What do we call service design in a proposal?

Name the outcome the client wants: a customer experience workshop, an onboarding fix, a store visit map. Put "service design" in the method section.

Can a small agency sell service design without a research team?

Yes. One trained facilitator and the client's own staff in the room are enough for the first workshop. Research with customers can come in the next phase.

How does a service design workshop lead to bigger projects?

The ranked fix list is the scope of the next phase. Price the first fix before the workshop ends, while the room still agrees on it.

Should the agency or the client own the service blueprint?

The client owns the blueprint. The agency owns the relationship and the build that comes after it.

Will you pitch service design to our client directly?

No. I work under your name, the agency owns the client, and that goes in writing before the first meeting.

How can an agency sell service design to its clients?

Sell one workshop with a clear deliverable to a client who already trusts you, and tie the map to work your agency can build next. Clients approve a day that ends with a blueprint and a ranked fix list. A service design workshop with me starts at $3,500 for a day, and I can run it under your agency's name.

Most agencies that try to sell service design lead with the process. Clients glaze over. Lead with the day, the room, and what they hold at the end.

What should an agency sell first?

Sell a one-day workshop with a named deliverable and a fixed price. The client gets a blueprint of how one service works today (what the customer sees, what staff do behind the counter, and the systems in between) and a ranked list of what to fix first. A clear day with a clear output is easy to approve. A six-week discovery phase with sticky notes in the proposal is not.

Which client should we pitch it to?

Start inside a relationship you already have. The best first buyer is a client who keeps telling your account team about a problem that is bigger than the campaign or the site: the onboarding that loses people, the handoff between sales and service, the store experience that does not match the ads. They trust you, and you already know where it hurts. Cold-pitching service design to a stranger is a long sale.

How do we make it pay off for the agency?

Tie the map to work the agency can build. Every blueprint turns up fixes, and many of them are sites, apps, content, email flows, signage, and training, which is what your team already makes. Write the workshop so the fix list feeds a scoped next phase. If the map only produces a slide nobody owns, the client will not buy the second one.

Who should staff a service design workshop?

One senior facilitator who has run these before, one of your strategists or UX people to learn it, and the account lead in the room. On the client side: the people who run the service day to day, someone from the systems side, and one person who can approve changes. If your bench does not have the senior facilitator yet, borrow one for the first few and have your people shadow.

Have you sold service design through an agency?

Yes. At Catalyst Studios, one of Minnesota's first human-centered design studios, I was partner and director of UX and grew it from one person to 20+ before it sold to Initio3i in 2013. After that I ran CAKE, my own service design and UX consultancy, and much of that work was under other agencies' names. The agency owned the client and I ran the room.

What does it cost?

With me, a service design workshop starts at $3,500 for a day, and two days with the workflow maps and a written plan is $6,500. If you want your own team able to run it without me, agency training is $2,000 for a half day or $3,500 for a full day. Mark it up as you would any partner. See service design and agency training and interim leadership.

Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.