Design of Services1
Design of Services1
Design of Services1
Service Design
Begins with a choice of service strategy, which
determines the nature and focus of the service, and
the target market
Key issues in service design
Degree of variation in service requirements
Degree of customer contact and involvement
Characteristics of Services
(1 of 3)
1. Services are acts, they are intangible but highly
visible to the customers
2. Most services contain a mix of tangible and
intangible attributes
3. Services have customer contact
4. Service performance can be affected by workers
personal factors
5. Services are created and delivered at the same time
and are not consumed but experienced, cannot be
inventoried.
Characteristics of Services
(2 of 3)
6. Services are idiosyncratic
7. Everyone is an expert on service
8. In service business quality of work is not quality of
service
9. Services have low barriers to entry
10. Services are perishable
11. Location is important for service
Characteristics of Services
(3 of 3)
12. Services are inseparable from delivery
13. Service requirements are variable
14. Services tend to be decentralized and dispersed
15. Services are consumed more often than products
16. Services can be easily emulated
17. Services often take the form of cycles of encounters
involving face-to-face, phone, Internet,
electromechanical, and/or mail interactions
Service Businesses
A service business is the management of
organizations whose primary business requires
interaction with the customer to produce the
service
Facilities-based services: Where the customer
must go to the service facility
Field-based services: Where the production and
consumption of the service takes place in the
customers environment
Internal Services
Internal Supplier
Internal
Customer
External
Customer
Internal Supplier
Service Design
Service design involves
The physical resources needed
The goods that are purchased or
consumed by the customer
Explicit services
Implicit services
Service Concept
Service Package
Targeted
customer
Physical
items
Sensual
benefits
Psychological
benefits
Performance Specifications
Customer
requirements
Customer
Customer
expectations
Design Specifications
Activities
Facility
Provider
skills
Delivery Specifications
Schedule
Deliverables
Service
Service
Provider
Location
Service Systems
Service systems range from those with little or no
customer contact to very high degree of customer
contact such as:
Insulated technical core (software development)
Production line (automatic car wash)
Personalized service (hair cut, medical service)
Consumer participation (diet program)
Self service (supermarket)
Buffered
core (none)
Permeable
system (some)
Face-to-face
loose specs
Sales
Opportunity
Internet &
on-site
Mail contact technology
Low
Reactive
system (much)
Phone
Contact
Face-to-face
tight specs
Low
Face-to-face
total
customization
Production
Efficiency
High
HIGH-CONTACT SERVICE
LOW-CONTACT SERVICE
Facility location
Convenient to customer
Near labor or
transportation
Facility layout
Quality control
Measured against
established standards;
testing and rework
possible to correct defects
Capacity
HIGH-CONTACT SERVICE
LOW-CONTACT SERVICE
Worker skills
Technical skills
Scheduling
Service process
Mostly back-room
activities; planned and
executed with minimal
interference
Service package
Service Blueprinting
Service blueprinting
A method used in service design to describe
and analyze a proposed service
A useful tool for conceptualizing a service
delivery system
Establish boundaries
Identify sequence of customer interaction
Prepare a flowchart
Develop time estimates
Identify potential failure points
Determine which factors can influence
profitability
Brush
shoes
30
secs
Total acceptable
execution time
5 minutes
Seen by
customer
Line of
visibility
Not seen by
customer but
necessary to
performance
Clean
shoes
45
secs
Apply
polish
30
secs
Fail
point
Buff
Collect
payment
45
secs
15
secs
Wrong
color wax
Materials
(e.g., polish, cloth)
Select and
purchase
supplies
Loan
application
Branch
Officer
30 min. 1 hr.
Pay book
Line of visibility
Receive
payment
Notify
customer
Decline
Deny
Verify
income
data
Credit
check
1 day
Initial
screening
F
Employer
Accept
2 days
Credit
bureau
Bank
accounts
Issue
check
Confirm
Print
payment
book
Delinquent
3 days
Confirm
F
Verify
payor
Branch
records
Accounting
Data base
records
Fail point
Customer wait
Final
payment
Employee decision
F
Close
account
Service Blueprint
Service Fail-safing
Poka-Yokes (A Proactive Approach)
Keeping a mistake
from becoming a
service defect
How can we failsafe the three Ts?
Task
Treatment
Tangibles
Have we
compromised
one of the
3 Ts?
1.
1. Task
Task
2.
2. Treatment
Treatment
3.
3. Tangible
Tangible
Characteristics of a Well-Designed
Service System (1 of 2)
1. Each element of the service system is consistent
with the strategic and operating focus of the firm
2. It is user-friendly
3. It is robust and easy
sustain
FedEx
to
Characteristics of a Well-Designed
Service System (2 of 2)
5. It provides effective links between the back office and
the front office so that nothing falls between the cracks
6. It manages the evidence of service quality in such a
way that customers see the value of the service
provided
7. It is cost-effective
8. It ensures reliability and high quality
Variable requirements
Difficult to describe
High customer contact
Service customer encounter