The very nature of services and the speed of change have changed significantly in recent years. The traditional aspects of service delivery are no longer enough. Companies need to learn how to tap the potential for service innovation by closely looking into evolving trends.

Greater involvement, personalization, customization, and mobility from services are being demanded more than ever, and immediate results are also expected by consumers. When cutting-edge service innovations in one industry are used and seen by them, it is natural to have the same expectations of other providers. For example, self-service kiosks for airline check-ins can be easily applied to the retail and hospitality industries. Once consumers have this experience, they will expect to see similar service in other industries. With time, industry boundaries blur. Thus, companies need to pursue new ideas beyond their immediate competitors.

The rise of the mobile internet should also be noted. According to Statista, a German company specializing in market and consumer data, as of 2021, the number of smartphones sold worldwide was 1.38 billion, and in the fourth quarter of 2020, around 20.8% of all smartphones sold were made by Apple. Thirty-eight percent of the world’s total population owned a smart device in 2018, and the smartphone penetration rate has continued climbing, reaching 46.5% in 2020. More than 100 billion apps were downloaded in 2013, up from 64 billion in 2012. The resulting mobile and self-service possibilities are dramatically changing service delivery. Grab’s disruption of the taxi business is also a good example. Advances in digital payments are increasingly spurring mobile commerce, with farreaching implications for retail and financial services. Halodoc, an Indonesian startup, is another good example of a game changer as it provides telemedicine through connectivity. Growth opportunities for the proliferation of smart devices are being unlocked, and the cost of developing services is being reduced, which also lowers barriers to entry.

Continued advances in analytic capabilities allow companies to gain insights from massive sources, leading to new service possibilities through big data and  advanced analytics. In addition, the IoT is indispensable for service innovation. Machine-to-machine connectivity is facilitating real-time service delivery in a number of business-to-business applications. The prevalence of connected devices opens up possibilities for proactive, touchless service, along with new commercial models. Service innovation has immense potential for applications and therefore should be leveraged by enterprises and individuals.

Course Objectives

The main objectives of this course are:

• Understand the concepts, tools, and methodologies of service innovation.
• Facilitate the adoption of service innovation and stakeholder engagement in organizational operations.
• Introduce emerging technologies such as user experience customization, mobile apps, big data and analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT).