- Greetings everyone.
In today's conversation on design disciplines,
we'll talk about another new design discipline,
which is referred to as service design.
This is a fairly young discipline
and essentially what it focuses on
is not necessarily tangible things
like buildings, products, landscapes,
but focuses on a whole range of intangible things
which can be referred to as services.
So we'll look at some examples
of what this actually means.
(soft music)
So if you look at a definition of a service design,
here's one from Shelley Evenson and Hugh Dubberly.
They define services as activities or events.
So activities are things that we actually engage in,
events or things that happened because of those activities
that form a product.
Now, in this case, they are referring to the word product
very loosely, but not necessarily a physical product,
like a physical device, like this pen,
but it could be something that could be an experience
through an interaction between the customer,
a mediating technology,
and representatives of the service organization.
So what's happening here is you have three things happening.
You have a customer, you have a user
who actually is going in for a certain experience.
You have some type of technology
that facilitates that experience
and then you have someone who's actually offering
that service to you,
and that essentially is one way
of thinking about service design,
that it's the design of these activities or events
that involve people from a customer side,
a service side and technology as well.
So we look at some examples of what this means.
So very simply customer service, right?
You have some problem with your phone or with your computer
or any product you might be using, you call the company.
What they have is they have a set of people
who could be referred to as the customer representatives
or customer service reps, and when you call,
you get a range of people who might be sitting at a desk,
as you see in this case, answering phone calls,
solving problems, getting you the help that you need.
This is a form of service
and designing this entire experience
can be referred to as one aspect of service design.
Another one you can look at is that of a store.
You walk into a store and you want to buy something.
Clearly, there's you, the user,
who actually needs a service, needs a product.
There's someone who's providing the service
and there's some mediating technology in between, right?
There might be a scanner that scans your credit card
or a draw in which they put the money that you give them.
So that is another example of a service experience.
Here's, what you see here is a bank,
in case of a bank it's the same thing.
The operator who's sitting behind the glass
is offering a certain service
for you who are a customer of the bank.
So, one way to think about the service design experience
is to think of it as a product service system.
So, there is a product,
there's some kind of a physical thing involved.
This could be a building, it could be a space,
it could be a device, and there's a service,
and together, these form a PSS or a product service system,
what does that mean?
So the tangible product could be something like salt,
or cars or cosmetics, right?
So these are physical, actual things.
On the other side intangible services
are things like consulting.
If you are a management consultant
or a marketing consultant,
you're not actually providing a physical thing to somebody,
or you might print out a report,
but what you're doing is you're using your expertise
and your knowledge to help them,
you're consulting with them,
or things like teaching.
When we teach a class, as we are in this case,
we're actually offering a service,
we're offering information, we're offering knowledge,
and that is a form of a service.
And so what happens very often
is that you cannot always have one without the other, right?
So if you have, if you have cars,
you need to be able to have a service
in which you sell the cars, you repair the cars,
you, you know, buy them back,
and at the same time, if you have a service like teaching,
you need a computer, you need a physical space,
you need desks.
So products need services and services need products,
and therefore this is often referred to as a system,
It is a product service system.
Let's take an example of fast food, right?
If you have a drive-through and you order some fast food
this is a classic example
of a product service system, right?
So in case of fast food,
what are some of the services involved?
Well, the fact that you can actually drive
and not actually have to go into the restaurant,
you can order the food
through the thing that you see here, order here,
there's a physical structure in which you speak to somebody.
So what you're getting in this case
is that you're getting some sort of a convenience,
you're getting food really fast.
The quality is a different story,
but you're actually getting some kind of a service
by using this experience of fast food.
By the same token,
you also have a range of physical things, right?
You have the actual food itself,
a hamburger in this case.
There is the fries,
you have actually a container for the fries,
there's a container for your drink.
There's ketchup bottles, there's forks and knives,
tables, tablecloths.
So all of these are the physical, tangible things.
So again, you can see that in case of fast food,
there is a product or series of products,
and there are services like the drive-through or walk-in,
and all of those together create the experience
of the fast-food restaurant, and that's the service.
Let's look at this a little bit more carefully.
So in terms of tangible products, one thing to keep in mind
is that tangible products are standardized, right?
So in the case of fast food, again,
to continue with that example,
one of the reasons why fast food is so inexpensive
is because it is highly standardized.
You go and walk in and you get a hamburger exactly the same,
same hamburger over and over again.
Or you get a little packet of ketchup,
it's the same standardized packet of ketchup.
In this case, the production
and the consumption are separate.
So in some factories somewhere,
somebody's designing and manufacturing,
these little ketchup packets, or the bottles of ketchup,
or the forks and knives that you use,
or the plates that you use.
So there's a place and a space
where this production happens,
and then you, as the consumer,
as the buyer of this fast food actually consume
or use those products, in case of something like salt,
you're actually consuming it,
in the case of something like a plate,
you're actually using it for a short amount of time.
So, the consumption happens from a separate location
from where production happens.
And then this is nonperishable, and what that means,
in case of food, food actually is perishable.
It can go bad over time, but it doesn't disappear.
It's there.
So, and things like a plate,
for example, if you throw that away,
it will stay there for a very long time
and that's what this actually means.
An intangible service actually
is something that is heterogeneous.
So in a sense, it's not the same service
over and over again.
So, if you go through a drive-through,
depending upon who is providing the service,
depending upon what kind of a day it is,
you might get a different experience.
It's not the same standardized experience each time.
Simultaneous production consumption, right?
The service of buying the fast food
is actually happening right there.
So they are creating the service for you
as you are participating in that service, right?
So production and consumption
happens at the same time and it's perishable, right?
It's over, once you go to the fast-food restaurant,
you get your food, you're gone, the service is over,
there's no tangible evidence of that left anymore, right?
So this is kind of the key difference
between the tangible product and the intangible service.
But again, you need both
to create a good service experience,
to create a good product of a system,
you have to have the product,
as well as the tangible service.
Some of the examples of how these services happen
in the way they happen,
the whole world of financial services, right?
Someone who might help you decide
how your retirement planning should happen.
Someone who might help you figure out
how to invest in stocks,
all that is a part of a consulting service
and that is a financial service system.
Hotels, if you go, if you travel,
and if you stay in a hotel,
lodging is a form of service as well.
This is where you walk up to the front desk,
you get your key, you go to the room.
All that again, involves such tangible things
as the beds and the furniture in the room,
but also involves humans,
and also involves a kind of an experience
that you take as a service as well.
Health care is another example.
You go to the doctor, you go to a hospital.
What you get is a service in looking at your health,
in looking your health and how it evolved over time.
But you also have physical devices like the stethoscope,
and the paperwork, and the pens
that you are a part of that service as it unfolds.
Travel, in addition to hotels,
the actual flight itself also involves a service.
We don't own the planes, but we actually travel on them.
The companies, the airline companies own on the planes.
But again, in this case, also, it's a joint thing.
It's a product service system
which provides you the ability to go
from point A to point B.
So here too, it's a service design situation.
Here's something really interesting to look at
as a service designer, for instance.
So someone who is designing a new service
or redesigning an existing service
will often use something called a service blueprint,
and there are a few key things to keep in mind
with the service blueprint.
It starts off at the customer side.
So if you look at this,
this is photo as a line of interaction.
This is where you have the interaction between the customer
and the people who are providing the service.
There's a lot of physical evidence involved.
So for example, let's take a hotel
that you're checking into when you travel somewhere.
So the physical evidence is the desk where you check in,
the door, which lets you into the hotel itself,
the pen which you do might sign the paperwork.
So all of those are examples of the physical evidence
that is required for that service to happen.
The customer actions, what do you do as a customer
as you walk into a hotel?
You go there, you drop your bags, you talk to somebody.
So all the things that you do as a customer
are referred to as the customer actions.
There's something called the onstage of visible actions,
which is just about what's called the line of visibility.
These are all the visible interactions between the customer
and the service provider, right?
So you are the customer at this hotel,
the service provider is either the concierge
or someone who's standing behind the desk
who's actually giving you a key
and giving you the service that you need checking you in.
So all of the stuff that happens at that level,
you signing, you giving your credit card,
you taking the key, all of that happens
at this above the line of visibility
and those are the onstage of visible actions.
It's referred to as onstage
because the services unfolding are on the stage.
The stage is the lobby of the hotel
or the main entrance area of the hotel.
In addition to make that happen,
in order to make that happen,
you need a series of backstage actions as well.
So these are referred to as invisible actions.
So what does someone need to do to allow this to happen?
So somebody needs to design the hotel.
Someone needs to create the software
that's required for you to check in.
So someone has to do all the stuff in the back.
If you go to the restaurant at the hotel,
or if you go up to your room and order room service,
someone has to be able to manage the kitchen
and provide the services that you need.
So all of the actions that happen behind the scenes.
We actually don't go into the kitchen.
You get the food, but you don't see
what's happening in the kitchen
and that's why it's referred to as backstage or invisible.
Things that have to happen
but the customer actually does not see.
And finally, support processes.
What do you have to do in order to make this stuff happen,
in order to allow invisible, as well as visible actions
to take place?
For instance, you might need to hire a software engineer.
You might need to hire a company who will design the website
for the hotel that someone can go into,
log in and book a hotel room.
You might need to hire someone to create uniforms
for the people who work at the hotel.
So all of those can be referred to as support processes.
So what happens with a service blueprint
is that as you're designing this service,
it allows you to map this out.
It allows you to create a blueprint
that you can then actually install your services,
you can install and build the hotel,
you can make sure that things happen the way they should
so that the customer has the best experience possible.
Why? So that they keep coming back to that same hotel
over and over again, right?
So this is an example of a service blueprint
that service designers use in order to create new services
or to redesign existing services.
And here's an example, here's an example
of an existing blueprint,
and this is a blueprint, service blueprint
for a panel or a conference.
If you go to a conference, what happens?
So what's the physical evidence, right?
What do you actually physically interact with?
Where there's a blog post, there's Facebook,
you have event registration confirmation, welcome email,
there's some signage.
You might actually get a bag with some welcome materials.
There's some sort of a monitor
that gives you what's happening on Twitter.
There might be some sort of a brochure that you take away.
So these are examples of the physical evidence.
What's actually happening physically.
Then you have the attendee or the customer
who is attending this conference.
What do they do?
They have to register for the event.
They have to go to the event, arrive, sign in,
participate, and then leave, right?
So all of these are, if you think about this,
this is the life cycle of that service of their experience.
From the minute you decide to go to this event,
till the time you leave,
there's a service that is being provided to you
all along the way and these are being mapped out along here.
So you can see in a sense that this access is that of time,
someone experienced these events over a certain timeframe.
Then there's the front of stage or the visible interactions
and again, this is announcing the event,
blogging, greeting the attendees.
So while you're being greeted,
somebody has to do the greeting, right?
So the people who are managing this conference,
they are the ones who are managing these processes as well.
They have to sign you in, they have to seat you,
you have to conduct the panel.
So all of these are the actions that are performed
by the organizers of this conference.
What's happening backstage, what's happening
in terms of interactions behind the scenes?
Well there has to be some sort of an event
where the blogging is done.
Someone has to create the signage.
Someone has to set up the desk
where the registration happens, you have to set up the room,
the chairs, the food, etc.
All of these activities are happening backstage
behind the scenes.
And finally, what are the support processes?
You have to create a marketing plan,
you have to manage the event itself,
you have to recruit volunteers,
you have to order things like food and drinks.
You have to coordinate all the people who are involved
in the panel discussions.
So this again, gives you a sense
for what a service blueprint looks like
and how it can be useful in managing, planning
and design a good service experience for somebody, right?
So, what we have seen so far
are some of these examples of services.
Here's one more example of a bike-share program.
This is happening in quite a few cities all over the world,
like Amsterdam, like New York, Paris, etc.,
where if you don't own a car, or even if you own a car
and you want to go a short distance, or if you're a tourist,
you walk up to these stations, right?
You can see here, there's a certain device.
You can walk up to this device,
you can either use a credit card
or you can put in some money
and you're able to unlock this bicycle
and use it for a couple of hours,
and then there are these stations all over the city
and you drop it off somewhere else.
So, if you're planning,
if you're designing this kind of an experience,
if you're designing a new bike-sharing program,
what you might do is you might create
that sort of a service blueprint, right?
So what are the physical evidences?
All that you see in this photograph.
The bicycle itself, the device interaction,
there might be a solar panel that charges these devices.
That's the physical evidence.
What are the customer actions?
The people who walk up to this,
people who use this tourists, they'll come up,
they'll use the credit card,
they'll take the bike, they'll ride it around.
What are some of the service organizer actions?
Where they have to make sure that this is accessible,
that the locks work, the screen is working,
and then there are backstage actions and support processes.
All of the things that have to be done
to make this an actual usable and enjoyable experience
for the people who use this.
So you can see that this service design discipline
can play a role in a whole range of things
from hotels to financial services,
to something like these bike-sharing programs.
So what we've learned in the presentation today
about service design is that it is something that relies
on product service systems. There are
always tangible things but also intangible services
and everything from checking into a hotel,
to getting your car serviced, to a bike-share program,
all of these are services,
they have to be designed by somebody
and so as designers,
focus on exactly that process of design.
Thank you.