The definition of service design is widely debated among practitioners and academics. However, to us, service design is a holistic way for business to gain a comprehensive, empathic understanding of customer needs. We work to understand how all the tangible and non-tangible components of a company — products, branding, people, environments, etc.— work together to shape the customer experience, and inversely, how a customer’s perception affects profitability. Studies have shown that business models that are focused on actual customer needs result in increased loyalty, profit margins and growth.

While service design is a fairly new discipline, it is quickly gaining attention in the United States after years of growth in Europe. The growth of services in the world economy (currently 75 % of the U.S. economy is currently represented by services) has caused a need for some kind of disciplined design approach that has historically been taken toward products, and even architecture.

Service design integrates management, marketing, research and design. In doing this, service design “fills the gaps” created by traditional silos of most organizations to bring the focus back to who matters most: your customers.

For more information about service design on a global scale, visit the Service Design Network or this site maintained by one of our professional colleagues, which maintains a very comprehensive list of service design research from the past 30 years.

Or even better, send us an email or give us a call today at 800-578-4384 to discuss your needs.