Chapter 4: Service Development And Design

Question 1

What are the unique demands of service design

Answer 1

• the intangibility of services contribute to their overall complexity
• services are difficult to standardize as their often delivered or performed by employees who are human beings exhibiting human behavior
• there’s a high level of variability

Question 2

What are the risks associated with describing services in words alone

Answer 2

• oversimplification > words are often inadequate to describe the complexities of a service
• incompleteness > service designers may be tempted to omit details or elements of the service with which they are not familiar with or regardless obvious
• subjectivity > employees may also be biased by personal experiences and they are relative exposure to the service when trying to describe it
• biased interpretation > different people may attach different meanings to the same word this may lead to inconsistency in the understanding of words and terms to describe the service

Question 3

What are the dimensions that have been developed for the classification of services

Answer 3

• distinction between equipment based and people-based services
• a two by two matrix specification contrasting low customer contact and high customer contact services with low customization and high customization services
• three-dimensional classification
• service delivery modes.

Question 4

What are the four variables that influence the co-production decision

Answer 4

• input uncertainty
• customer willingness to participate
• diversity of demands
• interdependencies

Question 5

What influences the goal of formulating the optimal service design strategy

Answer 5

• the service concept
• the service mix
• the location where the service is consumed
• the design of the service facility or physical evidence
• the technology employed in rendering the service

Question 6

What are the 2 basic characteristics of a service development process

Answer 6

• first, service design thinking and techniques should be utilized in conceptualizing and designing the service
• second, creating a climate for continuous innovation this implies incorporating inputs from both employees and customers

Question 7

What are the types of new services

Answer 7

• Innovations not experienced before [that includes service innovations - online shopping, technology innovations]
• start up businesses where new services are delivered to a market already existing that meet the same generic needs (kulula.com airlines offering the first low cost airline)
• new services for an existing market for which a service organization tries to offer its existing customers new services not previously available from the organization (samsung adding a smartwatch even though apple already has one)
• line extensions such as service line extensions whereby a restaurant adds a new item to the menu and then process lining extensions whereby they add a new way of delivering an already existing product

Question 8

New service strategy development can be formulated by considering the following criteria

Answer 8

• the markets or market segments to be served
• the types of service to be delivered
• the time frame for development of new services
• the profit generation criteria

Question 9

What are ways to generate new ideas when planning for a new service development

Answer 9

• brainstorming
• encouraging ideas from employees or from customers using suggestion boxes or conducting research using surveys
• user research by observing how customers use the organizations services, better understanding can be gained of customer needs
  -collaboration with competitors, vendors or other strategic partners
• competitor analysis by analyzing competitors offers

Question 10

What does the service operations concept describe

Answer 10

• the nature of the service process > in terms of people processing, information processing
• the geographic scope of operations > related to areas served, single-site delivery as opposed to multi-site delivery, facilities location
• the scheduling of service > in terms of hours, days or seasons of service, continuous or intermittent delivery
• facilities design and layout for service delivery
• human resources
• leverage
  -breakdown of service tasks

Question 11

What are two underutilized sources of new service ideas

Answer 11

• supplemental possession processing services to physical products
• re-engineering

Question 12

Implement service development and testing ( which is the first step in the implementation of a service concept)

Answer 12

Taking the service design document as the point of departure, the service concept must be refined to the level where a detailed service blueprint, representing the implementation plan for the service, is produced

Question 13

Implement market testing

Answer 13

Testing the response of the market to different versions of the new services marketing mix variables can present the service development team with a problem.

Question 14

Implement commercialization

Answer 14

Encouraging results from market testing pave the way for the commercialisation phase, where the new service is introduced to the market. It is heavily dependent on competent and motivated employees

Question 15

Implement post introduction evaluation

Answer 15

Information collected during the commercialisation phase reflects the actual market response to the newly introduced service, this market response usually serves as a good basis for making any required changes to the delivery process, staffing or marketing mix etc.

Question 16

What is the difference between service blueprinting and quality function deployment

Answer 16

A service blueprint is a picture or a map that displays the service by simultaneously depicting the process of service delivery, the points of customer contact, the roles of customers and employees in the service delivery process, and the visible elements of the service

Question 17

What are the components of a basic service blueprint

Answer 17

• customer actions that refer to the steps, choices, activities, and interactions that the customer performs in the process of acquiring, consuming, and evaluating the service should be included
• front office contact employee actions include those steps and activities contact employees perform that are visible to the customer
• back office contact employee actions are activities that occur behind the scenes to support front office activities, these actions are invisible to the customers
• list of physical evidence activities are found at the very top of the blueprint. These lists refer to the actual physical evidence of the service for each point of contact between the customer and the contact employees
• the line of interaction separates customer actions from front office contact employees actions
• the line of visibility separates front office contact employee actions from back office contact employee actions it distinguishes the actions that are visible to the customer and not visible to the customer
• the line of internal interaction separates contact employees actions from activities and people that support them

Question 18

What are the service blueprint steps (pg 165)

Answer 18

step 1: identify the process to be blueprinte
step 2: identify the customer or customer segment using the service
step 3: map the service process from the customers point of view
step 4: map the front office and back office employee action and/or technology action
step 5: link contact activities to needed support functions
step 6: add evidence of service and each customer action step

Question 19

Explain quality function development (QFD)

Answer 19

It is it tool that can be used to translate customer requirements into organizational requirements at each stage of service delivery. QFD integrates customer input into the service design

Question 20

read pages 168-170 for the last part