Service Design Thinking is a proven method for developing new services and launching them on the market. How can you use suitable tools to expand your after-sales portfolio or improve existing services?
The approach discussed below is an exemplary outline of a design process. Of course, there are many roads to Rome and, in practice, your approach must be adapted to the circumstances of the individual case anyway. Nevertheless, we would like to present an effective approach and associated methods here.
Please also note the Success factors for the expansion of the service businessif you want to expand your range of services!
What are the benefits of service design thinking?
When developing new services, the main focus is on the needs and wishes of the customer. This principle sounds obvious at first, but is often lost sight of in development practice. Experts tend to come up with ever more sophisticated solutions that the customer either does not understand, does not need or cannot use due to a lack of knowledge.
In a customer-oriented design process, on the other hand, a lot of time is spent working with customers and getting to know their point of view. Designers work iteratively and test ideas repeatedly with future users as part of the development process. By creating prototypes and presenting them to customers and employees, you receive constant feedback, on the basis of which services can be designed to be very beneficial. In this way, you minimize the risk of undesirable developments and can also find more resource-efficient solutions.
As ideas are made tangible at an early stage, they can be shared with others right from the start. This makes the market launch easier, because customers can already find out in the development phase where you want to end up. Employees from other areas of your company can also be made aware of what they need to be prepared for at an early stage.
The organization of the design process
Service is all about the various touchpoints at which customers come into contact with your company. The aim of the Service designs is to design these touchpoints and determine how they should ultimately interact with each other. This allows you to either create new services or improve your existing portfolio.
The scheme for a design process presented here is divided into four chronologically separated sections:
1st discovery phase
The discovery phase is used to seek inspiration and gather information and ideas. Traditional market and user research methods are often used here. However, simple brainstorming in the context of heterogeneously formed Design Research Groups can already achieve good results. The aim is not only to discover customer needs, but also to identify any weaknesses in existing processes. Ultimately, the aim should be to develop even better and more profitable services.
Methods used:
- Customer Journey Map: A customer journey map is a visual representation of the various touchpoints that exist between a company and its customers as part of the provision of a service. It begins at the point at which the customer first becomes aware of the existence of the offer. The end, in turn, is the final contact with the company. This is a very effective way of identifying the critical core elements of your service provision. It also facilitates the search for weak points in previous processes. The graphical representation can include photographs and quotes to illustrate this process visually.
- Customer Diaries: As part of customer diaries, customers independently record their experiences of using services over a certain period of time. This provides you with qualitative information about actual customer needs. It may take some persuasion to motivate your customers to do this. However, if this is successful, customer diaries provide excellent input for your design process.
- Service Experience Journey: As part of a service experience journey, participants put on the customer's shoes and use a service as an example. They make a note of their experiences and can add video and image recordings if necessary.
- Customer Shadowing: Here you observe one of your customers closely when they use a service and gather information about their experiences. The most effort must be put into selecting the right customer and the necessary persuasion. If implemented correctly, you will also gain excellent knowledge about the user's perception.
2nd analysis phase
During the analysis phase, the information obtained must be evaluated. What is most important? Which points need to be addressed first? Define the challenges that arise when designing a new service or further developing an existing one. You can then use the knowledge gained to define a reduced set of problems and opportunities. At the end, a clear statement should be made about the results you want to achieve as part of your design process.
Methods used:
- Customer personas: Creating customer personas allows you to take the perspective of different customers on your offer. When creating them, you should of course stick to the insights you gained in the discovery phase. Personas can then be very useful to keep the different needs of your customers in mind when defining targets.
- Brainstorming: Collect many different ideas and possibilities by brainstorming in heterogeneous groups. Established processes should also be questioned and evaluated. You can then reduce the output to a few core ideas.
- Design Briefing: As part of the design briefing, you define the fundamental challenges that are to be tackled as part of the design process. In addition, you should also describe the waypoints that will guide the rest of the design process.
3rd development phase:
In the development phase, the solutions defined in the previous step are created. You can start by designing the various service components (e.g. online tools, user interfaces). Prototypes and pilot phases are designed as required and iteratively tested and further developed. This trial-and-error process is probably the greatest advantage of using design methods in the After-Sales. Make your desired service tangible and experienceable here to demonstrate it to customers and employees from other areas of the company at an early stage. Their feedback will help you to make your service more effective and profitable.
Methods used:
- Service Blueprinting: The blueprint of a service is created as a visual representation of all customer touchpoints and the processes that need to take place in your service department to ensure a smooth process. You can then present this blueprint to both the employees who will later offer your service and the customers who will later buy your service.
- Experience Prototyping: Here, you create a prototype that can be used to bring to life the experiences that customers will later have with your service. This is particularly suitable for data-driven services such as Predictive maintenance whose benefits are sometimes not immediately apparent to the customer.
- Business Model Canvas: A visual tool that can also be used to describe new business models in the service sector. It can be used to design and test touchpoints. You can explore which elements actually increase customer benefit and how these can be further improved
4. launch phase
During the launch phase, the developed service is finalized and introduced to the market. A final test phase can help to eliminate the last weak points. Suitable strategies should also be developed for evaluating the new service during its early phase. Ensure that suitable feedback mechanisms are installed so that the resulting feedback loops can be used to further improve your service even after it has been launched on the market. The launch phase is also a suitable time to share the experience gained during the development process with other members of the company.
