What does a service design agency do?

Service Design is a human-centred and evidence-led approach to creating and evolving services. It is an approach that aligns people, processes, systems, technology and strategy to develop experiences that are valuable to organisations and their customers.

Our Service Design consultants combine expertise in human-centred design, business analysis and complex digital transformation, we help implement cost-effective services and solutions that tackle operational, technology and human pain points. Changing services and organisations for the better, not just producing reams of strategy.

Product Design and UX team in client workshop

Service Design drives transformation beyond digital

Service Design considers an organisation’s end-to-end service ecosystem from multiple perspectives. It maps all physical and digital service interactions customers have, from employees they speak to, websites they use or in-person environments (‘front stage’).

It also analyses everything going on behind the scenes (‘back stage’) – from systems and processes to employee training and supplier contracts – that must work efficiently together to deliver the promised service experience in a commercially viable way,

As a leading Service Design agency, we help deliver change across all these fronts.

Three women working on a user journey mapping exercise
2023 11 10 Service Design Illustration

Does your business need a service design agency?

Service Design’s holistic, human-centred approach changes culture, systems, technology and processes; helping set up organisations, their customers and employees for mutual success. It means an experienced service design partner can tackle complex, interconnected, strategic business challenges summarised below and described in more detail in our insights piece on the topic:

  • Your customer journeys are disjointed, customer experience not up to par or delivering on brand promises
  • Inefficient legacy digital ecosystems and back-office processes can’t support desired customer and employee experiences
  • Your teams are working in silos, not geared for rapid innovation, and you lack the right skillsets, capabilities and culture in-house to change things
  • Data silos prevent a single customer view, data-informed decision-making or AI adoption
  • You're trying to change: company restructuring, targeting market expansion or adapting to external factors like cybersecurity, regulation or climate change

How our Service Design consultants help

To empower change for your people and organisation our Service Design consultants will:

  • Identify and redesign operational pain points from systems to suppliers
  • Map seamless cross-channel customer and user journeys that are inclusive from the outset
  • Support in mapping digital ecosystems and technology execution tailored to your business goals
  • Embed collaborative working and bridge silos to unite teams around customer and user needs
  • Craft exceptional, accessible digital experiences that embed 'edge case' scenarios to maximise usability
  • Connect digital transformation to real business impact and value
  • Ensure that the totality of the service design is commercially feasible and viable

Whether you need help executing this with a pre-existing service design strategy produced in-house or another consultancy, or need a new end-to-end project plan, we're ready to collaborate as your service design agency.

Talk to our Service Design experts today

Our Service Design team are experienced across a range of sectors and clients. Talk to us about your goals and challenges and find out about our human-centred blueprint for service success and business transformation.

Discover our work

Handelsbanken
Creating a scalable customer journey framework, through human-centred service design, for inclusive products and services to be compliant with the FCA’s Consumer Duty.
59% Increase in operating profits to £476.4m (Jan – Dec 2023)
32% Increase in total income to £918.2m (Jan – Dec 2023)
99 Customer journeys mapped for 54 products & services
Cabinet Office: Remote Application
Pivoting our award-winning, inclusive Fast Stream Assessment Centre platform to a virtual experience
12 weeks to pivot to fully remote
63% improved outcomes for disabled candidates
120% improved outcomes for BAME candidates
Argid Technologies
Creating a future-proof product solution for a leading luggage delivery company, powered by service design, data management and continuous improvement
20+ brands Supported on a single web application
83% conversion improvement for First Luggage
National Highways
Our contributions helped steer the Dart Charge service successfully through their GOV.UK Service Standard Alpha assessment at the first attempt, which was a first for Highways.

    How our service design process works

    At CACI Digital Experience, we created the EDEN model to understand the service ecosystem and service operating model from a holistic perspective. We empower clients to support them with service transformation implementation, not just the change strategy.

    Our team assess the client's capabilities and digital maturity from the outset to empower and upskill the organisation during the navigation and post completion stages of the service transformation:

    EDEN service design model illustrated graphic

    Explore

    Where we bridge strategy and an evidence-based view of how services are provisioned and brought to life, and what internal and external capabilities need to be empowered. We undertake primary research – from business analysis to stakeholder interviews - to baseline where you are now, where you want to go, identify key success metrics and formulate hypotheses about how to get there. Key outputs can include:

    • End-to end service lifecycle baseline, inclusive of people, processes, and technology
    • Data flow maps and technical architecture diagrams
    • Initial audit of service operational, regulatory and financial data
    • Service & digital maturity benchmark report
    Leadership team conducting a workshop in the office

    Design

    We ideate, prototype, and prioritise what the future of the service system might be based on a human-centric approach and our findings. We engage in divergent thinking and consider ‘edge cases’ or extreme user scenarios; identifying hypotheses and concepts to be explored and tested. We use co-creation and design thinking to gain stakeholder alignment on the ‘to-be’ service blueprint and desired customer and employee experience. Key outputs can include:

    • Future state end-to-end journey maps and service blueprints, inclusive of people, processes, and technology
    • Future state data flow maps and technical architecture diagrams
    • High-level map of existing ‘in-flight’ organisational projects
    • High-level service concepts and low fidelity prototypes
    Two marketing team leaders reviewing service design journey on computer

    Evolve

    We move from divergent to convergent thinking to evaluate a set of service prototypes and plan for execution by analysing gaps in experiences, workflows, data, and technology and the people, products and processes that support them. We detail the desired service experience and begin to build a roadmap, governance plan and change management plan to take us there. Key outputs can include:

    • Design of a service MVP with associated outcomes from a people, process, technology, and operations perspective
    • Finalised future state service journey maps, process maps, and blueprints
    • Staff training sessions / curriculum plan
    Strategy team using glass wall for posted notes as part of workshop project

    Navigate

    We partner with you to build, launch and iterate on the new service ecosystem and collaborate across physical and digital services, touchpoints and products, underpinned by robust technology delivery and optimisation. We’re also partners in the organisational change, working closely with you to measure, monitor and refine the service after launch through ongoing training and support. Key outputs can include:

    • Service MVPs in production
    • A prioritised backlog of projects from a people, process, and operations perspective
    • Realignment of the new wider service and digital estate with in-flight projects
    • Updated service and digital maturity benchmark reports
    A Drupal developer working at a laptop while speaking on the phone

    Who we've helped

    We’ve empowered transformation for hundreds of clients across all sectors. Discover their stories.

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