Multilevel Service Design:From Customer Value Constellationto Service Experience Blueprinting

Lia Patrıcio1, Raymond P. Fisk2, Joao Falcao e Cunha1, andLarry Constantine3

AbstractThe proliferation of complex service systems raises new challenges for service design and requires new methods. MultilevelService Design (MSD) is presented as a new interdisciplinary method for designing complex service systems. MSD synthesizescontributions from new service development, interaction design, and the emerging field of service design. MSD enables integrateddevelopment of service offerings at three hierarchical levels: (a) Designing the firm’s service concept with the customer valueconstellation of service offerings for the value constellation experience; (b) Designing the firm’s service system, comprising itsarchitecture and navigation, for the service experience; and (c) Designing each service encounter with the Service ExperienceBlueprint for the service encounter experience. Applications of the MSD method are described for designing a new retail groceryservice and for redesigning a bank service. MSD contributes an interdisciplinary service design method that accommodatesthe cocreative nature of customer experiences and enables experience integration from the design of the service conceptthrough the design of the service system and service encounter.

Keywordsservice system design, customer experience, value constellation, blueprint, technology-enabled multi-interface services

Introduction

The rapid evolution of service systems raises new challenges

for service design. Consensus is emerging across service fields

that further research is needed to address these challenges in

marketing (Bitner and Brown 2006; Brown, Fisk, and Bitner

1994; Hauser, Tellis, and Griffin 2006), operations management

(Johnson et al. 2000; Menor, Tatikonda, and Sampson 2002;

Stuart and Tax 2004), innovation management (Karniouchina,

Victorino, and Verma 2006), interaction design (Constantine

and Lockwood 2002), design (Evenson 2008), and service

science (Ostrom et al. 2010). Some areas need particular

attention, such as the growing complexity of service systems,

the emergence of multichannel services, customer cocreation

of service experiences, and the need for interdisciplinary

methods. Together these trends have led to the emergence of

service design as a new field (Mager 2009) that takes a more

holistic view of the service system. This section describes

the new service challenges that motivated the development

of the Multilevel Service Design (MSD) method.

Complex Service Systems

Service offerings today are enabled by complex service sys-

tems, which are configurations of people, technologies, and

other resources that interact with other service systems to

cocreate value (Maglio et al. 2009). For example, customers

can cocreate value by combining service offerings from multi-

ple firms, such as credit and insurance in the case of a home

purchase. This constellation of service offerings can be viewed

as a system of service systems. At the firm level, each of these

service offerings is enabled by a firm’s service system compris-

ing multiple service interfaces such as physical stores, the tele-

phone, or the Internet. At each service encounter, the customer

interacts with a concrete service interface, which is a service

subsystem that integrates the physical environment, people,

and process. Designing these complex service systems requires

a holistic systems thinking approach (Jackson 2003; Norman

2011), which focuses on designing the system components and

the networks of relationships that make the whole service offer-

ing more than the sum of its parts. This holistic perspective

complements traditional reductionist approaches that do not

address the interactions between the parts of the service system

1 University of Porto, Porto, Portugal2 Texas State University–San Marcos, San Marcos, TX, USA3 University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal

Corresponding Author:

Lia Patrıcio, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, School of

Engineering, University of Porto, R. Roberto Frias, 4200 – 465 Porto, Portugal

Email: lpatric@fe.up.pt

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and may lead to optimizing one part in isolation without

considering overall system performance. Different service sys-

tem levels should be integrated into service design, but service

design approaches have typically only focused on one system

level at a time.

Multi-Interface Services

Technology trends have enabled the emergence of multi-

interface service systems through which companies manage

relationships with their customers (Rayport and Jaworski

2004). Multi-interface services are called multichannel ser-

vices in many research studies. Designing these service sys-

tems involves defining the mix of service offerings and

interfaces, the tangible evidence, the service processes, peo-

ple’s roles in the processes (whether service representatives

or customers), and the technology solutions that provide crucial

support to the entire system. Multi-interface services are con-

sidered technology-driven service innovations (Johnson et al.

2000), but many firms have introduced online services without

understanding customer experience needs or taking an overall

view of the firm’s multi-interface offering. The result is fre-

quently a collection of incoherent service fragments that fail

to provide satisfying service experiences to customers (Patrıcio,

Fisk, and Cunha 2008). In this context, researchers studying

new service development have stressed the need to address

new issues related to multichannel service design (Hill et al.

2002; Menor, Tatikonda, and Sampson 2002; Neslin et al. 2006;

Sousa and Voss 2006), such as the trade-off of efficiency versus

personalization, the definition of the offline/online mix, resource

allocation across channels and multichannel coordination.

Design for the Customer Experience

In the new service-centered paradigm, value is no longer

embedded in tangible offerings but is cocreated with customers

through relational exchanges in interaction experiences

(Normann 2001; Vargo and Lusch 2004). Instead of delivering

preproduced offerings, firms can only offer value propositions,

which customers then transform into value through use (Gupta

and Vajic 2000; Normann and Ramırez 1993). In this context,

customer experiences can be viewed as internal and subjective

responses to any contact with a company (Meyer and Schwager

2007) and are increasingly important to differentiating and add-

ing value to a firm’s offerings (Pine and Gilmore 1998). Recent

research has advocated a more holistic view of the customer expe-

rience (Gentile, Spiller, and Noci 2007; Verhoef et al. 2008) and

some approaches have been proposed for managing customer

experiences (Bardon et al. 2002; Berry, Carbone, and Haeckel

2002). However, further research on service experience design

is still needed (Stuart and Tax 2004; Zomerdijk and Voss 2009).

The Need for Interdisciplinary Methods

Interdisciplinary service innovation research has been called

for in academe and industry. The integration of marketing and

operations perspectives has been a concern of new service

development (Karniouchina, Victorino, and Verma 2006;

Meyer and Schwager 2007; Roth and Menor 2003), but tech-

nology infusion and the increasing complexity of service sys-

tems require other competences such as computer science,

engineering, social sciences, and the arts (Fisk and Grove

2008). Service innovation efforts have been hampered by their

isolation in different academic disciplines and a lack of unify-

ing models and languages. These problems have been major

forces driving the emergence of IBM’s Service Science, Man-

agement and Engineering (SSME) initiative, which encourages

integrating work from different fields to develop the new com-

petencies required in the service-led economy (Chesbrough and

Spohrer 2006). The creation of integrative methods, tools, and

languages that unify these different perspectives is crucial for

the development of the service design field. The Service Expe-

rience Blueprint (SEB) method (Patrıcio, Fisk, and Cunha

2008) represented a first step toward such unification by join-

ing management and technology perspectives for the integrated

design of technology enabled multi-interface services. How-

ever, the SEB method focuses only on multi-interface integra-

tion. Service system design needs to evolve to more holistic

methods that integrate the design of the different service sys-

tem levels from the definition of the overall service concept

to the design of each concrete interface.

This article presents MSD as a new interdisciplinary method

for integrative design of complex service systems. MSD

synthesizes contributions from different fields, allowing inte-

grated design of the service offering at three hierarchical levels:

the firm’s service concept, the firm’s service system, and the

service encounter. The next section analyzes research from dif-

ferent fields that provided the foundation for the development

of the MSD method. The second section presents the MSD

method, defining its core design process, concepts, and models.

The third and fourth sections describe applications of the MSD

method to designing a new retail grocery service and redesign-

ing a banking service. Finally, the last section presents the con-

tributions and managerial implications of MSD.

Service System Design as an Emerging Field

Service design is an emerging field (Mager 2009) whose meth-

ods are still being developed and are often borrowed from

related areas. Service design has been traditionally viewed as

a specific stage of the new service development process

(Edvardsson et al. 2000). However, the new service design

field has adopted a broader approach, involving understanding

users and their context, understanding service providers and

social practices, and translating this understanding into the

development of evidence and service systems interaction

(Evenson 2008). When designing complex systems, thinking

with models helps bridge the gap between problem and solution

(Dubberly, Evenson, and Robinson 2008). Models synthesize

the understanding of users’ needs and possible solutions in

ways that help different stakeholders explore new ideas.

Service systems can be modeled and designed at different

levels. The network of service offerings provided by different

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firms can be viewed as a system of systems. The firm’s configura-

tion of people, technologies, and other resources can be viewed as

the service system at the organizational level. This service system

can be decomposed into several subsystems, such as each service

channel. When modeling customer needs, Human Activity

Modeling (Constantine 2008) provides a hierarchical view of user

activity, decomposed into tasks and operations, such as applying

for a mortgage loan and interacting with a sales representative

to get advice on that loan. Service design involves different com-

ponents, such as the definition of the service concept, the service

system, and the service process (Edvardsson et al. 2000).

Although these components do not represent hierarchical levels,

the service concept and the service system concept can be adapted

for designing the different levels of service systems.

Service Concept and Value Constellation Models

The service concept defines the benefits a service offers custom-

ers (Edvardsson et al. 2000). The flower of service metaphor has

been widely used to represent the service concept (Lovelock

1994), comprising the core and supplementary services; but this

is an internal view from within the firm. Services are increasingly

created by value networks, so it is important to adopt systems

thinking for service design (Norman 2009), defining the firm’s

service concept within the context of its value-creating system.

At this strategic level, Normann and Ramirez (1993) developed

the concept of a value constellation, which represents the network

of actors and their relationships that jointly create an offering.

This value constellation can be viewed as a system of service

systems. According to Normann (2001), a firm can upframe its

perspective by understanding the firm’s offering as an input

into creating customer value while also considering the inputs

offered by other firms. This perspective widens the service design

space, enabling companies to creatively design frame-breaking

systemic solutions that change the whole value-creating system.

This approach opens new forms of service logic innovation

(Michel, Brown, and Gallan 2008), such as changing customer

roles in value cocreation, changing the firm’s processes of value

integration, or repositioning the firm in the value constellation.

The Apple iPad, with its access to thousands of apps via iTunes,

is a good example of how firms can reconfigure value constella-

tions to enable customers to cocreate experiences in innovative

ways. Normann’s value constellation framework provides an

insightful approach for positioning the firm’s service concept in

the value-creating system. However, this high-level approach has

not been used in service design. There is no systematic process,

yet, for positioning the service concept in the value constellation

before moving to more concrete levels of service system design.

Service System Models

The firm’s service system can be viewed as an integrated whole

that enables customers to cocreate their service experiences

according to the positioning of the service concept in the value

constellation. Several frameworks have been developed in the

service management field to represent the firm’s service

system. In the Servuction framework (Langeard et al. 1981),

the service system comprises the internal organizational sys-

tem, the physical environment, the contact personnel, and the

customers. The Service Theater framework (Fisk, Grove, and

John 2008) views service experiences as theatrical. In service

theater, service systems comprise both the frontstage, where

the service interaction occurs in view of customers, and the

backstage, where internal support processes are hidden from

customers. These frameworks have been further developed and

integrated with representations of the service delivery system

for both high-contact and low-contact services (Lovelock and

Wirtz 2006). However, these frameworks do not offer an inte-

grated view of the multi-interface system and are not connected

with higher and lower levels of service design. Glusko orga-

nizes service systems into seven design contexts (Glusko

2010): (a) person-to-person service; (b) technology enhanced

person-to-person service; (c) self-service; (d) multichannel ser-

vice; (e) multiple device service; (f) computational service; and

(g) location-based and context aware service. These seven con-

texts can all be present in the multichannel service system, and

the computational, backstage component is an integral part of

the service provided through any of the other channels. How-

ever, this classification framework does not offer a method for

integrated design of the seven contexts.

When designing technology-enabled multi-interface

services, Usage Centered Design’s Navigation Architecture

(Constantine 2008) can also be useful. This system’s naviga-

tion architecture specifies how the overall user interface breaks

down into interaction contexts, how they are grouped, how they

are presented to the users, and how users navigate them. This

model can help design the overall structure of the multi-

interface service system, but so far, it has only been applied

to technology system contexts. In designing experience-

centric services, the customer journey and touchpoints are two

important design process concepts (Zomerdijk and Voss 2009).

Touchpoints occur whenever a customer interacts with the ser-

vice provider across multiple channels and, therefore, are sim-

ilar to service encounters (Bitner, Ostrom, and Meuter 2000).

The customer journey refers to a series of touchpoints, involv-

ing all activities and events related to the delivery of the service

from the customer’s perspective. This view helps in under-

standing the service experience across multiple contacts but

does not offer an overall view of the service system structure or

an integrated approach to the different levels of service design.

Service Encounter Models

When drilling down to the design of each service encounter or

touchpoint, Service Blueprinting (Shostack 1984) provides a

diagrammatic tool for designing the service provision. Service

Blueprinting started as a process for mapping all the key activ-

ities involved in service delivery and production, specifying the

linkages between these activities. Service Blueprinting has

evolved to include other aspects of service delivery, such as the

distinction between frontstage and backstage and the physical

evidence. Service Blueprinting’s customer focus and visual

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representation of the service delivery are considered strong aids

for service innovation (Bitner, Ostrom, and Morgan 2008).

From software engineering, UML Activity Diagrams can also

support interaction design for a concrete interface. An activity

diagram is a flowchart that depicts the actions taken over time

by the different actors (Booch, Rumbaugh, and Jacobson

1999). Activity Diagrams resemble Service Blueprints in that

they represent the flow of events in the service provision over

time. However, Activity Diagrams are structured around the

software system and lack all other elements of service design,

such as the line of visibility or the tangible evidence.

More recently, the Service Experience Blueprint method

(Patrıcio, Cunha, and Fisk 2009; Patrıcio, Fisk, and Cunha

2008) integrated the design logics of Service Blueprinting and

Activity Diagrams. This method uses the Service Experience

Blueprint diagram to design service encounters in a way that

enhances multi-interface service experiences. The Service Expe-

rience Blueprint method involves studying customer service tasks

and customer experience requirements independently of the ser-

vice interface used, such as getting personal advice for a mortgage

loan. The results are used to analyze which interface is best suited

to provide the desired experience for each task and to enable

designing service interface links that guide the customer across

interfaces whenever such flexibility enhances the service experi-

ence. Service Experience Blueprint represents a first step toward

an interdisciplinary method for integrated design of the multi-

interface service system. However, the Service Experience Blue-

print focuses on lower levels of multi-interface integration and

offers no support for designing the service concept. Service

design is an emerging field and, despite many useful contributions

from multiple areas, further work is needed to create a new inter-

disciplinary method that accommodates the cocreative nature of

customer experience through hierarchical levels of service

design. The next section presents the MSD method, which

addresses the challenges posed by this new service context.

The Multilevel Service Design (MSD) Method

MSD was developed according to a design research approach

(Forlizzi, Zimmerman, and Evenson 2008) for creating new

service design methods. According to this approach, the criteria

for evaluating new design methods should be process detail,

invention, relevance, and extensibility. In this section, the pro-

cess detail of the MSD method is described so that the design

process can be replicated. The following sections with the

industry applications demonstrate MSD’s invention and rele-

vance by providing new insights that are not offered by existing

service design methods. The application of MSD to two differ-

ent service industries of retailing and banking suggests that

MSD can be extended to many other service contexts. The

MSD method unites the contributions of different fields and

designs the service offering through the different levels of cus-

tomer experience (see Figure 1). This method recognizes that

organizations cannot design customer experiences, but service

systems can be designed for the customer experience.

The MSD Process

According to the Analysis-Synthesis Bridge Model (Dubberly,

Evenson, and Robinson 2008), the design process starts with

observation and investigation of the current situation. Next,

modeling forms a bridge between problem and solution, by

helping interpret and systematize the understanding of the

existing situation and explore new potential solutions. Finally,

through an iterative process, idealized solutions are materia-

lized into prototypes and ultimately finished forms. The MSD

method follows this approach, studying the customer experi-

ence and creating a set of interrelated models that bridge under-

standing the customer experience and designing the service

offering (see Figure 2). The MSD process involves four steps,

as shown in Table 1.

Value ConstellationExperience

Service Experience

Service EncounterExperience

Customer ValueConstellation

Service SystemArchitecture and

Navigation

Service ExperienceBlueprint

Designing theservice offering

Understanding thecustomer experience

Designing theservice concept

Designing theservice system

Designing theService encounter

Figure 1. General model of multilevel service design.

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MSD requires the formation of a multidisciplinary team,

which includes the manager of the business area and repre-

sentatives from marketing, information systems, and opera-

tions. The MSD models help the team analyze and discuss

the existing solution, revealing problems in the customer

experience and potential areas for service innovation. These

models are also used to generate and select possible service

design concepts and solutions, comparing and evaluating

different alternatives. For a more detailed analysis of the

correspondence between customer experience and design

solutions, Goal Oriented Analysis (Mylopoulos, Chung, and

Yu 1999) can evaluate how different design alternatives

contribute to the desired customer experience. Goal

Oriented Analysis has been previously used in the SEB

method for multi-interface service design (Patrıcio, Cunha,

and Fisk 2009). The interrelated MSD models allow for tra-

ceability and integration between these different levels of

service design as high-level decisions provide guidance for

the lower levels. The next subsections present the steps,

concepts, and models of MSD in detail.

Step 1: Studying the Customer Experience

Step 1 starts with an in-depth study of the customer experi-

ence at its different levels. MSD uses qualitative methods

(Strauss and Corbin 1998) to get a rich and detailed under-

standing of the different levels of the customer experience.

This stage involves data collection techniques such as

observation, in-depth interviews, focus groups, usability

testing, or walkthroughs (Preece, Rogers, and Sharp 2002).

The qualitative study in MSD enables mapping the overall

customer activity, service activities, and service tasks,

which are related to the different levels of the customer

experience (see Figure 2). MSD also enables a better under-

standing of the desired experience at these different levels.

The qualitative study can be supplemented with quantitative

methods to evaluate specific features or to make a global

assessment of the customer experience at a given level. This

understanding provides the basis for designing the service

offering at its different levels.

Step 2: Designing the Service Concept

Step 2 adopts the Edvardsson et al. (2000) definition of the ser-

vice concept as the benefits that the service is expected to offer

to the customer. Instead of viewing the service concept as the

bundle of core and supplementary services internally offered

by the firm (Lovelock 1994), MSD defines the service concept

as the firm’s positioning in the customer value constellation

(CVC) including the services offered and the links and partner-

ships established with other organizations in the network to

enhance the firm’s value proposition (see Figure 2). Therefore,

MSD focuses on the firm’s value proposition but defines the

value proposition in the broader context of the value network

within which it is embedded.

Service System ArchitectureService System

Navigation

Loanapplic.

Contract

Service Experience

…

Customer ValueConstellation

Value Constellation Experience

House Info

Mortgage loan

House purchase

Registrationoffice

Insurance Bankmortgageservice

Realestatebroker

buying a house

Realestate

service

Real estateinformation

service

Personalrecommen-

dationsDesigning the Service Concept

Designing the Service System

ServiceExperience

BlueprintLogin Select

loan infoAnalyzeloan info

…

Service Encounter ExperienceDesigningthe ServiceEncounter

Understanding theCustomer experience

Designing theService offering

Infosearch

Figure 2. Component models of multilevel service design.

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Understanding the Value Constellation Experience (VCE). Designing

the service concept starts with understanding the value con-

stellation experience. The value constellation experience is

cocreated through the interactions between the customer and

all service organizations that enable a given customer activ-

ity, such as buying a house. In-depth studies with customers

in Step 1 enable the decomposition of the different activities

that form the value constellation experience and the identi-

fication of the most important experience factors. As shown

in Figure 2, the value constellation experience for buying a

house can be decomposed into several service activities: (a)

searching for a house, which may be done through a real

estate broker; (b) obtaining a mortgage loan, which may

be provided by a bank or loan company; (c) purchasing the

house, which may be done with the services of a title regis-

tration firm; and (d) decorating the house, which may be

done with assistance from many service firms. Although

experience research has adopted a holistic approach, it has

only addressed the customer experience at the firm level.

MSD’s broader view is crucial for understanding customer

experience beyond the narrower view of the service firm.

For a bank, it is important to understand that loan experi-

ences are but one component of buying a house. It is crucial

to identify the additional components necessary to enhance

the value constellation experience. This view helps service

providers understand the broader context within which

customers use their services, opening new possibilities for

service innovation.

Designing the service concept through the Customer ValueConstellation (CVC). In MSD, the CVC model enables designing

the service concept. The CVC represents the set of service

offerings and respective interrelationships that enable custom-

ers to cocreate their value constellation experience for a given

customer activity. The MSD method adds the word customer to

the value constellation and puts the customer activity that is

being supported at the center of the value network. Based on

understanding the value constellation experience and its

decomposition, the MSD analyzes existing service offerings

that respond to those needs, which builds the CVC (see Figure

2). The bank’s mortgage loan, the real estate broker service,

and the decoration service are each part of the CVC that sup-

ports the house purchase activity. The concept of CVC recog-

nizes that value is cocreated with a network of organizations

beyond the firm’s boundaries. By broadening the design space

beyond the firm’s boundaries with the CVC, the firm can ana-

lyze its current service offering and explore new alternatives

for repositioning its service concept to enhance its contribution

to the value constellation experience. For example, knowing

that house search is an important part of the house purchase

value constellation experience, the bank can partner with infor-

mation services, such as newspapers, to develop a new real

Table 1. MSD Steps

MSD Steps Retail Application Bank Application

Step 1: Study the three levels ofcustomer experience

Study the three levels of grocery managementexperience

Study the three levels of buying a carexperience

Qualitative study Observation and interviews with 31 customers Observation and interviews with 26 bankcustomers

Quantitative study Survey with 505 customers Survey with 420 bank customers

Step 2: Design the service concept Design the new retail service concept Define the bank loan service concept

Understand the value constella-tion experience

Map the value constellation experience for buyinggroceries

Map the value constellation experience forbuying a car

Design the service concept withthe customer value constellation

Design a new grocery management service concept inthe customer value constellation for buying groceries

Design the mortgage service concept in thecustomer value constellation for buying acar

Step 3: Design the service system Design the retail service system for the new service Redesign the bank service system for loans

Understand the serviceexperience

Map the service experience for the new grocerymanagement service

Map the service experience for the mortgageservice

Design the service systemarchitecture

Design the SSA for the new grocery management service Design the SSA for the mortgage service

Design the service systemnavigation

Design the SSN for the new grocery managementservice

Design the SSN for the mortgage service

Step 4: Design the service encounter Design the retail service encounters Design the bank loan service encounters

Understand the service encounterexperience

Map the experience for each service encounter of thenew grocery management service

Map the experience for each service encoun-ter of the loan service

Design the service encounterswith the service experienceblueprint

Design the grocery management service encounterswith the SEB

Design the loan service encounters with theSEB

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estate online service that helps customers find their house and

also offer information about the bank’s mortgage. The design

of the service concept guides the subsequent levels of service

design, as it defines the firm’s positioning that needs to be sup-

ported by the service system and each service encounter.

Step 3: Designing the Firm’s Service System

In Step 3, the firm designs its service system to enhance the

service experience, according to the firm’s positioning in the

CVC. The MSD method adopts the Maglio et al. (2009) concept

of service system as a configuration of people, technologies, and

other resources. For example, to support its previously defined

mortgage service concept, the bank needs to design the service

system for the desired mortgage service experience and define

the mix of service interfaces that enable the mortgage process,

the support processes, and their interconnections.

Understanding the service experience. The service experience

is cocreated through all interactions between a customer and a

firm’s service system to accomplish a given service activity

and includes all the different service encounters with the firm

across different service interfaces. The service experience can

be seen as the result of the customer journey and is the level

traditionally addressed by customer experience research. In

MSD, in-depth studies with customers enable the decomposi-

tion of the mortgage loan experience to all the moments of con-

tact between the customer and the loan company necessary to

receive and use the mortgage, such as searching for information

online or getting advice in the physical branch. Understanding

this level is important for designing the service system because

it reveals how different service encounters form the customer

journey, the paths and service interfaces customers use, and the

factors that enable or inhibit the desired service experience.

This analysis is important to reveal breakdowns in the multi-

interface service experience, which highlights opportunities for

improvements in the firm’s service system.

Designing the service system through the Service SystemArchitecture (SSA) and the Service System Navigation(SSN). Based on understanding the service experience, the

firm’s service system is designed to enable customers to follow

multiple patterns of navigation across service interfaces

through the SSA and SSN. This includes three components.

First, for each service task, the service system should offer

an interface mix that enables customers to choose their pre-

ferred service interface. Second, the service system should

enable customers to smoothly navigate across service inter-

faces through the different tasks of the service activity. Third,

instead of replicating every offering in every service interface,

the service system should enhance the service experience while

contributing to efficient resource allocation among interfaces.

The MSD method employs two models for the design pro-

cess at the system level (see Figure 2): SSA and SSN. The SSA

defines the structure of the service system, providing an inte-

grated view of the multi-interface offering and support pro-

cesses across the different tasks of the service experience.

Based on the understanding of the service experience, the top

row of the SSA depicts the service activity (such as a mortgage

loan) decomposed into its service tasks (such as information

search, decision advice, application, waiting for bank decision,

contracting, and post-contracting). The left column of the SSA

depicts the actors involved in the service experience in three

groups: the customer, the frontstage service interfaces, and the

backstage support people and IT systems. Based on this analy-

sis, the body of the matrix defines the mix of alternative service

interfaces and backstage processes that support each task in the

service experience. According to the desired service experience

and the bank’s decisions, tasks such as information gathering

may be available in all interfaces, whereas tasks such as advice

may only be available at the physical interface or the telephone.

This integrated view of the SSA can identify breakdowns in the

existing service system or to explore new possible solutions.

Whereas the SSA provides a static view, the SSN offers a

dynamic view of the service system. Based on the matrix devel-

oped in the SSA, the SSN maps the alternative paths customers

may take across different service encounters forming the ser-

vice experience (see Figure 2). Each path represents one possi-

ble customer journey across different touchpoints or service

encounters. The SSN view enables better identification and

design of service interface links that enable customers to

smoothly move from one interface to another in the service

experience. Often, customers like to search for mortgage infor-

mation on the Internet but need personal advice before making

a decision. To enhance the service experience, the bank can

change the SSA (adding chat advice functionalities to the Inter-

net service) and/or can change the SSN (designing service

interface links that guide customers from the Internet service

to telephone or physical branch advice whenever needed). By

offering customers an interface mix and alternative customer

journeys, the SSA and SSN accommodate the interactive and

cocreative nature of services. The SSA and SSN provide struc-

ture and navigation views of the service system that guide the

design of each service encounter.

Step 4: Designing the Service Encounter

In Step 4, service encounters are defined as the moments of inter-

action between the customer and the firm and may take place in

multiple interfaces, such as the Internet or a physical store (Bitner,

Ostrom, and Meuter 2000). Service encounters are also called

touchpoints in the service design field (Zomerdijk and Voss

2009). At this level, service designers need to define the interac-

tion setting, interaction process, and the role of each participant.

Understanding the Service Encounter Experience (SEE). The

service encounter experience is cocreated through customer

interactions at a given service interface for a service task, such

as getting mortgage information on the Internet. This concrete

interface level has typically been the focus of interaction

design. In MSD, in-depth studies with customers enable map-

ping the process customers use to cocreate their experiences for

each service encounter or touchpoint and identifies important

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experience factors. For example, the Internet service encounter

for mortgage information is studied in detail: how the customer

logs in, finds, selects, and analyzes mortgage information. It is

also important to understand factors that enable a desired ser-

vice encounter experience, such as ease of use or usefulness

of a service interface.

Designing the service encounter with the Service ExperienceBlueprint (SEB) diagram. The MSD method uses the SEB dia-

gram (Patrıcio, Fisk, and Cunha 2008) to design each concrete

service encounter, such as loan information gathering on the

Internet (see Figure 2). Based on the detailed understanding

of the service encounter experience, the SEB maps the actions

of the different participants in the service encounter, both front-

stage and backstage. The SEB diagram depicts lines of interac-

tion, lines of visibility, fail points, waiting points, and service

interface links. The service interface link represents a point

in the service encounter where the customer should be guided

to another interface to enhance the service experience. Again,

SEB is used to map the existing service encounter but is also

used to explore other design alternatives that may enhance the

service encounter experience. For example, when customers

gather mortgage information on the Internet, this service can

explicitly offer the option to receive advice from other service

interfaces. SEB offers a detailed view that enables designing

the concrete service interface without losing the multi-

interface perspective.

With this multilevel perspective, MSD offers a holistic

view, from the service concept level to the multi-interface ser-

vice system level and to each service encounter. The different

levels of MSD provide different views of the service offering

that can be used by different members of the design team and

different decision makers. Whereas software engineers may be

more interested in detailed SEB models to identify the use

cases for their information systems, business managers are

more interested in viewing the SSA and SSN to make more

structural decisions. With these sets of models, team members

can concentrate on their preferred design level while also

understanding how their decisions impact the other design lev-

els. The next two sections demonstrate how MSD can be

applied to very different service contexts, which includes both

the design of a new service (European retailer) and the redesign

of an existing service (Portuguese bank).

Application of MSD to Designing a New RetailService

The European retailer has a multi-interface service system with

large retail stores, an online shopping service, and a call center

support service. The project objectives were to redesign the

existing service to improve the customer experience and to

develop new service offerings that enhance value creation for

the customer and the firm. The project team involved the man-

agement of the retail service, the management of the different

service interfaces, the marketing department, and the informa-

tion systems department.

Step 1: Studying the Levels of Home GroceryManagement Experience

Following the steps of the MSD method, the project started

with a qualitative study to get an in-depth understanding of the

different levels of the customer experience. Following a quali-

tative approach, the sample was defined according to the theo-

retical relevance of cases (Strauss and Corbin 1998). Frequent

and infrequent users of the online and physical retail stores

from two Portuguese metropolitan areas were divided into 20

female and 11 male customers. The study included data collec-

tion techniques such as individual and focus group interviews,

supplemented with observation through walkthroughs and

usability testing of the online service (Preece, Rogers, and

Sharp 2002). These interviews were organized into four parts.

In the first part, customers were invited to talk about their value

constellation experiences for home grocery management. This

discussion identified the main activities involved, the different

services used, and the drivers for creating the desired experi-

ence. Customers were then invited to talk about their service

experience with the retail firm across different service encoun-

ters and different grocery purchase tasks. Then, with the sup-

port of online computer access, customers were invited to

explain how they used the retailer’s online service as they

walked through specific service encounters, to get a detailed

understanding of different service encounter experiences.

Finally, customers were invited to make suggestions for service

improvements. All interviews were video recorded and tran-

scribed literally. Data analysis followed qualitative analysis

guidelines for the development of categories in an iterative pro-

cess (Charmaz 2006).

The qualitative stage was supplemented with a quantitative

study that evaluated the multi-interface aspect of the retail ser-

vice experience (for a detailed presentation of the quantitative

study see Patrıcio and Fisk 2011). Following a scale develop-

ment approach (Churchill 1979), the service experience factors

identified in the qualitative study were used to develop a survey

questionnaire. After pretesting with 86 customers, the survey

was administered by phone to a sample of 505 retail customers

who used both the online service and the physical store. Fol-

lowing scale development procedures, data analysis involved

exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and

structural equation modeling to purify and validate the scale

(Hair et al. 2006). This quantitative study enabled identification

of the most important factors at the retail service experience

level and of areas for improvement. Together, the results of the

qualitative and quantitative studies of the customer experience

were used as input for designing the retail service offering at its

different levels.

Step 2: Designing a New Retail Service ConceptUnderstanding the Value Constellation Experience (VCE) for

grocery management. The value constellation experience for

managing groceries was defined as being cocreated through

the interactions with all service organizations associated with

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managing home groceries. The study showed that this value

constellation experience involved not only grocery purchases

but also other activities associated with home groceries, such

as stock control and making grocery lists (see Figure 3). These

results enabled mapping the customer activities and identifying

the services related to grocery management. This high level

perspective allowed for a better understanding of how the retail

service experience fit into the value constellation experience

and which customer activities were not covered by the existing

retailer service offering. In this case, the retailer provided the

product selection, purchase, and delivery activities of the value

constellation experience for home groceries. Customers per-

formed other activities, such as controlling their grocery stock

and making lists, for which no services were available. This

presented opportunities to innovate by developing new services

not offered by the existing network of service providers.

Designing the new retail service concept through the CustomerValue Constellation (CVC). Based on the results of the customer

experience study and the work with the multidisciplinary team,

a new grocery service concept was designed. The understand-

ing of the value constellation experience and the respective net-

work of services were used to map the existing CVC (see

Figure 4). The overall activity of home grocery management

is at the center of the CVC, surrounded by the services that

enable the value constellation experience. The CVC was then

used to explore new service innovation possibilities, such as

(a) adding new services that were now being provided by other

service providers in the CVC; (b) establishing new links with

other service providers in the CVC to create integrated service

offerings; or (c) offering new services to support home grocery

activities previously undertaken by the customer.

Through the work of the multidisciplinary team, this per-

spective enabled creating a new service concept that offers

an integrated solution not only for grocery buying but also for

Need recognition Grocery list Store

selectionProduct selection Purchase Transport

Informationsearch Picking Checkout

Delivery option

selectionDelivery

Stock control

LoginInternetservice

Search forproducts

Analyzeproductinformation

…Add

product to cart

Value constellation experience for managing home groceries

Retail serviceexperience

Product search and selectionservice encounter experience

Product selection

Figure 3. Decomposition of customer activities for the different levels of the customer experience for managing home groceries.

Retailerhome delivery

service Retaileronlineservice

Retailerlarge stores

Managinghome grocery

Mediumstores

Specialtystores

wholesaling

Productinformation

services

Otherlarge stores

Retailer’s existing service concept

Figure 4. Retailer’s service concept positioning in the CustomerValue Constellation for managing home groceries.

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the value constellation experience for managing home gro-

ceries (see Figure 5). With this new service concept, the retailer

offers a full service that supports new activities previously

undertaken by the customer, offering customers a shopping

plan that can comprise both online and physical store purchases

with home delivery, or pick-up at a drive-through at the store.

By broadening the design space beyond the existing boundaries

of the firm, innovative ways to cocreate value with customers

were found by reconfiguring the firm’s offerings in the CVC.

Step 3: Designing the Service System for the New RetailService Concept

Understanding the retail service experience. At the middle

level, the retail service experience was defined as being cocre-

ated through all the service encounters between the customer

and the retail firm for managing groceries. The qualitative

study showed how the existing retailer service experience

could be decomposed into a set of service encounter experi-

ences for specific service tasks, such as selecting products or

checking out (see Figure 3). Detailed analysis of the qualitative

data also revealed typical customer journeys across service

interfaces: customers made large online purchases periodically,

to compensate for the home delivery charge. The online service

allowed customers to define lists and retrieve their last order.

Many customers deleted or added new products to these online

lists according to their needs each time they purchased. Cus-

tomers also went to smaller physical stores to replenish perish-

able grocery products at least weekly (often from a competing

retail chain).

The qualitative study also allowed for the identification of

service experience factors. These were categorized into

physical store factors (ease of use and organization of services-

cape, depth and breadth of product and services available, and

personal contact), online service factors (ease of use, depth and

breadth of products and services available, and order fulfill-

ment), and multi-interface integration (integration and consis-

tency among service interfaces). The qualitative study was

supplemented with a quantitative study focused on the multi-

interface service experience. As shown in Appendix A, the

scale dimensions identified for the multi-interface service

experience were (a) personal contact at the physical store, (b)

efficiency of the online service, (c) fulfillment of the online ser-

vice, and (d) multi-interface service integration. The results of

the quantitative study provided inputs for the design of the

firm’s service system. As depicted in Figure 6, integration of

the multi-interface offering was a low performing factor, which

indicated this area needed improvement.

Designing the retailer service system through the SSA andSSN. At the middle level, the MSD method enabled designing

the retailer service system to support the new service concept.

Building upon the study of the service experience and the work

with the multidisciplinary team, the existing SSA was devel-

oped for the existing service (see Figure 7). The SSA depicts

the different tasks of the retail service experience on the top

row, involving product selection, checkout process, picking the

items, and order delivery. The body of the matrix shows that

almost all service tasks are offered in both the Internet and the

physical store interfaces. The retailer service system was then

redesigned to reflect the new service concept previously

defined and to enhance the service experience according to the

study results (see Figure 8). To support the new home grocery

management service concept, the retailer SSA was extended

with new service tasks such as service registration, shopping

plan, and shopping trigger. To respond to customer experience

needs for flexibility and multi-interface integration, the body of

the matrix shows that the new service is mostly offered online

to reduce the customer burden, but the retailer also offers home

delivery and drive-through pick-up at the physical store to

increase multi-interface integration.

Retailerhome delivery

service

Retaileronlineservice

Retailerlarge stores

Mediumstores

Specialtystores

Wholesaling

Productinformation

services

Otherlarge

stores

Grocerymanagement

support service

Drivethroughservice

New retail service concept

Managinghome grocery

Figure 5. Retailer’s new grocery buying service concept and recon-figuration of the Customer Value Constellation for managing homegroceries.

7,53

7,66

8,14

8,31

0 2 4 6 8 10

Store personalcontact

Muli-interfaceintegra�on

Online serviceefficiency

Online servicefulfillment

Figure 6. Assessment of multi-interface experience factors—retailservice (construct means of summated scales 0–10).

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Product Selec�on Checkout Process Picking Order Delivery

Physical store

Cus

tom

erSe

rvic

e In

terf

aces

Bac

ksta

gesu

ppor

t

Existing retail service experience

Internet Interface

Customer

Backend systems

Telephone Interface

DeliveryTeam

Picker

Figure 7. Service system architecture for existing retail service.

Physical store

Cus

tom

erSe

rvic

e In

terf

aces

Bac

ksta

gesu

ppor

t

New retail service experience

Internetinterface

Customer

Backendsystems

TelephoneInterface

DeliveryTeam

Picker

ServiceRegistra�on

ShoppingTrigger

PurchaseShopping Plan Picking Order Delivery

Figure 8. Service system architecture for new retail service.

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The SSN enables mapping possible customer journeys

across service interfaces and explicitly designing the necessary

links between service interfaces to assure a smooth experience

across service encounters. As shown in Figure 9, the customer

can register online for the service (with a better delivery rate)

and make a shopping plan with several possible lists according

to personal shopping preferences. For example, the customer

can have a monthly purchase list and a weekly fresh and dairy

products list. According to the shopping plan, the service sys-

tem can send a trigger e-mail message with the chosen list of

more products several days before the planned purchase. The

customer may then place the order online and choose home

delivery or in-store pickup. With the SSA and SSN, the

multi-interface service system was designed in an integrated

way, taking advantage of interface synergies to enhance the

service experience and support the firm’s service concept.

Step 4: Designing the Service Encounters for the NewRetail Service

Understanding the retail service encounter experiences. The

service encounter experience was defined as being cocreated

through each interaction with the retailer for a specific grocery

service task, such as searching for product information online.

The study of the service encounter experience provided the

detailed information necessary, both in terms of the operations

of each service encounter and the experience factors. Usability

tests and walkthroughs were especially relevant at this level, as

they identified concrete problems at the retail store or the

online service. One of the most frequently mentioned issues

was customer difficulty in finding products from the thousands

available. These findings pointed out the need to improve the

search capabilities of the online service to enhance the existing

service encounter experience. The study also showed that time

taken to create a list was a barrier to online service adoption.

Customers used these lists but also enjoyed flexibility in their

choices. These results provided important clues for designing

the service encounters of the new service offering.

Designing the retail service encounters through ServiceExperience Blueprint (SEB). The service encounter level of

MSD operationalizes the different touchpoints of the service

system previously depicted in the SSA and SSN with the

SEB diagram. Figure 10 shows the SEB for the two first

steps of the SSN (registration and shopping plan) for the new

service. When the customer enters the online service, the new

home grocery management service is presented with informa-

tion about benefits and reduced delivery price. If this new

service is selected, an online form appears with the type of

purchases for the customer’s shopping plan, providing the

opportunity to create different shopping lists. To reduce the

burden of creating lists the service encounter was designed

to offer suggestions according to customer’s previous pur-

chase patterns, allowing the customer to add or delete prod-

ucts and schedule orders.

Physical store

Cus

tom

erSe

rvic

e In

terf

aces

Bac

ksta

gesu

ppor

t

New retail service experience

Internetinterface

Customer

Backendsystems

TelephoneInterface

DeliveryTeam

Picker

ServiceRegistra�on

ShoppingTrigger

PurchaseShopping Plan Picking Order Delivery

Sign up forthe service

Receive deliveryConfirm products,

dates and paymentSelect dates

and products

Transmit orderinforma�on

Order pick-up

Make delivery

Orderconfirma�on

Present ordere-mail

Present serviceop�ons

Present serviceinforma�on

Serviceregistra�on

PickProducts

Keep OrderRecord

PickProducts

Raise ordertrigger

Register userop�ons Save Order

Pick-up order

Figure 9. Service system navigation for new retail service.

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Based on the customer’s registered shopping plan, a ser-

vice link was created between the registration service

encounter and the order service encounter. The system then

sends a trigger e-mail message on the defined date. This trig-

ger includes the product list previously defined by the cus-

tomer for that type of order. Since the study showed that

customers like flexibility in product choice and order sched-

ule, other options were added. First, the trigger message con-

tains other product suggestions according to customer

preferences to enable the customer to increase the variety

of products selected. Second, the customer has the option

to make, change, cancel, or ask to be reminded later, which

adds to flexibility. Finally, taking advantage of multi-

interface synergies, the customer can ask for home delivery,

or pick-up at a store drive-through service. With the multile-

vel approach of MSD method, each service encounter was

designed to enable customers to interactively cocreate their

retail service and value constellation experiences.

Application of MSD to Redesigning a BankingService

The Portuguese bank is a multi-interface service system,

which offers Internet, physical branch, and telephone inter-

faces. Previous research found that customers used a mix

of service interfaces in a complementary way (Patrıcio, Fisk,

and Cunha 2003, 2008), but the bank’s interfaces were not

well integrated. Therefore, the bank decided to adopt an inte-

grated approach to designing its multi-interface service sys-

tem, starting with two service experiences for two financial

products: loans and credit cards. This was a rich opportunity for

developing and testing the MSD method in another context,

involving the redesign of an existing service offering with a

focus on the multi-interface service experience without chang-

ing the service concept.

Step 1: Studying the Levels of Bank Loan CustomerExperience

The first step of the MSD method, like the retail application,

involved the study of different levels of customer experience

for bank loans. This study followed the same research design

as the retail service study. The qualitative study involved

in-depth individual interviews with 26 multi-interface bank

customers, comprising 18 men and 8 women in two Portuguese

cities. Loans are considered a more personal matter, so only

individual interviews were collected (12 were tape recorded

and 14 video recorded). The latter involved both interview

and walkthroughs via computers with online service access.

Following the MSD method, these interviews and walk-

throughs covered different levels of customer experience: value

constellation experience within which loans are embedded,

loan service experience and service encounter experiences.

These data were transcribed literally and analyzed following a

qualitative approach. To supplement the qualitative findings, a

quantitative study was developed to assess the multi-interface

aspect of the service experience, following the same research

design as the retail service study. The survey questionnaire was

developed, pretested with 92 customers and administered to a

sample of 420 multi-interface bank customers.

Figure 10. Service experience blueprint for registration and shopping plan interaction experience.

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Step 2: Designing the Bank Loan Service ConceptUnderstanding the Value Constellation Experience (VCE) for

buying a car. For the bank case, the loan application and usage

might be part of many value constellation experiences, such as

buying a car, a vacation trip, or solving a personal problem. As

an example, the value constellation experience for buying a car

is presented. As shown in Figure 11, the qualitative results

enabled mapping the different service activities involved in the

value constellation experience, such as searching for informa-

tion, selecting the car, getting a loan, purchasing, registering,

and insuring the car. These results helped understand the con-

text within which the bank loan is used and showed that the

loan is not an end in itself but instrumental in the car buying

process. This analysis pointed out the need for designing the

loan service concept to facilitate and speed the loan application

process, so customers could more easily get what they really

wanted: buying a car.

Designing the bank loan service concept through the CustomerValue Constellation (CVC). Designing the loan service concept

started with the development of the existing CVC for buying a

car. This work was based on the study results, the analysis of

existing service offerings, and the work of the multidisciplinary

team. As shown in Figure 12, a network of service offerings sus-

tains the car purchase activity because loans are only one part of

the CVC. To enhance its service concept positioning, besides the

loan the bank developed partnerships with car dealers and insur-

ance companies to facilitate the car purchase. The bank project

focused on redesigning the service system and did not involve

the redefinition of the service concept. However, this high level

analysis helped understand how the loan service concept was

integrated with the CVC for buying a car, providing guidance for

designing the service system and service encounter levels.

Step 3: Redesigning the Bank Service System for LoansUnderstanding the loan service experience. The loan service

experience was defined as being cocreated through all the ser-

vice encounters between the customer and the bank for

Needrecognition

Car Information search

Car loan Carpurchase

Carregistration

Carinsurance

Decision advice

Loan application

Bank decision

Contracting Post contracting

Login Internet service

Select loaninfo

Analyzeloan info

Value constellation experience for buying a car

…

Loan service experience

Information searchservice encounterexperience

Carselection

Information search

Figure 11. Decomposition of customer activities for the different levels of the customer experience for buying a car.

Registrationoffice service

Bank carloan

Car informationservices

Buyinga car

Personalrecommendations

Bank loanservice concept

Carinsurance

service

Car dealerservice

Figure 12. Bank’s loan service concept positioning in the customervalue constellation for buying a car.

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applying for and using the bank loan. The qualitative study

allowed for the decomposition of the loan experience into ser-

vice tasks (as shown in Figure 11) and the identification of ser-

vice experience factors, such as multi-interface integration. For

example, the bank’s Internet service offering for loans mainly

covered general information. Customers were forced to visit

the physical branch for advice, to provide documentation, and

to sign the loan contract. These breakdowns in the loan experi-

ence led most customers to go directly to the physical branch,

where they had access to a complete service offering for their

needs in spite of the inconvenience. As shown in Figure 13, the

quantitative study corroborated the qualitative results. Multi-

interface integration was a low performing factor, which

indicated this area needed improvement.

Designing the service system for bank loans. Building upon the

previous steps, the bank service system was redesigned through

the SSA and SSN. The analysis of the existing SSA revealed

two important breakdowns in the loan service experience for

customers who started using the Internet: (a) they could not

undertake all the loan service tasks in this interface because

it did not offer personal advice and (b) they could not complete

the contract online. To improve the loan experience, the SSA

was changed to offer more channel options for advice and loan

applications. In this case, telephone advice was added and tele-

phone and online loan applications were designed so that cus-

tomers could complete these pre-contractual service tasks

without having to visit the physical branch. These new options

are depicted in Figure 14 in white ovals.

The loan service experience was also enhanced through

changes in the SSN, by linking the different touchpoints. In this

case, the bank decided that no advice would be offered on the

Internet; but the service experience was enhanced by smoothly

guiding the customer from the Internet to advice on the tele-

phone or at the physical branch (see Figure 15). In this new SSN,

customers can now gather information from the Internet service,

but when advice is needed, the service navigation is designed so

customers can call for telephone advice or schedule a meeting at

the branch. After the advice stage, they can apply for a loan on

the Internet or at the branch or they can telephone to ask that

application forms be mailed. With the SSA and SSN, the bank

service system was redesigned to enhance the multi-interface

loan service experience and better support the contribution of

the loan service concept positioning in the CVC.

Step 4: Designing Each Service Encounter Experience forBank Loans

Understanding the loan service encounter experience. The ser-

vice encounter experience was defined as being cocreated

through each moment of contact between the customer and the

bank through a specific service interface, such as gathering

loan information on the online banking service. The customer

experience study, especially the walkthroughs, pointed out

problems specifically related to implementing the new service

system and the different service encounter experiences. For

example, the studies revealed that customers did not know that

it was possible to follow up an Internet inquiry with telephone

or bank branch advice. Moreover, even if they knew, the Inter-

net interface did not provide any clue on how to do it. This

understanding provided insights into designing service inter-

face links between these touchpoints.

Designing the loan service encounters. After designing the ser-

vice system, the design drilled down to each service encounter as

depicted in each cell of the SSA and SSN, using the SEB dia-

gram. Figure 16 shows the SEB for the loan information service

encounter in Internet banking. Building upon the understanding

of the service encounter experience, this online service encoun-

ter was redesigned to offer the information requested but also to

explicitly show two options for obtaining personal advice: sche-

duling a meeting at the physical branch or telephone advice.

If the customer selects one of the advice options, the back-

end system retrieves additional customer information, selects

the appropriate advisor in the physical branch or the call center,

and sends a trigger with the meeting request to a selected

employee. Then the employee can call the customer with much

better preparation for providing good personal contact service.

With the SEB and the multilevel MSD approach, the bank

found ways to improve the service encounter experience for the

information touchpoint in the Internet, while also enhancing the

service experience across the multi-interface service system.

MSD Contributions to Service Design

The MSD method enables integrated design of the service offer-

ing at its different levels, contributing to the design of complex

service systems. Its multilevel approach also provides a holistic

view, highlighting new levels of the customer experience.

Finally, MSD synthesizes the contributions of different fields

into an interdisciplinary service design method.

Contribution to Designing Complex Service Systems

The MSD method contributes a holistic set of interrelated mod-

els and concepts that integrate the different levels of service

8,24

8,25

8,58

8,7

0 2 4 6 8 10

Muli-interfaceintegra�on

Store personalcontact

Online servicefulfillment

Online serviceefficiency

Figure 13. Assessment of multi-interface experience factors—bankservice (construct means of summated scales 0–10).

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system design down through the different levels of the cus-

tomer experience. At the highest level, the MSD method adapts

the value constellation model (Normann and Ramırez 1993) to

design the firm service concept. The MSD method extends

Lovelock’s service concept (1994), recognizing that the service

offering can be created in collaboration with other partners in

Information Decisionadvice Application

Internetinterface

Bankdecision Contracting

Physical store

Backend system

Cus

tom

erSe

rvic

e In

terf

aces

Bac

ksta

gesu

ppor

t

Loan service experience

Postcontracting

Customer

TelephoneInterface

Internal support

Figure 14. Service system architecture for bank loans.

Ask forinformation Ask for advice

Show informationand advice options

Advice atPhysical branch

Internet interface

Telephone advice

Information

Physical store

Decision advice

Backend system

Loan application

Apply for loan

Online application

Send applicationby mail

Register applicationat physical branch

Retrieveinformation

Send advicerequest

Registerapplication

Cus

tom

erSe

rvic

e In

terf

aces

Bac

ksta

gesu

ppor

t

Telephone Interface

Customer

Figure 15. Service system navigation for bank loans (partial view).

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the CVC. The MSD method opens the design space for new

forms of service innovation that go beyond the boundaries of

the existing service offering. This systems thinking approach

to the service concept contributes to a stronger focus on rela-

tionships, networks, and value creation (Lusch, Vargo, and

Tanniru 2009).

At the middle level, the MSD method designs the firm ser-

vice system through the development of the SSA and SSN

models. These models help visualize how the service system

elements (customer, service interfaces, backstage components,

and IT systems) are integrated to cocreate value throughout the

different service encounters of the service experience. The SSA

offers a structure view, allowing for better management of the

interface mix to enhance the service experience while better

allocating resources among channels. The SSN offers a

dynamic view, recognizing there are many possible journeys

that customers may follow. By analyzing the different naviga-

tion paths and designing the service interface links, MSD

allows the modularity and flexibility needed to design the

service system for customers to cocreate their service experi-

ences in unique ways. The MSD method at the service system

level, therefore, addresses the new challenges of multichannel

service design.

At the service encounter level, the MSD method uses the

SEB model (Patrıcio, Fisk, and Cunha 2008) for a detailed

design of the concrete interaction between the customer and

a specific service interface. At this level, MSD enables the

analysis of how different elements of the service encounter

influence the service encounter experience and contribute to

the service experience as a whole. MSD builds upon the inter-

disciplinary and multi-interface SEB method, integrating SEB

with SSA and SSN at the service system design level, and the

CVC at the service concept level. The MSD method offers a

holistic systems thinking perspective on service design,

enabling design teams to understand how high-level system

decisions trace to low-level service interactions, enabling the

development of an integrated solution to enhance the customer

experience at its different levels.

Contribution to Designing for the Customer Experience

The MSD contributes a multilevel understanding of customer

experience. At the higher level, MSD presents the new concept

of value constellation experience, recognizing that experiences

may be formed through interactions with multiple services

from multiple organizations that go beyond the firm’s offer-

ings. This perspective helps contextualize the firm’s service

concept into the larger context of the value constellation expe-

rience and opens new forms of service innovation. This new

concept also opens new ground for experience research, as cus-

tomer experience has not yet been studied beyond the firm’s

boundaries. The service experience concept adopted in MSD

provides a comprehensive view of customer experience at the

firm level, taking into account the different service encounters

across multiple service interfaces. The MSD method, therefore,

responds to the call for more holistic approaches to customer

experience research (Verhoef et al. 2008). At the service

front

stag

eba

ckst

age

Backend system

Customer

Line of interaction

Internetbanking

Send login informa�on

Login to service

Retrieve addi�onal

customer info

[no schedule]

Select schedule mee�ng

Inform customer he/she will be

contacted

Send schedule request with

customer info

Select appropriate

advisor

Customer decision

Select loaninfo

PresentService op�ons

Present loanInfo and advice

op�ons

Chooseadvice op�on

ValidateLogin info

Send loan info

Select telephone

advice

Line of visibility

F

W

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[telephoneadvice]

[schedule mee�ng]

FF

Ac�on W

F Fail point

Wai�ng point Beginning of process

End of process

Service interface link

Figure 16. Service experience blueprint for Internet banking loan information.

Patrıcio 17

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encounter subsystem level, even though the analysis of the cus-

tomer interaction experience has been studied in interaction

design and service research, the MSD method better contextua-

lizes this level of customer experience with the other experi-

ence levels. The MSD method helps designers understand

how the different levels of customer experience are interrelated

and can contribute to service design.

Contribution to the Development of InterdisciplinaryService Design Methods

Service design requires interdisciplinary efforts to develop

complex service systems. The MSD method offers an integra-

tive blend of concepts and models from service management

(Service Concept, Value Constellation, Service Encounters, and

Service Blueprinting), interaction design (Usage-Centered

Design and Human Activity Modeling), software engineering

(Activity Diagrams), and service design (touchpoints and

customer journey). MSD creates a design method, a design lan-

guage, and design tools that different members of multidisci-

plinary teams can use to communicate and explore new ideas

in the development process. Moreover, by explicitly addressing

the role of technology and information systems in services, the

MSD method systematizes customer and business requirements

into a technical language that interaction designers and software

engineers can use to develop the technology systems that pro-

vide crucial service systems support. MSD represents a signifi-

cant departure from existing design methods. The MSD method

takes a more interactive and holistic perspective on designing

service systems, which contributes to developing an interdi-

sciplinary service design field.

Conclusion and Future Work

The MSD method offers a systemic view of service design lev-

els and a flexible approach that accommodates the cocreative

nature of customer experiences. Building upon concepts and

techniques from different fields, MSD extends the conceptual

service frameworks and operationalizes them into a unified ser-

vice system design method. Applications of the MSD method

to retailing and banking demonstrate that it can be effectively

applied in different service innovation contexts, which opens

new insights into developing new services.

The MSD method raises questions that deserve further

research. Three levels of customer experience design are

addressed by the MSD method. However, since interaction

design and service research have traditionally focused specifi-

cally on the service encounter experience at just one service

interface, these new customer experience levels need further

exploration. Extant research has developed conceptual frame-

works for a holistic view of the service experience at the firm level

(Verhoef et al. 2008). The MSD applications provide insights into

its drivers, but a more holistic view of the service experience still

needs empirical study. At a higher level, the MSD method iden-

tifies the value constellation experience concept, but further work

is needed to develop a richer conceptualization of value

constellation experience components and drivers. Additionally,

further empirical studies besides banking and retailing can bring

important insights.

The MSD method designs the service offering for the differ-

ent levels of the customer experience, taking into account the

different interactions with multiple firms for a given overall

activity, such as buying a car. However, the MSD method

concentrates on the customer-firm interaction. The growth

of social networking has raised the importance of customer-

to-customer interactions, so research is needed to understand

how greater customer-to-customer interaction may change

value cocreation and which methods are needed to design

services in this new context.

MSD is a comprehensive method for designing service offer-

ings at different levels, but it designs one service at a time.

Although some firms may be focused on one service offering,

such as retailing, other service firms may offer complex bundles

of services, such as banking. In such cases, firms must simultane-

ously position themselves into different CVCs and build an inte-

grated multiservice system that provides their different offerings.

Further research is needed to understand how the different SSAs

form the overall service enterprise architecture as a whole.

MSD takes service design to a higher level by positioning

the firm’s service concept in the CVC. However, a network

of service providers can offer even more complex services,

such as cities. New methods should be developed for designing

the overall value constellation at this system of service systems

level. Customers are also involved in many value constellations

throughout the many activities of their lives. Together these

CVCs form a service ecosystem. As concern for service sus-

tainability increases, it is important to incorporate these issues

in service design. Although some research has been done on

service design for sustainability (Manzini 2009), further work

is needed to develop methods and tools that incorporate sustain-

ability issues throughout the different levels of service design.

Finally, the MSD method brings breadth and depth to design-

ing complex service systems. The integration of interdisciplin-

ary contributions provides a robust design method that can be

communicated across disciplines. MSD provides an in-depth

approach through the three levels of customer experience and

service design. We hope MSD stimulates further interdisciplin-

ary design research and fosters new service innovations.

Authors’ Note

The authors thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their

many insightful comments during the revision process.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect

to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for

the research and/or authorship of this article: This research project was

partially supported by AdI—Agencia de Inovacao—IDEIA Program

(Grant number 13 05 04 FDR 00022).

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Bios

Lia Patrıcio is an assistant professor of the Department of Industrial

Engineering and Management at the University of Porto. Previously,

20 Journal of Service Research 000(00)

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she worked in the banking industry. She holds a PhD in Industrial

Management and Engineering, an MBA, and a degree in Economics

from the University of Porto. She has published in the Journal of Ser-

vice Research, Requirements Engineering Journal, and others. Her

current research focuses on new interdisciplinary methods for service

system design, service experience design, service design for sustain-

ability, and social networks.

Raymond P. Fisk (BS, MBA, and PhD from Arizona State Univer-

sity) is a professor and chair of the Department of Marketing at Texas

State University–San Marcos. He has published in the Journal of Mar-

keting, Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sci-

ence, Journal of Service Research, European Journal of Marketing,

Service Industries Journal, International Journal of Service Industry

Management, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Market-

ing Education, and others. His books include Interactive Services

Marketing, 3rd ed., Services Marketing Self-Portraits: Introspections,

Reflections and Glimpses from the Experts, Marketing Theory: Distin-

guished Contributions, and Services Marketing: An Annotated

Bibliography.

Joao Falcao e Cunha is a lecturer and researcher at the School of

Engineering of the University of Porto. He holds a PhD in Computing

Science from Imperial College (1989), a MSc in Operations Research

from Cranfield University (1984), and a first degree in Electrical Engi-

neering from University of Porto (1983). His research interests include

decision support systems, graphical user interfaces, object-oriented

modeling, and service engineering and management. He coordinates

the Industrial Engineering and Management and the Service Engineer-

ing and Management master programs and is the Academic Director

of the IBM Center for Advanced Studies in Portugal.

Larry Constantine, IDSA, is a professor at the University of Madeira

and Institute Fellow at the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute

where he teaches in the dual-degree programs operated jointly with

Carnegie-Mellon University. A pioneer of modern software engineer-

ing theory and practice, he is an award-winning interaction designer

specializing in enhancing user performance in safety-critical

applications as well as an award-winning author with 20 books and

more than 200 papers published. He is the recipient of the 2009

Stevens Award for his contributions to design and design methods and

a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.

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