A recent article on Retail Wire details how PetSmart, the big box pet supply retailer, plans to add in-home services to their revenue mix. Services will include dog walking, backyard clean-up and aquarium set-up, all in an effort to differentiate itself from Wal-Mart, which offers everyday low prices on pet supplies and even pets, such as fish.

PetSmart currently offers grooming, training and kenneling at many of its 1,137 stores.

“In-home services are a big opportunity, but we have a lot of work to do before we determine how to make that work,” Robert Moran, who became the pet retailer’s chief executive officer last month after serving as COO since 2001.

Conversely, any move by PetSmart into at-home services would put pressure on the many mom & pops currently supplying those services.

“I would really question the training of the people they would hire,” said Jill Tuesday, owner of No Furry Worries in Huntington Beach, Calif., a local entrepreneur providing dog walking and pet-sitting services. “You can’t just hire a bunch of kids and then expect people to let them into their homes.”

But then again, that’s exactly what Best Buy does with the Geek Squad.

Where are the opportunities to enhance your existing core business with specialized services? This is where a service design review can help.

A recent New York Times article reveals that Wal-Mart Stores are entering into a new service sector aimed at improving and streamlining patient care. This story is a great example of how products, services and distribution systems can be mashed up in new ways to solve big problems.

President Obama’s administration has proposed using $19 billion in incentives from the stimulus package to help physicians to adopt digital medical recordkeeping. Presently, only about 17 percent of US physicians are using computers to keep patient records – most still use paper.

Nearly three-fourths of physicians work in small practices, where the price of installing and maintaining a full digital medical records system is much too high. Wal-Mart, via it’s Sam’s Club brand, recently announced plans to offer a turnkey solution that involves them partnering with Dell Computers and eClinicalWorks , a software company that specializes in digital medical records software packages.

Under the plan, physicians will put the digital medical records software package in their Sam’s Club shopping cart alongside their giant container of pickles. Once purchased – presumably with help from the stimulus package money – Dell will provide the practice with either a desktop or tablet computer and eClinicalWorks will load, optimize, and maintain the software, as well as provide training. The cost of the package is projected as being $25,000 for the first physician and $10,000 for each additional physician in the practice. This is significantly cheaper than other similar software packages on the market.

If this venture is successful, Wal-Mart and its partners will be directly responsible for enabling physicians nation-wide to keep better, transferable patient records that should have a direct impact on the quality of care for patients.

It’s a big step in a new direction for the world’s largest retailer, but they hope that their experience in moving massive volume at a low price will help physicians and patients step into the 21st century technology world. According to the software vendors who sell the records systems, it’s just not cost effective for them to reach small physician offices in remote areas. This is where Wal-Mart’s massive distribution network comes in. This is a great example of combining what two companies do best in order to create an easy-to-buy solution for the customer.