There are very few design or design management books available that are aimed at the service sector. Several that do discuss the topic tend to focus on the visual aspects of corporate identity or decor. It is advisable to read design management publications then transfer the techniques described to a service situation. The techniques proposed are often also applicable in a service context but consider the greater human involvement.
Otherwise, there are books that refer to service design techniques that are not strictly design books. Examples include:
- A Parasuraman, V A Zeithaml and L L Berry, 'SERVQUAL: A multi-item scale measuring consumer perceptions of service quality', Journal of Retailing, Vol 64, no. 1, 1988, pp 12-37
- L L Berry, V A Zeithaml and A Parasuraman, 'Five Imperatives for Improving Service Quality', Sloan Management Review, Vol 31, no 4, Summer, 1990, pp 29-38
These three authors have been researching and reporting on quality in the service sector for about 15 years. They take turns at whose name appears first if you need to source their work. They developed the SERVQUAL questionnaire to identify service quality. This was based on a 'gap' model, where the five gaps were the differences between what the customer wanted or expected and what service was supplied. The aim is to close these gaps to provide the service that customers perceive they should get.
B Hollins and G Hollins, Over the Horizon: Planning products today for success tomorrow, Wiley, 1999, ISBN 0471987174
This book is in four sections and each relates to the design of products and services. The first looks at what should be done to improve existing products. The second discusses improvement by design and the third section looks at innovation. The fourth section is unusual in that it looks at how to develop products and services several product generations ahead - typically ten years.
Christian Gronroos, Service Management and Marketing: A customer Relationship Management Approach, 2nd ed, Wiley, 2000, ISBN 0471720348
Christian Gronroos has been researching and writing about service management for about 15 years. His books always contain a large element of service design. In this book he describes what constitutes the three levels of service marketing, the basic strategy options and what he considers are the new rules of service. He also shows the role services play in a company's competitive strength and profitability.
J A Fitzsimmons and M J Fitzsimmons, Service Management: Operations, strategy and information technology, 4th ed, McGraw Hill, 2003, ISBN 0072823739
Operations management, but with a very wide view. The latest edition includes 180 pages on 'designing the service enterprise', although most of these are at a pretty basic level. The book does incorporate many techniques that can be applied in planning and implementing service design. Well received when published but considered expensive in comparison with other 'ops' books.
C H Lovelock, S Vandermerwe & B Lewis, Services Marketing, a European Perspective, 4th ed, Prentice-Hall, 1999 ISBN 013095991X
A good book on the marketing side of services.
R Johnston and G Clark, Service Operations Management, FT Prentice-Hall, 2001, ISBN 0273639226
Although this book contains very little on service design, it does include a lot on how to measure and improve existing services. It is compact and easy to read.
C Haksever, B Render, R Russell and R Murdick, Service Management and Operations, Prentice-Hall, 2000, ISBN 0130813389
A large operations management book that includes a lot of useful information that will assist in service design, as well as one section devoted to 'Design and Development of Services and Service Delivery Systems'. The style is very 'American' and tends to focus on the quantitative aspects rather than the 'softer' qualitative side of service design.
M C Scott, The Professional Service Firm: The manager’s guide to maximising profit and value, Wiley, 2003, ISBN 047149948X
A lot of examples from professional service firms are provided although there is little on design and development.
W Schmidt, G Adler & E van Weering, Winning at Service: Lessons from service leaders, Wiley, 2003, ISBN 0470848235
The book is based on interviews with five CEOs who have built four service companies from nothing into industry leaders. The European companies are Securitas, Group 4 Falck, Compass Group and Sodexho Alliance. Lessons were drawn from results of research and show that good leaders require great teams.
B Van Looy, P Gemmel, & R Van Dierdonck (eds) Services Management: an integrated approach, FT Prentice Hall, 2003, ISBN 027367353X
Although this book is very poor in aspects of service design, it does have a good coverage of other aspects of the service provision. Of the 520 pages only fifteen pages are devoted to service design and its management and these tend to be rather old-fashioned in their outlook. In other areas it does give good coverage of the marketing and operations aspects of services.
C H Lovelock, Managing Services: Marketing, operations and human resources, Prentice-Hall, 1992 ISBN 0135615720
This is another edited book from the field of operations management. It includes a section on service design. It is a little shallow and a little dated but does give some useful insights.
J A Fitzsimmons and M J Fitzsimmons, New Service Development, Sage, 2000
This includes a chapter Johnson, Menor, Roth & Chase A critical Evaluation of the New Service Development Process’.
This looks at design as a process and the way that organisations go about designing services (design as a function).
G Hollins and B Hollins, Total Design: Managing the design process in the service sector, Trans Atlantic Publications, 1991 (republished 2002 in its original form), ISBN 0273033387
This was a pioneering book dedicated to service design. The structure of the book follows the stages of the service design process. A worked example of the use of the process is developed around a carpet cleaning business.
S Hart ed, New Product Development: A reader, Thomson, 1996, ISBN 1861524412
Of the seven sections in this book, written by experts from various fields, one section is on 'The Development of New Services'. This includes contributions from Lynn Shostack, Axel Johne, and Ulrike de Brentani. The ideas presented in other parts of the book can also give help in service design.
BS 7000-3 (2006) Guide to Managing the Design of Services, British Standards Institution, London
This is an update of the original standard published in 1994. It is considerably different in its content from the original, demonstrating the greater understanding of the topic that has developed since the original standard was written. The presentation is poor, as all standards must conform to BS0 A Standard for Standards. The final version has undertaken some late changes and there has been disagreement amongst committee members as to the form of the final standard
The standard takes a 'total' approach, looking at the management of all the stages of the process and taking a step-by-step guide from business case through to termination and disposal of a typical service.
BS 7373-3 (2005) Guide to Identifying Criteria for Specifying a Service Offering, British Standards Institution, London
In line with British Standards taking a greater interest in the service sector in the most recent standards it has now produced one covering specifications. As with the Design Management standard, in the early part of 2005 a 'draft for public comment' was to be made available and, following further committee work, the final version is then expected to be published towards the end of this year. It is full of useful information that should ensure that users confront potential problems at the low cost early stages of the design process. It should be remembered that the root cause of many service failures can be blamed on incomplete or inadequate specifications.
BS 7000 – 10 (1995) – being updated Glossary of Terms Used in Design Management, British Standards Institution, London
The original standard lists a great deal of useful terminology beyond that shown below. There is research evidence that words currently used by designers are not understood by practitioners that work in the service sector. This can drive a wedge between designers and other practitioners, so it is not clear why this standard is not more widely used.
J Tidd & F M Hull (eds), Service Innovation: Organizational responses to technological opportunities and market imperatives, Imperial College Press, 2003, ISBN 1860943675
A collection of papers from academics, consultants and practitioners. There are two basic themes - the first is that good practice must be adapted to suit different contexts, scales, complexity, environmental uncertainty and degrees of customisation. The second theme is that investment in IT is not necessarily the way forward in the innovation of services. Also, the book accepts that innovation can involve technological, organisational and market change. The message put over is familiar - success in service innovation comes through matching the configuration of the organisation and technology to the specific market environment.
B Hollins & S. Shinkins, Managing Service Operations: Design and Implementation, Sage, 2006. ISBN-13 978-1-4129-2953-0
This book has been aimed at the student market but does include the latest thinking regarding service design and its management.
M. Alonso-Regardo, G. Thompson & O. Dannemark, State of the Art in Service Design and Modelling Vivace, University of Manchester 2004
Some papers by this research group are available through Google.
Sophia Parker & Joe Heapy, Journey to the Interface (2006) Demos
Publication by the UK Think Tank Demos – Design in Public Services. This is an excellent document that looks at the issue of service design, with particular reference to public services within the economy. This is a useful guide of some 117 pages. Although the two main authors are well versed on service design, it is not apparent that all of those who have written in the document are. In spite of this, any such publication has to be a major step forward in our understanding of the application of the topic. Furthermore, it can be downloaded free from Demos.
W Hollins, C Blackman and S Shinkins, Design and its Management in the Service Sector: Updating the standard, Fifth European Academy of Design Conference, Barcelona, 28-30 April 2003
This paper describes the results of research into how companies operating in the service sector in and around London manage the development of their new services. The conclusion reached is that most do it badly and are not in control of these services. The study also shows that the fastest growing companies are those that do design their new services effectively. The results of this research fed into the new British Standard on Services BS 7000-3 (2005).
M J Bitner, S W Brown & M L Meuter, Technology Infusion in Service Encounters, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 28, 1, 2000 pp 138-149
This paper shows how various services could be improved by an application of technology. The focus of this input is to improve the customer experience. The paper is anecdotal, but includes examples that might be applicable to other service situations such as the fast response for an out-of-hours GP or a hotel that holds computer files on customer preferences. It also discusses 'service recovery' - the response to service failure.
Design Management Journal, ISSN 10457194
Design Management Journal
This journal of the Boston-based Design Management Institute comes out four times each year. Each edition has a theme, and many of these deal with aspects of service design. The articles tend to be easy to read and are aimed at the practitioner.
The following journals occasionally have articles on design, quality and innovation in the service sector: