Cambridge Business Association
Service Design for Business
Book

Service Design for Business

A Practical Guide to Optimizing the Customer Experience

Ben Reason, Lavrans Løvlie and Melvin Brand Flu
Wiley, 2015
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

This short book by Livework colleagues Ben Reason, Lavrans Løvlie and Melvin Brand Flu addresses the frequently overlooked practice of service design – how you design the services you provide. Organizations probably should focus at least as much attention on how customers use their services as they focus on their products. A far greater portion of the economy rests on services than manufacturing and, in many cases, producers have all but eliminated the variability in products – you basically get what you pay for and often it doesn’t matter which brand you choose. Services present a different paradigm. Customers rarely know what they’re going to get and they’re often disappointed. Avoid that by designing your service delivery with care. Although this isn’t an in-depth guidebook, the authors provide a useful overview of a big subject that few others have addressed. getAbstract recommends their compact manual to leaders seeking an introduction to service design.

Summary

Why Service Design?

Design has grown more and more important in the past few decades. Today, most organizations that sell products focus on their design, but the same cannot be said for services. Yet services account for between 70% and 80% of economic activity in developed countries. People have grown used to excellent product design, and they’ve come to expect the same in their experiences with service providers. Since services suffer less from commoditization than manufactured products, the importance and potential payoff of good service design may exceed that of good product design. Consider your services through the eyes and actions of your customers. Conduct “qualitative and quantitative research,” observing your customers closely and individually to understand what they really want. With your team, describe your customers’ experience with you; tell stories and visualize solutions to improve it. Where possible, include your customers and employees directly in your service design, capture their ideas and test your prototypes with them.

“Three Critical Factors”

Focus on three critical factors in service design. First, chart the flow of your “customers’ ...

About the Authors

Ben Reason leads the service design firm Livework where Lavrans Løvlie is a partner and Melvin Brand Flu directs strategy and business design.

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