9. July 2010 by Aidan.

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1. July 2010 by Aidan.

Many thanks to those who took my quick poll last month. There were 40 respondents, mostly from Ireland but some from UK, US and even Australia! Respondents came from a wide variety of business sectors.Here is a summary of the results with some comments:

• 42% of respondents said that they were service providers, with 30% saying that they provided products and services. In addition, 15% were public service providers. Only 5% said that they were pure product manufacturers. 
• 72% of respondents said that they generate revenue and profits from their service offerings and 13% said that they generated revenue but no profit. 15% generated no revenue from services but these were predominantly the public service providers
• 88% of respondents believe that services will play a great part in their future plans. 
• One challenge that exists is picking the right entry point into clients’ organisations. This was confirmed by responses when asked “who decides what services to offer?” ; 78% said the Owner/CEO of the business decides, with only 11% saying Sales and 25% saying Customer Service or Marketing. 19% said that it was decided by other factors and these predominantly included the Executive Board or a parent company. These findings highlight the importance of getting access to clients at the highest level in order to successfully introduce service design and service innovation successfully.   
• 58% of respondents said that they don’t have a process for designing new service offerings. The respondents that say they do have a process were often from regulated businesses. This lack of process for designing new service offerings represents a significant opportunity for service design practitioners.
• When asked, 68% of respondents believe that everyone involved in the delivery of services in their organisation is aware of their role in the process. This number seems high in light of previous responses and observed practices however there are 32% who say that their employees are not aware.
• 75% said that they ask their customers what services they would like to see offered. They highlighted workshops, surveys and other feedback mechanisms for doing this. 25% don’t ask their customers. 
• When asked whether they believed if their services could be designed better, 80% said yes and 13% said that they don’t know. Feedback indicated that respondents saw problems with processes being too slow and over complicated. They also indicated that more thought should be put into the design of their services, that they need more innovation and that change needed to be followed through on. These are areas that service design can address.
• 25% of respondents said that they would use an external company to help them redesign their services while an additional 35% said that they might depending on certain factors. These factors included cost, market/sector knowledge, ROI and the complexity of the offering.   

Posted in Service Desig, Service Design in Ireland, Servitize, Customer Service, strategy, General | 2 Comments »

30. June 2010 by Aidan.

I presented a basic introduction to service design at the recent Bizcamp South East event held in Waterford, Ireland in June.

Posted in Service Design in Ireland, Service Desig, Servitize, General | No Comments »

22. January 2010 by Aidan.

While I was in San Francisco last week I had the opportunity to attend one of the AIGA’s D.Talks events. The theme of last weeks event was “Crowdsourcing“. The event was well run with Josh Levine of Great-Monday as moderator and a panel consisting of Jason Aiken (99designs.com), Jody Turner (Cultureoffuture.com) and Christopher Simmons (MINE).

The mood in the room (full of graphic designers) was predominantly of gloom over the threat from crowdsourcing websites, such as 99designs.com where you can get a logo designed for about $300. The concern was that this was undermining what these professional designers were offering for 10 times the price. The argument for the crowdsourcing side was that the low price attracts many businesses that would have never paid a designer for a logo and it also allows designers to build a portfolio of work based on the submissions.

It went around in circles for a while but what it ultimately comes down to, as I said on the night, is that when you are buying a logo on a website for $300 you are buying a product. When you work with a designer to develop a logo for your business you are purchasing a service and you are paying a premium to develop a relationship with the designer, work through a design process with them and ultimately end up with a logo that is more meaningful to you and your business. (Of course it may or may not look better than the $300 logo - that’s a matter of taste!).

Posted in Service Desig, international, General | No Comments »

8. January 2010 by Aidan.

After lots of input the venue has moved to Lime restaurant and bar on Market St, San Francisco. Here are the details :

Where: Lime, Market St, SF

When: Fri. 15th Jan 2010

What time: starting 6:00-6:30pm

Any questions? contact details below…..

Aidan

Original Post: 

As I am in San Francisco next week I thought it woud be a good idea to try to get some service designers together for a few drinks and a chat. The Service Design Drinks idea follows on from other successful events in locations are diverse as England, Australia and Brazil.

This is just an informal gathering of people interested in service design and design thinking. Why not come along?

As I have no idea how many people will turn up, and with a nod to my home country, I have decided to simply meet up in the one pub (bar) that I usually end up in while I am in the city, Johnny Foleys on O’Farrell Street. If anyone has a better suggestion then please let me know.

So here are the details and all are welcome:

San Francisco (informal) Service Design Drinks

Friday Jan 15th   from 6:30pm

Johnny Foley’s Pub, 243 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco

Lime Bar, Market Street, SF

See you there, I’ll be the Irish guy in the corner! (or you can call me on +353 87 233 44 51 / email: aidan@servitize.com )

Posted in Service Desig, international, General | 3 Comments »

15. December 2009 by Aidan.

Posted in Service Desig, Communication, General | No Comments »

27. November 2009 by Aidan.

Here is a visual tool that I have put together to assist in outlining the key steps in the Service Design process.

The LADDER moves from assessing the LAndscape->Discovery->Design->Evaluation->Roll-out and it captures some of the key tools and thought processes involved along the way.

Here is a PDF version: SD LADDER PDF

Posted in Service Desig, Customer Service, General | No Comments »

4. October 2009 by Aidan.

Here is a collection of some of the Service design related conferences that are scheduled to take place. The problem is deciding which ones to go to. Please add a comment with any others you are aware of, thanks, Aidan.    

• SDN - Service Design Network Conference 2009 
  • Madiera, Portugal.  
  • October 26th, 27th 2009
  • Details    

• First Nordic Service Design & Innovation Conference
  • Oslo, Norway.  
  • November 24th to 26th 2009
  • Details  

•  Service Experience Engineering Forum 2009
  • Taipei, Taiwan
  • October 14th, 15th 2009 
  • Details    

• 2010 International Conference on Service Science
  • Hangzhou, China
  • May 13th, 14th 2010 
  • Details   

• 18th Annual Frontiers in Service Conference
  • Honolulu, Hawaii
  • October 29th to November 1st 2009
  • Details  

• International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR)
  • Seoul, Korea
  • October 18th to 22nd
  • Details  

• 11th International Design Conference
  • Dubrovnik, Croatia
  • May 17th to 20th 2010
  • Details

• Design Research Society Conference 2010
  • Montreal, Canada
  • July 7th to 9th 2010
  • Details

• SOLI10 - IEEE International Conference on Service Operations 2010
  • Qingdao, China
  • July 15th to 17th 2010
  • Details

Posted in Service Design in Ireland, Service Desig, international, General | No Comments »

24. September 2009 by Aidan.

I have set up a “Service Design & Innovation - Ireland” group on Linkedin.

Here is the overview from the Linkedin page:

There is a growing international reliance on design in the race to develop radically new, innovative, service offerings.
The demands for Service Innovation are highlighting the need for the practical application of Service Design and Product Servitization techniques.
Ireland is well positioned to play a leading role in the world in these areas however there is no cohesive approach being taken in Ireland to ensure that the experts in these fields are working together towards a common goal.
This group offers practitioners and other interested parties the opportunity to connect and start the discussion about how to move this forward and tap into the opportunities that exist today.

I am looking forward to having interested people join this forum with a view to improving Ireland’s overall standing in the areas of service design and innovation, before it’s too late!

Here is a link to the group page. 

Aidan

Posted in Servitize, Service Desig, Service Design in Ireland, Selling "Services", innovation, consultants, international, General | No Comments »

20. September 2009 by Aidan.

The term “service” is used everyday is discussions about business activities and performance. At times it can be confusing because of the lack of definition in exactly what is meant by the term “service”. In fact, when discussing service it is very important that the context is understood.

There are two main areas of service that are unique and distinct and need to be understood. One helpful way of considering these are as the “service that you provide” and the “services that you offer”.

The “service you provide” covers the interaction of your business with everyone else. It can be the interaction with your customers primarily, but also with your suppliers and your own employees. Every company provides this service by the very nature of being in business (you sell something and you charge for it, you talk to your customers, etc). Anyone who interacts with your company experiences the “service your provide”. To improve customer satisfaction you need to ensure that the level of service you provide is of high quality, responsive and meets your customers needs. Service Design is increasingly being employed to optimise this process and ensure that your service meets or exceeds customer expectations. Essentially, the provision of this service is a cost for your company however the quality of this service can be a differentiator for your business.

The “services you offer” are completely different. These are closer to the product you sell. Essentially they are value added or essential services that you need to actively provide in order to grow your business. In this case it will often be the customers choice whether or not to choose to purchase your service.  These services are value added for your business and can substantially grow your revenue and develop longer term customer relationships. It is critical that these services are designed from the outset and not just drifted into, this is being addressed by the growing field of servitization.

For many companies there can easily be confusion between the service you provide and the services that you offer. These need to be considered as two separate aspects of service (”service” V’s “services”) and there are emerging design techniques and tools that can optimise both.

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