Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015 · FOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PROFESSIONALS...
Transcript of Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015 · FOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PROFESSIONALS...
Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015by Leah BuleyDecember 1, 2015
FOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PROFESSIONALS
FORRESTER.COM
Key TakeawaysService Design In 2015 Is In FluxThe service design field has grown organically and through mergers and acquisitions in recent years. Today, it reflects a mashup of five different approaches: fuzzy front-end innovation, physical and face-to-face experience design, digital experience design, organizational change management, and business process consulting.
The Field Is Moving From A Lineup Of Small Boutiques To A Full-Service Provider ModelAmong service design agencies, some continue to specialize in targeted offerings like physical service design and organizational change. But full-service digital and business systems providers have joined the game and bring new capabilities like quantitative analysis and business analytics to the field.
Is That A Good Thing? It All Depends On Your CX GoalsWhen shopping for a service design partner, CX professionals should ask a lot of questions -- some obvious and some not so obvious -- to find the right fit.
Why Read This ReportThe service design provider landscape has changed dramatically in a short time. Just two years ago, it was a sea of smaller firms concentrated in Europe. Today, a more varied profile emerges, with full-service design agencies and management consultancies claiming service design among their offerings. This report examines today’s provider landscape and offers guidance to help customer experience (CX) professionals assess the right service design partner for their goals.
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Table Of Contents
Service Design In 2015: Mergers And Mash-Ups
Agencies That Offer Service Design Vary Widely
Most Agencies Practice Two Or Three Flavors Of Service Design
Specialized Firms Are Small And Focused On Social Services
Agencies With Breadth Also Bring A More Traditional Business Approach
And A Small Crop Of Atypical Agencies Foreshadow Coming Trends
Recommendations
To Assess Potential Partners, Ask Some Personal Questions
Supplemental Material
Notes & Resources
We used data from Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey in the writing of this report.
Related Research Documents
Service Design Agency Overview, 2013
The State Of Service Design, 2013
FOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PROFESSIONALS
Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015
by Leah Buleywith John Dalton, Anajali Yakkundi, Sarah Sikowitz, Kelly Price, and Kara Hartig
December 1, 2015
FOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PROFESSIONALS
Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015December 1, 2015
© 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. [email protected] or +1 866-367-7378
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Service Design In 2015: Mergers And Mash-Ups
2013: Accenture acquires service design agency Fjord. 2014: EPAM acquires service design agency Great Fridays. 2015: Wipro acquires service design agency Designit. Notice a pattern? More traditional agencies are jumping into the service design game with both feet. As a result, a wider range of players than ever now talk the talk of service design.1 But how can CX professionals be sure that an agency also walks the walk? To find out, in Q3 2015, Forrester surveyed service design agencies from across the globe. We applied exploratory factor analysis to the self-reported survey results to see if subtle differences separate one type of service design provider from another.2 The result? Rather than one homogenous discipline, based on reported capabilities and channels, we found five flavors of service design that agencies mash up in different ways (see Figure 1 and see Figure 2):
› Fuzzy front-end innovators. This group emerged from a pattern of respondents that all reported qualitative customer research, brand strategy, experience strategy, conceptual design, detailed design, and employee experience design among their capabilities. It’s not surprising to see these activities together; as a sequence, this looks a lot like the customer-centered innovation process, with its emphasis on what customers need, what the brand stands for, what the big idea is, and how it all pays off in delightful details. About half of the agencies that responded to our survey fall into this group.
› Physical and face-to-face experience designers. These are firms that report that they design for face-to-face interactions, the physical environment, printed materials, and the contact center. This is canonical service design — with its emphasis on a human-centered approach to planning and organizing back-office and front-office associate-to-customer interactions. And yet just 37% of the agencies that responded to our survey exhibited this pattern.
› Digital experience designers. Service design as a discipline is channel-agnostic, but a strong theme around digital experience design emerged among these service design providers. These are firms that couple business strategy with specific design for Web, mobile, and tablets. The 69% of firms that fell into this group have entered that gray area between service design, digital customer experience strategy, and digital technology. In fact, a few firms in our recent overview of digital experience service providers appear in this report as well.3 Expect to see more of this crossover. As digital permeates an increasingly wide swath of your customers’ experiences, service designers will find themselves thinking in increasingly digital terms.
› Organizational change partners. This category reflects the hard truth that to improve how customers experience an organization’s services, it is often necessary to take on the messy business of change management, training, and organizational design. This will come as no surprise to many customer experience professionals, but it is significant to see that service design firms also recognize the necessity of this and fold it into their offerings. Half of the firms that responded to the survey claimed these capabilities.
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› Business systems consultants. Firms that combine capabilities in quantitative customer research, business analytics, and technology development fall into this group. These companies were also more likely to design for software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) than those outside of this group. These are firms that help organizations design and deploy business-facing systems. Surprised to see firms like this on a list of service design agencies? Don’t be. These firms are leading some of the most noteworthy mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the service design space. This was the smallest pattern to emerge from our analysis: It applies to only about a quarter of our survey respondents. But it encompasses the largest, most globally dispersed, and most widely recognized consultancies on our list.
FIGURE 1 Factor Analysis Found Patterns In Service Designers Based On Capabilities And Channels
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Fuzzy front-endinnovators
• Qualitativecustomerresearchcapabilities
• Conceptualdesign capabilities
• Experiencestrategycapabilities
• Brand strategycapabilities
• Detailed designand speci�cationscapabilities
• Employeeexperience designcapabilities
Physical and face-to-face experiencedesigners
• Face-to-facechannel
• Physicalenvironmentchannel
• Printed materialschannel
• Contact centerchannel
Digital experiencedesigners
• Business strategycapabilities
• Web channel
• Mobile/tabletchannels
Organizationalchange partners
• Changemanagementcapabilities
• Organizationaldesigncapabilities
• Trainingcapabilities
Business systemsconsultants
• Quantitativecustomerresearchcapabilities
• Business analyticscapabilities
• Tech developmentcapabilities
• Installed software/SaaS channel
Base: 70 global service design agencies
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FIGURE 2 Patterns Among Service Design Providers By Self-Reported Capabilities And Channel Strengths
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Fuzzy front-endinnovators
• Catalyst InnovationPartners
• Cnote
• Comotion
• Comrade
• continuuminnovation
• Criativia
• Deloitte
• Designit
• Doberman
• Edenspiekermann
• Engine ServiceDesign
• EPAM
• Experientia
• FCV
• Fjord, a part ofAccentureInteractive
• frog
• gravitytank
• Hello Future
• Hellon
• Holon
• Huge
• Idea Couture
• Interbrand
• Kristina ToolStudio
• Macquarium
• Made by Many
• McKinsey DigitalLabs
• MU/DAI
• Razor�sh Global
• Red Privet
Physical and face-to-face experiencedesigners
• Comrade
• continuuminnovation
• Designit
• Doberman
• Engine ServiceDesign
• Experientia
• Fjord, a part ofAccentureInteractive
• frog
• Hellon
• Holon
• Huge
• Idea Couture
• Livework Studio
• McKinsey DigitalLabs
• minds & makers
• MU/DAI
• Palmu Group
• Red Privet
• Rocca CreativeThinking
• SapientNitro
• Service ScienceFactory
• strategybuilders.eu
• We Question OurProject
• WorkPlay-Experience
• Ziba Design
• Zilver Innovation
Digital experiencedesigners
• AKQA
• Brand Manual
• Catalyst InnovationPartners
• Changeful
• Cnote
• Comrade
• continuuminnovation
• Daytona
• Deloitte
• Designit
• Doberman
• Edenspiekermann
• Engine ServiceDesign
• Experientia
• FCV
• Fjord, a part ofAccentureInteractive
• frog
• Hello Future
• Hellon
• Holon
• Huge
• Idea Couture
• Interbrand
• Livework Studio
• Macquarium
• Made by Many
• MAYA Design
• minds & makers
• McKinsey DigitalLabs
• MRM//McCann
• Nile
• Nurun
Organizationalchange partners• Brand Manual
• brightspot strategy
• Catalyst InnovationPartners
• Cnote
• Comotion
• Comrade
• Criativia
• Deloitte
• Engine ServiceDesign
• EPAM
• FCV
• Fjord, a part ofAccentureInteractive
• Hellon
• Holon
• Huge
• Interbrand
• Intersezioni
• Kristina ToolStudio
• Made by Many
• McKinsey DigitalLabs
• minds & makers
• Palmu Group
• Razor�sh Global
• SAP
• SapientNitro
• Service ScienceFactory
• STBY
• strategybuilders.eu
• TransformatorDesign
• User Studio
• Via Design
• AKQA
• Deloitte
• Designit
• EPAM
• Fjord, a part ofAccentureInteractive
• frog
• Huge
• Idea Couture
• Macquarium
• McKinsey DigitalLabs
• MRM//McCann
• Nurun
• Palmu Group
• Razor�sh Global
• Red Privet
• SAP
• SapientNitro
Business systemsconsultants
Base: 70 global service design agencies
• Rocca CreativeThinking
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FIGURE 2 Patterns Among Service Design Providers By Self-Reported Capabilities And Channel Strengths (Cont.)
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
• We Are Snook
• WorkPlay-Experience
• Zeewaardig
• Zilver Innovation
Base: 70 global service design agencies
• OceanObservations
• Palmu Group
• Red Privet
• Razor�sh Global
• SAP
• SapientNitro
• Service ScienceFactory
• Smith
• strategybuilders.eu
• TransformatorDesign
• Usability Matters
• User Studio
• We Are Snook
• Zeewaardig
• Ziba Design
• Zilver Innovation
• SapientNitro
• User Studio
• We Are Snook
• WorkPlay-Experience
• Ziba Design
Fuzzy front-endinnovators
Physical and face-to-face experiencedesigners
Digital experiencedesigners
Organizationalchange partners
Business systemsconsultants
Agencies That Offer Service Design Vary Widely
What do these patterns tell us? It’s not just a simple sorting exercise, because these patterns are not mutually exclusive across agencies. Many agencies exhibit two or three patterns simultaneously, a handful of them show all of the patterns, and others display none. Knowing which patterns an agency exhibits — and how many — gives CX professionals valuable clues as to whether a particular agency is better suited to help with a focused CX challenge or a longer-term partnership for a broader CX program.
Most Agencies Practice Two Or Three Flavors Of Service Design
If the promise of service design is holistic end-to-end experience design for the front and back of the house, about half of the agencies that responded to our survey deliver on multiple parts of that promise — but not all of it. Forty-seven percent of the 70 agencies in our survey matched two or three of the five patterns (see Figure 3, see Figure 4, see Figure 5, and see Figure 6). For these firms:
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› Factor patterns vary by firm. Digital design, fuzzy front-end innovation, and organizational change are the three most common patterns in this group: 79% of firms in this list matched the digital design pattern, and 61% matched fuzzy front-end innovation and organizational change. Some firms lined up exactly on these three patterns. However, 55% of the agencies in this group combined one or two of those patterns with the physical and face-to-face design or the business systems consulting patterns.
› Capabilities center on experience strategy. When we asked these agencies about their top capabilities, they cited experience strategy most frequently, with 73% in this group listing it among their top offerings. Conceptual design and qualitative research were common as well, with 39% and 42% claiming them as a top capability, respectively. About a quarter of the agencies in this group also cited business strategy and technology development among top capabilities.
› Web and mobile beat out physical and face-to-face channels. Web and mobile are the top channels here. Seventy-six percent of the respondents in this group cited the Web as a top channel, and 67% cited mobile/tablet. About a third of the firms in this group also report that they regularly design for the face-to-face channel.
› Financial services tops the list of clients. A whopping 85% of the firms on this list report that they have done work for clients in financial services in the past two years. Consumer products, government, retail, and healthcare are also top employers; about 60% of the agencies in this group have done work in these areas in the past two years.
› Sizes range from one person to teams of 500-plus people. A majority of the firms in this group are relatively small — 67% have 10 or fewer service design employees. But 18% of the firms on this list swing the other direction, with 51 or more service design employees. Given the size of the field at this point, it’s doubtful that those employees are practicing service design exclusively. They’re more likely to be consultants who do service design as one part of a more broad-based consulting practice.
› Headquarters cluster in North America, Benelux, and Great Britain. Europe maintains the lion’s share of these agencies, with 64% of this group. However, the country with the largest single number of agencies is the US, which represents 27% of these firms. Eighteen percent of these firms hail from Benelux countries, especially The Netherlands, which represents 15% of this list. Firms headquartered in Great Britain represent another 15%. Just one firm in this group is headquartered outside of Europe and North America.
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FIGURE 3 Service Design Agencies That Match Two Or Three Patterns By Size, Experience, And Targets
Agency name
AKQA
Brand ManualCatalyst Innovation
PartnersCnote
Comotion
continuum innovation
Criativia
Doberman
Edenspiekermann
EPAM
FCV
Hello Future
Interbrand
Kristina Tool Studio
Livework Studio
Macquarium
Made by Many
minds & makers
MRM//McCann
MU/DAI
Nurun
Rocca Creative Thinking
SAP
Service Science Factory
strategybuilders.eu
Transformator Design
User Studio
We Are Snook
WorkPlayExperience
Zeewaardig
Ziba Design
Zilver Innovation
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Headquarters
Servicedesignemployees
Years ofexperience
US
Estonia
US
The Netherlands
UK
US
Brazil
SwedenGermany/The NetherlandsUS
Sweden
US
Italy
UK
US
UK
Germany
US
US
Canada
UK
Germany
The Netherlands
Luxembourg
Sweden
France
Scotland
Germany
The Netherlands
US
The Netherlands
101-500
6-10
6-10
2-5
2-5
51-100
2-5
11-25
2-5
101-500
6-10
6-10
2-5
1
11-25
2-5
11-25
6-10
500 or more
2-5
51-100
2-5
101-500
2-5
1
26-50
6-10
6-10
2-5
2-5
6-10
6-10
16 or more
6-10
2-5
6-10
2-5
11-15
2-5
6-10
6-10
6-10
2-5
2-5
1 or less
6-10
11-15
6-10
6-10
6-10
16 or more
1 or less
2-5
2-5
6-10
6-10
11-15
16 or more
6-10
6-10
6-10
2-5
6-10
6-10
Phy
sica
l and
face
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esig
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s
Dig
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des
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Base: 70 global service design agencies
Canada
Experientia Italy 26-50 11-15
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FIGURE 4 Service Design Agencies That Match Two Or Three Patterns By Top Capabilities
Agency nameAKQA
Brand ManualCatalyst Innovation Partners
CnoteComotion
continuum innovationCriativia
DobermanEdenspiekermann
EPAM
FCVHello Future
InterbrandKristina Tool Studio
Livework StudioMacquarium
Made by Manyminds & makersMRM//McCann
MU/DAINurun
Rocca Creative ThinkingSAP
Service Science Factorystrategybuilders.eu
Transformator DesignUser Studio
We Are SnookWorkPlayExperience
ZeewaardigZiba Design
Zilver Innovation
Primary Secondary
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
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Base: 70 global service design agencies
Experientia
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FIGURE 5 Service Design Agencies That Match Two Or Three Patterns By Top Channel Experience
Agency name
AKQABrand Manual
Catalyst InnovationPartners
CnoteComotion
continuum innovationCriativia
DobermanEdenspiekermann
EPAM
FCVHello Future
InterbrandKristina Tool Studio
Livework StudioMacquarium
Made by Manyminds & makersMRM//McCann
MU/DAINurun
Rocca CreativeThinking
SAPService Science
Factorystrategybuilders.eu
Transformator DesignUser Studio
We Are SnookWorkPlayExperience
ZeewaardigZiba Design
Zilver Innovation
Primary Secondary
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Contactcenter
Faceto face
Installedsoftware/
SaaSMobile/tablet
Physicalenvironment
Physicalproducts
Printedmaterials Web Other
Base: 70 global service design agencies
Experientia
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FIGURE 6 Service Design Agencies That Match Two Or Three Patterns By Industry Experience
Agency name
AKQABrand Manual
Catalyst Innovation PartnersCnote
Comotioncontinuum innovation
CriativiaDoberman
EdenspiekermannEPAM
FCVHello Future
InterbrandKristina Tool Studio
Livework StudioMacquarium
Made by Manyminds & makersMRM//McCann
MU/DAINurun
Rocca Creative ThinkingSAP
Service Science Factorystrategybuilders.eu
Transformator DesignUser Studio
We Are Snook
WorkPlayExperienceZeewaardigZiba Design
Zilver Innovation
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Au
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Base: 70 global service design agencies
Experientia
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Specialized Firms Are Small And Focused On Social Services
Thirteen agencies exhibited one pattern only, indicating that their service design activities are narrower and more specialized (see Figure 7, see Figure 8, see Figure 9, and see Figure 10). These agencies report that they are:
› Purveyors of qualitative research and experience strategy. Nearly all of the firms in this category list qualitative research among their top capabilities — 85% altogether. Experience strategy comes close behind, with 69% reporting it as a top capability. Forty-six percent report that training is a top priority, and 31% say that conceptual design is.
› In industries that provide social services. Education, healthcare, and government are key clients for this group of agencies. Nearly all of the 13 said that they have done projects in the education field in the past two years — just two did not. Healthcare comes second, with 62% of agencies doing work in this area. A further 46% report doing projects for government clients. The only outlier to the trend is retail, for which 54% of respondents have done projects in the past two years.
› Relatively small. Fifty-four percent of the agencies in this group have 10 or fewer service design employees on staff. Thirty-one percent have 11 to 25 service design employees, and another 15% have 26 to 50 such employees. But none on this list have the hundreds of service design employees that other firms report, making these single-pattern agencies relatively small, compared with those that show multiple patterns.
› Varied in experience. Forty-six percent of firms have two to five years of experience in service design. Another 38% report having 11 to 15 years of experience. Just two of these firms say that they have six to 10 years of experience in service design, suggesting a reverse bell curve, with agencies clustering at the junior or senior end of the spectrum and relatively few landing in the middle.
› Concentrated in Northern Europe. Out of 13 agencies, 62% have headquarters in Europe. The remaining agencies are found exclusively in North America, with 31% headquartered in the US.
Service design is end-to-end experience design for the front and back of the house. About half of agencies deliver on multiple parts of that promise — but not all of it.
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FIGURE 7 Service Design Agencies That Match Only One Pattern By Size, Experience, And Targets
Agency name
brightspot strategyChangeful
DaytonagravitytankIntersezioni
MAYA DesignNile
Ocean ObservationsSmithSTBY
Usability MattersVia Design
We QuestionOur Project
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Headquarters
Servicedesignemployees
Years ofexperience
USUKSwedenUSItalyUSScotlandSwedenUSUK/TheNetherlandsCanadaDenmark
Spain
6-10111-25 26-50111-2511-2511-2526-506-10
2-52-5
2-5
2-52-52-5 11-156-1011-152-56-1011-1511-15
2-511-15
2-5
Fuzz
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nov
ato
rs
Phy
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ace
des
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ers
Dig
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des
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ers
Org
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ang
e p
artn
ers
Bu
sin
ess
syst
ems
con
sult
ants
Base: 70 global service design agencies
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FIGURE 8 Service Design Agencies That Match Only One Pattern By Top Capabilities
Agency name
brightspot strategy
ChangefulDaytona
gravitytankIntersezioni
MAYA DesignNile
Ocean ObservationsSmithSTBY
Usability MattersVia Design
We QuestionOur Project
Primary Secondary
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
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Base: 70 global service design agencies
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FIGURE 9 Service Design Agencies That Match Only One Pattern By Top Channel Experience
Agency name
brightspot strategyChangeful
DaytonagravitytankIntersezioni
MAYA DesignNile
Ocean ObservationsSmithSTBY
Usability MattersVia Design
We QuestionOur Project
Primary Secondary
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Contactcenter
Face toface
Installedsoftware/
SaaSMobile/tablet
Physicalenvironment
Physicalproducts
Printedmaterials Web Other
Base: 70 global service design agencies
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FIGURE 10 Service Design Agencies That Match Only One Pattern By Industry Experience
Agency name
brightspot strategyChangeful
DaytonagravitytankIntersezioni
MAYA DesignNile
Ocean ObservationsSmithSTBY
Usability MattersVia Design
We QuestionOur Project
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
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Base: 70 global service design agencies
Agencies With Breadth Also Bring A More Traditional Business Approach
Fifteen of the 70 agencies that responded to our survey matched four or all five of the patterns, indicating that their approach to service design encompasses innovation activities, physical and digital experience design, organization change, and even help with business systems (see Figure 11, see Figure 12, see Figure 13, and see Figure 14). These agencies are:
› Inclined toward business strategy. Experience strategy and conceptual design are top capabilities here, just as they are for firms exhibiting two to three patterns. But unlike the other groups in this report, these agencies also lean toward business strategy. Forty-seven percent of this group reported that business strategy is a top capability, significantly more than the 27% of two- to three-factor firms that said that it was.
› More likely to incorporate a business systems approach. Twenty-seven percent of the agencies in this group show all five patterns, and the remaining 73% match four patterns each. Business systems consulting is one of the least-matched patterns, but with 73% of these agencies matching the pattern, it’s still significantly more prevalent in this group than in any other.
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› Large and experienced. Fifty-three percent of agencies here report that they have more than 100 service design employees, and 47% of them have 11 or more years of experience with service design. But it’s worth asking, how are these firms defining a service design employee? It’s doubtful that any company in the world has more than 100 fully dedicated service designers — the industry is still just too small for that. They are most likely experience strategy or design consultants who do service design as part of their work.
› Concentrated in North America. This is the only group that flips the trend on European-based service design agencies. Sixty percent of agencies in this category have headquarters in North America — with 53% in the US alone. The rest of this list trends toward Europe.
FIGURE 11 Service Design Agencies That Match Four Or Five Patterns By Size, Experience, And Targets
Agency nameComrade
DeloitteDesignit
HolonHuge
Idea CoutureMcKinsey
Digital LabsPalmu Group
Razor�sh Global
SapientNitro
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Headquarters
Servicedesignemployees
Years ofexperience
USUSDenmark
Global
SpainUS
Canada
US
FinlandUS
US
11-25500 or more101-500
2-5101-50051-100
101-500
51-100500 or more
500 or more
2-56-1011-15
2-511-156-10
2-5
6-1016 or more
11-15
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Base: 70 global service design agencies
Engine ServiceDesign UK 11-25 16 or more
500 or more 16 or moreFjord, part of
AccentureInteractive
frog US 500 or more 16 or moreHellon Finland 11-25 2-5
Red Privet US 11-25 6-10
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17
FIGURE 12 Service Design Agencies That Match Four Or Five Patterns By Top Capabilities
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Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Base: 70 global service design agencies
Agency nameComrade
DeloitteDesignit
Engine ServiceDesign
Fjord, part ofAccentureInteractive
Hellonfrog
HolonHuge
Idea CoutureMcKinsey
Digital LabsPalmu Group
Razor�sh Global
SapientNitroRed Privet
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18
FIGURE 13 Service Design Agencies That Match Four Or Five Patterns By Top Channel Experience
Agency nameComrade
DeloitteDesignit
Engine ServiceDesign
Fjord, part ofAccentureInteractive
Hellonfrog
HolonHuge
Idea CoutureMcKinsey
Digital LabsPalmu Group
Razor�sh Global
SapientNitroRed Privet
Contactcenter
Face toface
Installedsoftware/
SaaSMobile/tablet
Physicalenvironment
Physicalproducts
Printedmaterials Web Other
Primary Secondary
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Base: 70 global service design agencies
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19
FIGURE 14 Service Design Agencies That Match Four Or Five Patterns By Industry Experience
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ComradeDeloitteDesignit
Engine ServiceDesign
Fjord, part ofAccentureInteractive
Hellonfrog
HolonHuge
Idea CoutureMcKinsey
Digital Labs
Palmu GroupRazor�sh Global
SapientNitro
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Base: 70 global service design agencies
Red Privet
And A Small Crop Of Atypical Agencies Foreshadow Coming Trends
Nine agencies in our survey matched none of the patterns, so we examined their offerings in more detail to understand what makes them unique. Like many of the agencies above, these firms do qualitative research and experience strategy, often for healthcare and government clients (see Figure 15, see Figure 16, see Figure 17, and see Figure 18). But as a group, they also have some unique characteristics that offer signals for where the service design field may be heading. These agencies blend standard service design activities with:
› New engagement models. Several of the agencies on this list offer novel engagement models that challenge the classic slow-burn, single-client, project-based model. Claro Partners does global foresight research that multiple companies sponsor together in an offering that it calls open innovation research. And tiny LinksRechts Service Design advertises more modular service design
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20
offerings, like an accelerated and inexpensive cocreation phase that can be done with two weeks of lead time that it refers to as a “User Circle QuickScan.” It suggests this as a quick way to ensure that the start of any project is linked to users’ real needs.
› Tools and training. A quarter of the agencies on this list not only practice service design but also teach and enable it. Some, like Good Innovation and NEA OG, offer training as a complement to their core service design practice. ExperienceFellow focuses exclusively on training and developing tools to support service design research and journey mapping.
› Futures and trends. Three of the agencies in this small group offer services in foresight and trend analysis. Firms like Dowayo Foresight and Claro Partners mix service design methods with research into customers’ emerging behavior, technology change, and societal trends to explore longer-range considerations and opportunities for their clients.
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Vendor Landscape: Service Design Agency Overview, 2015December 1, 2015
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21
FIGURE 15 Service Design Agencies That Match No Patterns By Size, Experience, And Targets
Agency name
Headquarters: Spain6-10 service design employees2-5 years of experience
Claro Partners’ approach to service design is focusedon disruptive shifts to society. In addition to clientwork, it conducts open innovation projects that arepartially sponsored by multiple clients at once.
Headquarters/service design employees/years of experience Description
Claro Partners
Headquarters: Spain2-5 service design employees2-5 years of experience
Dowayo Foresight describes its work as a blendof experience strategy and strategic foresight.
Dowayo Foresight
Headquarters: Austria6-10 service design employees6-10 years of experience
ExperienceFellow provides training and tools forservice design, including a SaaS product to collectand organize service design research data and createjourney maps.
ExperienceFellow
Headquarters: UK6-10 service design employees2-5 years of experience
Good Innovation has expertise in charity-relatedinnovation and service design and providestraining in how to create an innovation culture.
Good Innovation
Headquarters: The Netherlands11-25 service design employees6-10 years of experience
Koos blends classic service design offerings likejourney mapping and service blueprints with novelapproaches like its “Proposition Generator” — anaccelerated prototyping offering.
Koos
Headquarters: The Netherlands2-5 service design employees2-5 years of experience
LinksRechts Service Design is a small �rm with afocus on social design. LinksRechts also offers trainingand an accelerated cocreation phase that can bedone with two weeks of lead time.
LinksRechtsService Design
Headquarters: Austria2-5 service design employees2-5 years of experience
NEA OG is a branding and service design agency thatalso offers training in service design, preferably inconjunction with a practical case.
NEA OG
Headquarters: US2-5 service design employees6-10 years of experience
Pinpoint emphasizes that it uses a range of researchmethods (primarily qualitative) to help organizationsunderstand new markets and growth opportunities.
Pinpoint
Headquarters: Norway11-25 service design employees2-5 years of experience
Halogen’s service design offerings include the usualsuspects, web and mobile, as well as systems forbusiness safety and process improvements.
Halogen AS
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Base: 70 global service design agencies
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22
FIGURE 16 Service Design Agencies That Match No Patterns By Top Capabilities
Agency name Qua
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Claro PartnersDowayo ForesightExperienceFellowGood Innovation
Halogen ASKoos
LinksRechts ServiceDesign
NEA OGPinpoint
Primary Secondary
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Base: 70 global service design agencies
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23
FIGURE 17 Service Design Agencies That Match No Patterns By Top Channel Experience
Agency nameContactcenter
Face toface
Installedsoftware/
SaaSMobile/tablet
Physicalenvironment
Physicalproducts
Printedmaterials Web Other
Claro PartnersDowayo ForesightExperienceFellow
Good InnovationHalogen AS
KoosLinksRechts
Service DesignNEA OGPinpoint
Primary Secondary
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Base: 70 global service design agencies
FIGURE 18 Service Design Agencies That Match No Patterns By Industry Experience
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Claro PartnersDowayo ForesightExperienceFellowGood Innovation
Halogen ASKoos
LinksRechtsService Design
NEA OGPinpoint
Source: Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey
Base: 70 global service design agencies
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24
Recommendations
To Assess Potential Partners, Ask Some Personal Questions
Customer experience professionals who are looking to assess potential service design partners have some basic homework to do, as they’d have with any other consulting project. They need to clarify their firm’s goals, ask candidates about industry and channel experience, and request examples of capabilities. But CX pros: The complicated nature of the service design provider landscape today also requires you to ask some deeper questions of your firms and your potential partners:
› Ask about the vibe. Does the agency see itself as a Spock or a Kirk (i.e., is its approach primarily analytical or emotional)? Be aware that you can’t have it both ways. The difference between a specialized firm that places qualitative research at the core of its process and a full-service partner with strength in business systems consulting is more than just size. They may use the same words, but they often don’t speak the same language. The meaning of an insight, an opportunity, a strategy, and a touchpoint — fundamental ideas to service design — may take on very different forms depending on the partner you choose. Consider carefully: Do you need a service design partner that will seek and probe for the deeper human meaning or a partner that can talk about service design, and by extension customer experience, in more business-focused terms? Neither is right; it’s just a matter of what’s right for you.
› Ask, “Do we know the answer already?” It’s likely that you’ll have a sense of what channels you aim to address in a particular brief with a partner. But if your goals lie more in the realm of innovation, you should find a partner that has the potential to come back with new insights that challenge your thinking about the use of specific channels and touchpoints. In that case, look for an agency with fuzzy front-end innovator characteristics and at least a few other specialties — one that exhibits two to three patterns at a minimum. On the other hand, if you know that you have a more focused issue within a discrete area of customer experience such as a core customer-to-agent interaction, a critical physical environment, or an organizational issue to address, then one-pattern firms will suit you just fine.
› And when in doubt, ask to meet the team. The best shortcut for all of the above is to ask to meet members of the team with whom you’ll work. Ask them to talk about what service design is and what benefits they deliver through it. How they describe their process, the work they’re most proud of, what type of tangible benefits they key in on, and where their eyes light up — that’s all of the information that you really need.
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Supplemental Material
Survey Methodology
Forrester’s Q3 2015 Global Service Design Agency Online Survey was fielded to 71 service design agencies. For quality assurance, we screened respondents to ensure that they actively participate in the service design community through either agency-level membership in the Service Design Network professional association or explicit service design content on their websites.
Forrester fielded the survey from August 13, 2015, to September 23, 2015. Respondent incentives included a copy of the resulting reports. Exact sample sizes are provided in this report on a question-by-question basis.
This survey used a self-selected group of respondents and is therefore not random. This data is not guaranteed to be representative of the population, and unless otherwise noted, statistical data is to be used for descriptive and not inferential purposes. While nonrandom, the survey is still a valuable tool for understanding where service design agencies are today and the industry is headed.
We determined classification of our survey respondents by factor-analyzing agencies’ self-reported service design capabilities and channels. We performed the exploratory factor analysis using polychoric correlations, a principal-axis-factors extraction method, and a direct oblimin rotation. We chose a five-factor model due to the absence of factor cross-loadings and the logic of the organizational patterns that it revealed.
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Endnotes1 Service design is a human-centered design approach that seeks to design end-to-end experiences and the underlying
business systems that support them. Agencies that practice service design talk in terms of the “front of the house” and the “back of the house.” The “front of the house” is everything that the customer sees — the sequence of tangible and intangible interactions that a customer collectively experiences as a service. The “back of house” is all of the internal interactions and systems that must be properly orchestrated for a positive customer experience to ensue.
Agencies that practice service design have a wide range of deliverables. They conduct research to understand how customers experience the front of the house and what’s really going on in the back of the house to create that experience. They redesign instantiations of the service at specific touchpoints, which can range from creating a new digital interface to producing a new physical tool or product and scripting how an agent-to-customer interaction should unfold. And they make recommendations for improvements to back-of-house operations. Service design practitioners were the first to develop and use tools like journey maps and service blueprints — tools that have been adapted for wider use by the customer experience community today. For more information, see the “Service Design Creates Breakthrough Customer Experiences” Forrester report.
2 Factor analysis is a statistical method that reveals underlying relationships between measured variables. Here, we used this methodology to uncover latent structures in the data to meaningfully organize survey respondents. Note that the survey data is self-reported, so when doing deeper research into a particular agency, customer experience professionals should ask to see examples of capabilities from past client work to vet agency claims.
3 For more information on agencies providing digital experience services, see the “Market Overview: Digital Experience Service Providers” Forrester report.
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