Journal of Service Research

14(2) 180-200
Multilevel Service Design: ª The Author(s) 2011
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From Customer Value Constellation DOI: 10.1177/1094670511401901
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to Service Experience Blueprinting
Lia Patrı́cio1, Raymond P. Fisk2, João Falcão e Cunha1, and
Larry Constantine3

Abstract
The proliferation of complex service systems raises new challenges for service design and requires new methods. Multilevel
Service Design (MSD) is presented as a new interdisciplinary method for designing complex service systems. MSD synthesizes
contributions from new service development, interaction design, and the emerging field of service design. MSD enables integrated
development of service offerings at three hierarchical levels: (a) Designing the firm’s service concept with the customer value
constellation of service offerings for the value constellation experience; (b) Designing the firm’s service system, comprising its
architecture and navigation, for the service experience; and (c) Designing each service encounter with the Service Experience
Blueprint for the service encounter experience. Applications of the MSD method are described for designing a new retail grocery
service and for redesigning a bank service. MSD contributes an interdisciplinary service design method that accommodates
the cocreative nature of customer experiences and enables experience integration from the design of the service concept
through the design of the service system and service encounter.

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

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

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
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, Portugal
2
Texas State University–San Marcos, San Marcos, TX, USA
3
University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal
Corresponding Author:
Lia Patrı́cio, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, School of
Engineering, University of Porto, R. Roberto Frias, 4200 – 465 Porto, Portugal
Email: lpatric@fe.up.pt
Patrı´cio
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 (Patrı́cio,
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 Ramı́rez 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
181
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 (Patrı́cio, 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
182
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
Journal of Service Research 14(2)
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
Patrı´cio
Understanding the
customer experience
Designing the Value Constellation
service concept Experience
Designing the Service Experience
service system
Designing the Service Encounter
Service encounter Experience
Figure 1. General model of multilevel service design.
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
(Patrı́cio, Cunha, and Fisk 2009; Patrı́cio, 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.
183
Designing the
service offering
Customer Value
Constellation
Service System
Architecture and
Navigation
Service Experience
Blueprint
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.
184 Journal of Service Research 14(2)

Understanding the Designing the

Customer experience Service offering
Real
estate
Personal broker
Value Constellation Experience recommen- Real
Designing dations estate
service

the Service House Mortgage House Registration

buying a
house Customer Value
Info loan purchase
office Real estate
Constellation
Concept information
service
Insurance Bank
mortgage
service

Designing
Service Experience
the Service
Inf o Loan …
System Contract
search applic.

Service System
Service System Architecture Navigation

Designing Service Encounter Experience

Service
the Service Select Analyze … Experience
Login
loan inf o loan inf o
Encounter Blueprint

Figure 2. Component models of multilevel service design.

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 (Patrı́cio, 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.
Patrı´cio 185

Table 1. MSD Steps

MSD Steps Retail Application Bank Application

Step 1: Study the three levels of
customer experience
Qualitative study
Quantitative study
Study the three levels of grocery management
experience
Observation and interviews with 31 customers
Survey with 505 customers
Study the three levels of buying a car
experience
Observation and interviews with 26 bank
customers
Survey with 420 bank customers

Step 2: Design the service concept
Understand the value constella-
tion experience
Design the service concept with
the customer value constellation
Design the new retail service concept Define the bank loan service concept
Map the value constellation experience for buying Map the value constellation experience for
groceries buying a car
Design a new grocery management service concept in Design the mortgage service concept in the
the customer value constellation for buying groceries customer value constellation for buying a
car

Step 3: Design the service system
Understand the service
experience
Design the service system
architecture
Design the service system
navigation
Design the retail service system for the new service Redesign the bank service system for loans
Map the service experience for the new grocery Map the service experience for the mortgage
management service service
Design the SSA for the new grocery management service Design the SSA for the mortgage service
Design the SSN for the new grocery management Design the SSN for the mortgage service
service

Step 4: Design the service encounter Design the retail service encounters Design the bank loan service encounters
Understand the service encounter Map the experience for each service encounter of the Map the experience for each service encoun-
experience new grocery management service ter of the loan service
Design the service encounters Design the grocery management service encounters Design the loan service encounters with the
with the service experience with the SEB SEB
blueprint

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 Value
Constellation (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
186
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 System
Architecture (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.
Journal of Service Research 14(2)
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
Patrı´cio
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 Experience
Blueprint (SEB) diagram. The MSD method uses the SEB dia-
gram (Patrı́cio, 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 Retail
Service
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.
187
Step 1: Studying the Levels of Home Grocery
Management 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 Patrı́cio 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 Concept
Understanding 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
188 Journal of Service Research 14(2)

Value constellation experience for managing home groceries

Stock Need Store Product

Grocery list Purchase Transport
control recognition selection selection

Retail service
experience

Information Product Delivery

search selection Picking Checkout option Delivery
selection

Product search and selection

service encounter experience

Login Analyze
Search for Add
Internet productin …
products product to cart
service formation

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

service experience fit into the value constellation experience

and which customer activities were not covered by the existing
wholesaling
retailer service offering. In this case, the retailer provided the
product selection, purchase, and delivery activities of the value
Specialty Other
stores constellation experience for home groceries. Customers per-
large stores
Medium formed other activities, such as controlling their grocery stock
stores and making lists, for which no services were available. This
Product
information Managing presented opportunities to innovate by developing new services
services home grocery not offered by the existing network of service providers.

Designing the new retail service concept through the Customer

Retailer
Retailer Value Constellation (CVC). Based on the results of the customer
large stores
home delivery
service
experience study and the work with the multidisciplinary team,
Retailer a new grocery service concept was designed. The understand-
online ing of the value constellation experience and the respective net-
service
work of services were used to map the existing CVC (see
Retailer’s existing service concept
Figure 4). The overall activity of home grocery management
is at the center of the CVC, surrounded by the services that
Figure 4. Retailer’s service concept positioning in the Customer enable the value constellation experience. The CVC was then
Value Constellation for managing home groceries. used to explore new service innovation possibilities, such as
(a) adding new services that were now being provided by other
managing home groceries. The study showed that this value service providers in the CVC; (b) establishing new links with
constellation experience involved not only grocery purchases other service providers in the CVC to create integrated service
but also other activities associated with home groceries, such offerings; or (c) offering new services to support home grocery
as stock control and making grocery lists (see Figure 3). These activities previously undertaken by the customer.
results enabled mapping the customer activities and identifying Through the work of the multidisciplinary team, this per-
the services related to grocery management. This high level spective enabled creating a new service concept that offers
perspective allowed for a better understanding of how the retail an integrated solution not only for grocery buying but also for
Patrı´cio 189

Wholesaling Online service

8,31
fulfillment
Specialty Other
stores large Online service
8,14
stores efficiency
Medium
stores
Product Muli-interface
information Managing 7,66
home grocery integraon
services

Grocery Store personal

7,53
management contact
Retailer support service
0 2 4 6 8 10
home delivery
service
Retailer Figure 6. Assessment of multi-interface experience factors—retail
Drive large stores service (construct means of summated scales 0–10).
through Retailer
service online
service
physical store factors (ease of use and organization of services-
New retail service concept cape, depth and breadth of product and services available, and
personal contact), online service factors (ease of use, depth and
Figure 5. Retailer’s new grocery buying service concept and recon- breadth of products and services available, and order fulfill-
figuration of the Customer Value Constellation for managing home ment), and multi-interface integration (integration and consis-
groceries. 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
the value constellation experience for managing home gro-
scale dimensions identified for the multi-interface service
ceries (see Figure 5). With this new service concept, the retailer
experience were (a) personal contact at the physical store, (b)
offers a full service that supports new activities previously
efficiency of the online service, (c) fulfillment of the online ser-
undertaken by the customer, offering customers a shopping
vice, and (d) multi-interface service integration. The results of
plan that can comprise both online and physical store purchases
the quantitative study provided inputs for the design of the
with home delivery, or pick-up at a drive-through at the store.
firm’s service system. As depicted in Figure 6, integration of
By broadening the design space beyond the existing boundaries
the multi-interface offering was a low performing factor, which
of the firm, innovative ways to cocreate value with customers
indicated this area needed improvement.
were found by reconfiguring the firm’s offerings in the CVC.

Designing the retailer service system through the SSA and

Step 3: Designing the Service System for the New Retail
Service 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
SSN. 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.
190 Journal of Service Research 14(2)

Existing retail service experience

Product Selecon Checkout Process Picking Order Delivery

Customer Customer

Internet Interface
Service Interfaces

Telephone Interface

Physical store

Delivery
Team
Backstage
support

Picker

Backend systems

Figure 7. Service system architecture for existing retail service.

New retail service experience

Service Shopping
Shopping Plan Purchase Picking Order Delivery
Registraon Trigger
Customer

Customer

Internet
interface
Service Interfaces

Delivery
Team

Physical store

Telephone
Interface
Backstage
support

Picker

Backend
systems

Figure 8. Service system architecture for new retail service.

Patrı´cio 191

New retail service experience

Service Shopping
Shopping Plan Purchase Picking Order Delivery
Registraon Trigger

Customer
Sign up for Select dates Confirm products,
dates and payment Pick-up order Receive delivery
the service and products
Customer

Present service Present service Present order Order

informaon opons e-mail confirmaon
Internet
interface
Service Interfaces

Make delivery
Delivery
Team

Transmit order
informaon
Telephone
Interface

Order pick-up

Physical store
Backstage

Pick
support

Products
Picker

Service Register user Raise order Pick Keep Order

registraon opons trigger Save Order Products Record

Backend
systems

Figure 9. Service system navigation for new retail service.

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 New
Retail 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 Service
Experience 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.
192
Figure 10. Service experience blueprint for registration and shopping plan interaction experience.
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 Banking
Service
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 (Patrı́cio, 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
Journal of Service Research 14(2)
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 Customer
Experience
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.
Patrı´cio 193

Value constellation experience for buying a car

Car
Need Car Car Car Car
Information Car loan
recognition selection purchase registration insurance
search

Loan service experience

Information Decision Loan Bank Contracting Post

search advice application decision contracting

Information search
service encounter
experience

Login Select loan Analyze

Internet info loan info
…
service

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

and insuring the car. These results helped understand the con-
Personal
text within which the bank loan is used and showed that the
recommendations loan is not an end in itself but instrumental in the car buying
Car information
services process. This analysis pointed out the need for designing the
Buying
Registration a car loan service concept to facilitate and speed the loan application
office service Car process, so customers could more easily get what they really
insurance
service
wanted: buying a car.
Car dealer
service Bank car Designing the bank loan service concept through the Customer
loan
Value 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
Bank loan
service concept team. As shown in Figure 12, a network of service offerings sus-
tains the car purchase activity because loans are only one part of
Figure 12. Bank’s loan service concept positioning in the customer the CVC. To enhance its service concept positioning, besides the
value constellation for buying a car. loan the bank developed partnerships with car dealers and insur-
ance companies to facilitate the car purchase. The bank project
Step 2: Designing the Bank Loan Service Concept focused on redesigning the service system and did not involve
Understanding the Value Constellation Experience (VCE) for the redefinition of the service concept. However, this high level
buying a car. For the bank case, the loan application and usage analysis helped understand how the loan service concept was
might be part of many value constellation experiences, such as integrated with the CVC for buying a car, providing guidance for
buying a car, a vacation trip, or solving a personal problem. As designing the service system and service encounter levels.
an example, the value constellation experience for buying a car
is presented. As shown in Figure 11, the qualitative results Step 3: Redesigning the Bank Service System for Loans
enabled mapping the different service activities involved in the Understanding the loan service experience. The loan service
value constellation experience, such as searching for informa- experience was defined as being cocreated through all the ser-
tion, selecting the car, getting a loan, purchasing, registering, vice encounters between the customer and the bank for
194
Online service
8,7
efficiency
Online service
8,58
fulfillment
Store personal
8,25
contact
Muli-interface
integraon
8,24
0 2 4 6 8 10
Figure 13. Assessment of multi-interface experience factors—bank
service (construct means of summated scales 0–10).
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
Journal of Service Research 14(2)
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 for
Bank 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
Patrı´cio 195

Loan service experience

Decision Bank Post

Information Application Contracting
advice decision contracting

Customer
Service Interfaces Customer

Internet
interface

Telephone
Interface

Physical store
Backstage
support

Internal support

Backend system

Figure 14. Service system architecture for bank loans.

Information Decision advice Loan application

Customer

Ask for Ask for advice Apply for loan

information

Customer

Show information Online application

and advice options
Internet interface
Service Interfaces

Telephone advice Send application

by mail

Telephone Interface

Advice at Register application

Physical store Physical branch at physical branch
Backstage

Retrieve Send advice Register

support

information request application

Backend system

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

system design down through the different levels of the cus- design the firm service concept. The MSD method extends
tomer experience. At the highest level, the MSD method adapts Lovelock’s service concept (1994), recognizing that the service
the value constellation model (Normann and Ramı́rez 1993) to offering can be created in collaboration with other partners in
196 Journal of Service Research 14(2)

[no schedule]
[telephone Select
advice] telephone
F advice
[schedule meeng]
W
Select
Login to Select loan Choose schedule
service info advice opon meeng
frontstage

Customer
Line of interaction

Retrieve Present loan Send Inform customer

Send login Present
Loan info Info and advice meeng he/she will be
informaon Service opons opons request contacted
Internet
banking
Line of visibility

F F
backstage

Validate Send loan Retrieve Select Send schedule

Login info addional appropriate request with
info customer info advisor customer info

Backend system

Acon W Waing point Beginning of

process
Service
interface link
Customer End of
F Fail point
decision process

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

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 (Patrı́cio, 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
Patrı´cio
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 Interdisciplinary
Service 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
197
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 interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:
This research project was partially supported by AdI—Agência de
Inovação—IDEIA Program (Grant number 13 05 04 FDR 00022).
198 Journal of Service Research 14(2)

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Bios
Lia Patrı́cio is an assistant professor of the Department of Indus-
trial Engineering and Management at the University of Porto.
200
Previously, 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 pub-
lished in the Journal of Service Research, Requirements Engi-
neering Journal, and others. Her current research focuses on
new interdisciplinary methods for service system design, service
experience design, service design for sustainability, 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.
Journal of Service Research 14(2)
João Falcão e Cunha is a lecturer and researcher at the School of Engi-
neering of the University of Porto. He holds a PhD in Computing Sci-
ence 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 mod-
eling, and service engineering and management. He coordinates the
Industrial Engineering and Management and the Service Engineering
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.