Preface
Welcome! This guide will take you on an amazing journey of co-creating value through services, and is aimed at both customers and service providers. The guide is for everyone: large well-organized groups, families, backpackers, hitchhikers, travellers who prefer a meticulously planned journey, and those who seek a more spontaneous and emerging experience. You can travel with us all the way, or join us for just part of the journey.
Services are not manufactured or produced but co-created between two or more stakeholders. The service experience is formed by individual touchpoints and service interactions on the journey as well as by the journey as a whole. To improve stakeholder satisfaction, each touchpoint should lead to a good experience, and the whole journey should meet or exceed the stakeholders’ expectations.
The purpose of this guide is to optimize the value of the service journey for all involved stakeholders by converting opportunity and demand into value. In other words, to drive stakeholder value. All stakeholders contribute to the creation of service value by:
• exploring value propositions
• fostering relationships
• keeping engagement channels open
• shaping demand
• designing service offerings
• aligning with and agreeing on expectations
• co-creating service experiences
• realizing value.
ITIL ® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value provides recommendations for how to engage in and contribute to each of these activities. It discusses the main stepping stones of the service journey and shows you how to make the journey valuable for service consumers, service providers, and all other stakeholders.
Adopting a service mindset is a good start for both the customer and the service provider. So, when moving forward on the service journey, consider the following ‘five Ss’ at every stage of the journey:
• Smile, serve and support.
• Seek first to understand – then to be understood.
• Seize the ‘moment of truth’.
• Save time for the unexpected.
• Say sorry when you make a mistake (too much rather than too little).
We are now ready for boarding. Have a safe trip!
Christian Feldbech Nissen
Lead editor, ITIL ® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value