Product & Service Design - Service Design and Quality

Background:

Tangible products are very simple to discuss due to their physical nature. However, services play a major role in everyone's life. Service industries include banking, finance, insurance, transportation, communications, and almost all government or municipal agencies. Designing services is very challenging as they often have unique characteristics. One reason productivity improvements in services lag products is because both the design and delivery of services include customer interaction.

Questions for Thought:

1. How can services be designed to meet the needs of the most customers but yet be flexible and customizable?

2. Can a service or service process be designed with the best intentions and subsequently turn out to be flawed? Can you name any examples?

3. The video clip of the contractor explaining to Tom Hanks that he will "be back when you get your permits" including the timeframe to complete the work is humorous, however, the design of many services and service processes rely on sequential events. Can you relate to the situation Tom Hanks has found himself in in the video clip from Money Pit? Give some examples?