Service Innovation Through Touch-points: Development of an Innovation Toolkit for the First Stages of New Service Development

The field of service design is expanding rapidly in practice, and a body of formal research is beginning to appear to which the present article makes an important contribution. As innovations in services develop, there is an increasing need not only for research into emerging practices and developments but also into the methods that enable, support and promote such unfolding changes. This article tackles this need directly by referring to a large design research project, and performing a related practicebased inquiry into the co-design and development of methods for fostering service design in organizations wishing to improve their service offerings to customers. In particular, with reference to a funded four-year research project, one aspect is elaborated on that uses cards as a method to focus on the importance and potential of touch-points in service innovation. Touch-points are one of five aspects in the project that comprise a wider, integrated model and means for implementing innovations in service design. Touch-points are the points of contact between a service provider and customers. A customer might utilise many different touch-points as part of a use scenario (often called a customer journey). For example, a bank’s touch points include its physical buildings, web-site, physical print-outs, self-service machines, bank-cards, customer assistants, call-centres, telephone assistance etc. Each time a person relates to, or interacts with, a touch-point, they have a service-encounter. This gives an experience and adds something to the person’s relationship with the service and the service provider. The sum of all experiences from touch-point interactions colours their opinion of the service (and the service provider). Touch-points are one of the central aspects of service design. A commonly used definition of service design is “Design for experiences that happen over time and across different touchpoints” (ServiceDesign.org). As this definition shows, touchpoints are often cited as one of the major elements of service