greenest’ areas of the city, and Green
Taxis began to directly market their
service in these neighbourhoods.
Second, working closely with several
volunteer ‘green users’ who regularly
hired the taxi service for private use,
the service designers helped Green
Identifying opportunities to reduce
overall costs to serve customers
Working with internal teams and
customers to innovate new services
Designing the opportunities for
customers to provide feedback and to
participate
Developing new insights into customers
and the means to use them
proposition development
26
Taxis identify the barriers for private
individuals using the service. They
discovered that although these customers
would prefer a Green Taxis to a normal
taxi, they weren’t prepared to wait more
than five minutes longer for a Green Taxi
than a normal taxi. They also found that
customers resented having to wait on hold
when booking any taxis by telephone.
Green Taxis worked with the service
designers to design and implement a
service for customers allowing them to
use SMS to indicate their approximate
location to be picked up from (a street
name or a postcode). Provided the
customer is near the city centre, Green
Taxis can then reply by SMS immediately
to reassure them that they will not have
to wait more than five minutes. Green
Taxis can now dispatch a car and call the
customer back within
five minutes.
Generating ideas, modelling, visualising
and specifying new services
proposition specification
27
05
References
Academic
Dr Bill Hollins
http://www.wmin.ac.uk/wbs/page-228
Prof. Birgit Mager
http://kisd.de/mager.html?lang=en
Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark
http://www.mci.sdu.dk/m/GenInfo/GenInfo.htm
The list opposite details those who
are developing and working with
service design and where to find more
information and guidance.
Design Innovation Education Centre (DIEC)
http://www.onenortheast.co.uk/page/diec.cfm
Emergence Conference, Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.design.cmu.edu/emergence/2007/
Design Management Institute
http://www.dmi.org/dmi/html/index.htm
Established Service Design Consultancies
Engine
http://www.enginegroup.co.uk
Ideo
http://www.ideo.com
live|work
http://www.livework.co.uk
This project has been commissioned by Design Wales
and produced by Engine Service Design.
28
service design
design by engine service design
www.enginegroup.co.uk