The one and only marketing and advertising magazine (M&M 3.9.2010) ran an article about the rise of service design in Finland and even hailed the discipline as a potential future star in the export of professional services from Finland.

The grand old man of service design and Palmu Inc. colleague Mikko Jäppinen was interviewed in the article and his list of the five essential tips for better service design are as follows:

1. Familiarize yourself with everyday life
A service designer must be familiar with the normal, standard, run-of-the-mill everyday life of both the company and it’s customers. Conduct research, do interviews, then research and do some more interviews.

2. Know the customer personas
The research will have uncovered several customer personas to help find the focus of the service. Each customer type will have different needs and thus, distinct critical service moments during their service journey.

3. Form a working hypothesis and do a quick prototype
Half designer, half researcher, the service designer’s solution will emerge from the field work. It is crucial to visualize new processes immediately.

4. Test the solution with customers
As soon as you have a prototype of the new service ready, use real customers to test it. For example, Palmu Inc. always rapidly verifies the working hypothesis with customer tests.

5. Measure and analyze
A service is an interaction that changes constantly. The only way to really see if the service is working properly is to measure and analyze the results.

“Excellent service will emerge, when the organization – the people providing the service – are happy with what they are offering”.

Well said, Mikko!