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It is no coincidence that service design has been born as a field of design practice during the last decade. Twenty years ago, the design of services tended to be about hotels and hamburgers. Today, digital platforms are critical to running a business, large or small. The digital landscape of the information age has created radical enablers for new types of service delivery.

Modern service delivery is entirely dependent on digital platforms. Hospitals and banks can’t run without immediate electronic access to detailed records, airlines can’t sell cheap tickets without algorithms that constantly balance supply and demand, and most people can’t do much without the Internet or cell phones. Twenty years ago, cell phones were futuristic gadgets reserved for Wall Street traders and generals; today many people can’t even imagine meeting up in a city without a cell phone.

The combination of enterprise systems that store and link vast amounts of data with mass-consumer access to data through the Web and mobile telephony is transforming the way people live their daily lives. At the same time, the quality of service often suffers due to the complexity of linking these systems together in a way that makes sense to customers. This combination of opportunities and problems is the reason why service design has emerged as a specific design approach.

Streetcar—Enabling Co-production

One example of a service that builds on the active participation of its customers to make the service work better is the car-sharing club, which can be found in cities around the world. Car-sharing pioneer Streetcar launched in 2004, but the customer experience needed to be radically improved if Streetcar was to realize its full potential. To persuade people to switch to this new way of using a car, the customer experience had to be better than buying and owning a car. We suggested to Streetcar that the service experience should feel as satisfying as the click of a Volkswagen door—a consistent, solid, and pleasant experience that gives assurance the whole thing is carefully designed (Figure 2.4). This idea may sound trivial, but it is something that the Volkswagen product designers and engineers understand and spend a significant amount of time, money, and effort on.

FIGURE 2.4 Streetcar’s multiple touchpoints were designed as a holistic, satisfying experience.

We set about creating a customer experience that would enable Streetcar to overcome their key barriers to growth—lack of comprehension, access, and usability. These were systematically resolved by analyzing the customer journey from first awareness of the brand to regular usage (Figure 2.5).

We were able to identify where customers dropped out of the sign-up process or needed expensive customer support. The service is now clearly communicated as a four-step process: (1) book, (2) unlock, (3) enter PIN, and (4) drive (Figure 2.6). Customers find joining easy with a quick call to Streetcar and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and the online booking engine was rebuilt to make it simple to use.

In essence, Streetcar builds on collaboration among the provider, the city, and the customer to make it work. Streetcar provides technology that enables people to rent cars for as little as half an hour. The City of London provides convenient parking spots to make the cars more accessible. Customers refuel the cars, keep them clean, and park them where other customers can find them.

Many organizations struggle to utilize the excellent resource that their customers provide. Most customers have a keen interest in getting as much as possible out of the services they use, and by enabling users to step in and co-produce, providers can create win-win solutions.

FIGURE 2.5 Analyzing the customer journey enabled Streetcar to see where customers dropped out of the sign-up process or found the service frustrating.

FIGURE 2.6 The Streetcar service redesign was communicated as a simple four-step process to ensure that new customers immediately understood the service proposition and how it works.