Service Development and design

For a good service idea to succeed, it is important to focus on development, design and specification of service.

To develop or launch a new service, the following characteristics need to be studied in detail:

(a) Service characteristics: -meeting the need of the customer -advantage over the competitors in the market. -technological edge. (b) Strategy characteristics: -dedicated workforce who believe in the new service -dedicated R&D focus on the new service initiative.

(c) Process characteristics: -marketing -predevelopment -technological and launch proficiencies (d) Marketplace characteristics: -relates to the market potential of the new service

CHALLENGES It is difficult to describe services verbally due to the intangible and heterogeneous characteristics of services. The risks involved are (1) oversimplification (2) incompleteness (3) subjectivity (4)biased interpretation

NEW SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

New services should be developed in a systematic step by step framework, which -must be objective, not subjective. -must be precise, not ambiguous. -must be based on facts, not on opinions. -must be methodological, not philosophical

TYPES OF NEW SERVICES

-major innovations -startup business -new services for the currently served market -service line extensions -service improvements -style changes

STAGES IN NEW SERVICE DEVELOPMENT (1)FRONT END PLANNING: -business strategy development: review the overall strategic vision and mission of the organisation. -new service strategy development: In terms of markets, types of services, profit criteria, time frame etc.

Continued
- Idea generation: (a) Screen ideas against new service strategy. (b) brainstorming, inviting ideas from employees and customers, lead user research and studying the competitors offerings.

-Concept development and evaluation: Test the concept with customers and employees.
-Business analysis: Test for profitability and feasibility.

(2) IMPLEMENTATION
-Service development and testing: (a) A service blueprint that represents the implementation plan has to be prepared. (b) Conduct service prototype test -Market testing: (a) Test the service and other marketing mix elements. (b) Pilot run the service. (c) Study the responses

-Commercialisation:
(a) Train and monitor the service delivery employees for service quality. (b) Monitor costs and operating effiency. -Post introduction evaluation

SERVICE BLUEPRINTING
It is a pictorial representation that accurately portrays the service system so that it can be easily understood. It visually displays the service by depicting the various processes involved in the service delivery, points of customer contact, the roles of customer and employees etc.

 Components of service blueprint: In the diagramatic representation the components could be are the:-customer actions area -onstage contact employee action area -backstage contact employee action area -support process

 Building a Blueprint: (a) Identify the process to be blueprinted (b) Identify the customer or customer segment. (c) Map the process from the customers point of view. (d) Map contact employee actions, onstage backstage and technological actions. (e) Link contact activities to needed support functions. (f) Add evidence of service at each customer action step.