TH2303

Designing and Managing Service

Developing a service product that meets the needs and wants of guests and having well-trained, enthusiastic,
and motivated employees with the correct information, tools, and equipment are all necessary for quality
service. However, to complete the guest experience, the process by which the service is delivered to the
guests should also be given importance.
Service Design (Cornell & Manzano, 2022)
Design is a term related to the physical structure or model of products aimed to provide more value,
efficiency, or enhanced performance. It also applies to the services, procedures, management styles, and
processes to establish client value and generate higher income for the organization. As an element of a
business operation, the design can be a form of service, output, or product, part of a process, an activity, the
culture of the organization, or a management function.
Service design (service delivery system) is the activity of planning and organizing an organization's resources
(employees, communication, infrastructure, and material components of service) to improve the interaction
between service providers and guests. It is a universal process that considers all touchpoints (the time the
consumer interacts with the brand through the employee, website, advertisement, or an app) of the
customer journey map, from the discovery to the customer service experiences (Verschelde, 2022).

Components of Service Design (Verschelde, 2022)

Each service design component should be correctly designed and integrated to create a complete guest
experience. The following are the three (3) main components of service design:
● People refer to anyone who creates or uses the service and product and those who may be indirectly
affected by the service. Examples include the employees, customers, fellow customers encountered
for the duration of service, and partners.
● Props refer to the artifacts and products needed to perform the service successfully. Examples
include the storefront, kitchen, information desk, function rooms, webpages, blogs, records and
documents on the computer, employee uniforms, and menu ingredients needed to complete the
service.
● Processes are the procedures, workflow, or operations employees perform throughout the service.
Resolving a complaint with the customer, checking in a guest, or requesting supplies are examples of
this component.
In a restaurant, the people would be the farmers growing the fruits and vegetables, managers, chefs, and
servers. The props would include the kitchen, menu preparation ingredients, kitchen tools and equipment,
and the employees' uniforms. The processes would include the servers entering the orders in the POS
system, the chefs cooking the food, and the managers monitoring the restaurant's inventory.
Service design components can be further broken down into two (2): frontstage and backstage.
● Frontstage are the things that the customers can see. Its components include the following:
o Channels refer to the medium of interaction between the customer and an organization.
These are divided into bidirectional and unidirectional channels. Bidirectional channels
support instant two-way interactions between customers and the organization and include
traditional or physical channels, such as talking to a representative in person or by telephone,
or digital channels, such as websites, mobile and tablet applications, live chat, and email.
Unidirectional channels support one-way communication from customers to organizations or
vice versa, such as postal mail, television, and print advertisements.

06 Handout 1 *Property of STI

 student.feedback@sti.edu Page 1 of 5
 TH2303

o Product and Service. Products are the tangible objects that an organization offers to its
customers, such as food and drinks. Services are the intangible items they offer consumers,
such as spa services and dining experiences (Indeed, 2023).
o Touchpoints are the specific interaction between the organization and the customer,
including the device, the channel used for the interaction, and the completed task.
● Backstage supports the operations of the frontstage and plays a critical part in shaping the
customers' experience. It includes the following components:
o Policies are the rules and standards employees should follow during operations. These are
the standardized recipes and codes of conduct that an employee must follow.
o Technology and systems are the computer programs, electrical equipment, and tools an
organization uses. These are the property management system (PMS), global distribution
system (GDS), and POS used by tourism and hospitality establishments.
Tourism and hospitality establishments must understand these components, optimize and harmonize them,
and foster collaboration to deliver quality service. A customer will have a delightful experience if a business
follows service design principles to deliver its products.

Service Design Characteristics (Cornell & Manzano, 2022)

The following characteristics serve as a guide to elevate the guest experience and focus on delivering quality
services:
● Holistic means that a service should consider everything, even the tiny details that may affect the
guest experience. The design should not only focus on the customer but also the environment so that
they can enhance the service process.
● Co-creative means that all relevant stakeholders should be considered and play a role in the service
design process.
● User-centric means that the service should be created for the customers. The design should focus on
how customers expect the products or services to be delivered.
● Sequential. Products and services should be visualized according to an arrangement and combination
of interrelated actions. Each key moment is divided into three (3) distinct steps: pre-service, which
includes the preparation and planning process; during service, which is the direct interaction of the
guest with the product or service; and post-service, which determines the overall experience of the
customer since this is where they make reviews and posts online or share feedback with their friends
and families.
● Evidential means every stakeholder should create a visual expectation of the product and service. It
would make the organization difficult to forget as it has impacted the customers already.

Types of Service Innovations (Cornell & Manzano, 2022)

The uniqueness of the tourism and hospitality industry has made the delivery, description, and
communication of its products and services difficult. To distinguish companies offering the same products and
services from each other, they innovate and design new approaches to provide a personalized type of
experience. The following are the different types of service innovations:
● Service provision innovation is about the new services firms offer or existing service improvements.
Here are the types of this innovation:
o Fundamental innovations are new services not yet offered to the market and usually impact
the consumers, e.g., holographic menus.

06 Handout 1 *Property of STI

 student.feedback@sti.edu Page 2 of 5
 TH2303

o New services for segments catered to by an existing product of the same generic need, such
as ride-sharing services competing against taxis in airports or hotels.
o Service extensions refer to the inclusion of new items among the current choices of
customers. The inclusion of new travel attractions among usual travel packages is an
example.
o Service improvements are the changes in features or services of an organization. An example
is a casual restaurant transitioning into fine dining.
o A change in style is a change in logo design, website revision, or the organization's color
scheme.
● Service innovation around customers happens when the role of the customers is redefined or
altered. Previously, people who enjoyed eating while watching home movies used to go to quick-
service restaurants or convenience stores for their food before starting the movie session. Now, most
restaurants offer delivery services to bring the food customers want to their homes.
● Innovation through a solution. Firms approach customer needs by offering activities that translate to
providing solutions instead of the traditional offering of products. For instance, a travel agent
customizes products to cater to a traveler's request for the best destinations and activities for a
newlywed couple.
● Service innovation through interconnectivity. Interconnectivity allows the equipment to be accessed
remotely to enhance performance and safety, amplify knowledge and create new capabilities.
Through the advancement of technology and digitation, sensors can capture data that can be
transformed to create information and connectivity, which can be used to provide comfort and
convenience to customers. For instance, guest room lighting, blinds, and temperature can be
automatically adjusted according to the guest's preferences with just a single click.
It is essential for a tourism and hospitality business to keep up with the trends and developments in the
industry. Since customer demands and expectations change and technological advances bring discoveries and
possibilities, services and products should be periodically examined using different tools and methods to
gather updated information to be competitive.

Methods and Tools for Service Process (Ford et al., 2019)

Service design is often connected to an organization's action or reaction to the external stimulus. These are
the changing market demands, technological innovations, and the emergence of competitors. The following
are some methods and tools used to analyze and improve the service process of an organization:
● The affinity diagram is an analytical tool to gather and organize information from a significant
amount of mixed data sourced from research insights, concepts, figures, brainstorming ideas, and
designs. It is used to sort and bundle information into groups or based on their relationships. These
connections and relationships provide deeper insights and new ideas. For instance, a travel agency
can use it to categorize client feedback into common themes/relationships (problems, fears, goals,
and possibilities), determine their importance, and address them accordingly.
● Brainstorming is a method to generate ideas from a group of people to solve a service design
problem and create new products and services. Under a facilitator's direction, group members
contribute ideas freely to cover many areas to search for the best possible design. Ideas of everyone
are gathered and refined to determine solutions and suggestions. It is used by tourism and hospitality
establishments to get the perspectives of their employees on how to solve the usual and common
complaints of their guests or get their ideas to come up with new menu items or emerging travel
destinations in a particular country.

06 Handout 1 *Property of STI

 student.feedback@sti.edu Page 3 of 5
 TH2303

● Character profiles. These supplement the understanding and appreciation of designers by providing
patterns or trends about the service users. Knowing these helps in justifying the innovations and
improvements designed for the clients. Hotels and restaurants use these to determine their regular
guests' preferences and special requests and tailor-fit their strategies accordingly.
● Blueprinting is an illustration of how services will be rendered. It is a plan that displays the
interaction between the departments, elements, and activities as part of one entity. This tool dissects
the different components and steps in the process, how the tasks are performed, and the proof of
service based on the actual customer experience. For instance, in a restaurant, employees may have
various ways of providing takeaway meals to guests; however, a consistent, seamless experience is
key to guest satisfaction. Hence, a standard process is important.
● Ethnographic user research is a tool to support a deeper understanding of the design issues for
service designers. The designer will be able to establish the users' motivations to do something and
what obstacles hinder them from not doing different activities. This research is usually done at the
beginning of a project to support service design decisions. Travel agencies use this in packaging their
travel packages' components depending on the market type they have.
● Experience prototyping is a simulation of a service to test new service ideas for specific touchpoints.
It determines if the design applies to the user or identifies the area that could be improved. It allows
first-hand experience and allows the designer to test and improve the designs with potential users. A
restaurant can use this to determine the acceptability of a digital menu and ordering application it
wishes to implement.
● Observation is a method used to identify problems when users are interacting with a product.
Services can be evaluated, and the user experience can be determined to a certain level to determine
if the service is at par with expectations. Tourism and hospitality managers use this to determine if
there are any problems during the duration of the guest experience, such as during the check-in or
check-out process.
Tourism and hospitality organizations can use these methods and tools for their service process to improve
their offerings. Through the analysis of the different processes and factors comprising the guest experience,
tourism and hospitality organizations will determine the best products and services they should give to their
customers.

Redesigning Service Processes (Ford et al., 2019)

Service processes and design can become outdated because of changes in different factors, such as customer
needs and preferences, technology, new product offerings and service features, policies, and laws. With this
in consideration, organizations should be ready to redesign their service processes to continue being
competitive in the tourism and hospitality industry. The following are the indications that the service should
be redesigned:
● There is a heavy volume of exchanges in the communication between the customer and service units
(tourism and hospitality employees). It implies that the needs and wants of the customers are
changing, and they are requesting new and different kinds of products and services.
● The number of customer complaints about unnecessary and irrelevant procedures is increasing.
● An increased review and rechecking of the steps and activities means some errors are present in the
implementation.
● Flaws in the processes in the service design are increasing.
Service process redesigning is about increasing productivity and improving the quality of service. Its focus is
to reduce the number of service failures, shorten the completion process, enhance productivity, and heighten
customer satisfaction.
06 Handout 1 *Property of STI
 student.feedback@sti.edu Page 4 of 5
 TH2303

Redesigning the service process involves reviewing the current procedure and recommending actions, such as
reconstruction, revision, rearrangement, or substituting methods and practices. The following are actions
done by some organizations in redesigning their service process:
● Review the existing service design. It helps identify problems and then come up with solutions. The
different stakeholders may be involved in brainstorming for possible solutions and improvements to
the process.
● Removal of unnecessary steps. Streamline the process by determining parts that are not essential
and removing them or integrating them into the other steps to make the procedure shorter and
simpler.
● Eliminating the bottlenecks. Bottlenecks are steps in the service process where the capacity is
slowed down. Suggestions should be made to address the inefficiency, strengthen the capacity, and
ensure the flow is smooth throughout the process.
● Shifting from service design to self-service. Organizations consider self-service an alternative to keep
the service process productive and cost-efficient. For example, hotels and fast food chains use
automated self-service systems, and airports encourage passengers to self-check-ins in scattered
kiosks.
The redesign of the service process should be carefully studied and tested. There should also be clear
communication with both customers and employees about the changes in the service, as this is vital for
ensuring that their expectations are managed and that those changes will have little to no disruption in the
service flow.

References:
Arenas, C. (2022). Quality service management in tourism and hospitality. Edric Publishing House.
Cornell, D. & Manzano, R. (2022). Quality service management in tourism and hospitality. Rex Bookstore.
Ford, R., Sturman, M., & Heaton, C. (2019). Managing hospitality organizations: Achieving excellence in the
guest experience. Sage Publications.
Goetsch, D. & Davis, S. (2022). Quality management for organizational excellence. Pearson
Goldstein, S. & Schroeder, R. (2021). Operations management in the supply chain (8th Ed.). New York: McGraw-
Hill Education.
Indeed. (2023, February 4). Products vs. services. Retrieved May 30, 2023, https://www.indeed.com/career-
advice/career-development/products-vs-services
Verschelde, O. (2022). What is service design? Retrieved May 30, 2023, from
https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/what-is-service-design

06 Handout 1 *Property of STI

 student.feedback@sti.edu Page 5 of 5