Overview
ISO/TS 24082:2021 - "Service excellence - Designing excellent service to achieve outstanding customer experiences" specifies principles and activities for designing services that produce outstanding customer experience and customer delight. Applicable to all organizations that deliver services (commercial, public sector and not‑for‑profit), the technical specification links service design practices with measurable outcomes and a co‑creative approach to value creation.
Key topics and requirements
- Scope and terminology: Defines key terms such as excellent service, customer delight, design for excellent service (DfES), co‑creation, touchpoint and data point.
- Principles of design for excellent service: Emphasizes design that is emotional, adaptive, co‑creative with customers, and consistent with organizational and customer perspectives.
- Design activities: Sets out a structured design process including:
- Planning a design project for excellent service.
- Understanding and empathizing with customer needs, expectations and desires.
- Defining a design challenge and a unique value proposition.
- Designing customer experience using touchpoints and data points (documenting experiences to be delivered; deploying emotional touchpoints; developing effective data points).
- Designing a co‑creation environment to encourage customer participation and customer‑centric service delivery.
- Evaluating designs from the customer, capability and sustainability perspectives.
- Guidance material: Informative annexes provide service design thinking principles, the Kano model for prioritizing customer delight, customer journey mapping, and examples of co‑creation practices and leverage mechanisms.
Practical applications and users
ISO/TS 24082:2021 is practical for:
- Service designers, UX/CX teams and product managers designing or improving service offerings.
- Quality, operations and service excellence leaders seeking to embed customer delight into delivery processes.
- Public sector and not‑for‑profit program managers who want structured methods to design citizen‑centred services.
- Consultants and trainers implementing co‑creation workshops, customer journey mapping, touchpoint design, and measurement systems.
Typical uses:
- Creating or refining a unique value proposition and emotionally resonant services.
- Mapping customer journeys, identifying touchpoints and data points to monitor experience.
- Designing co‑creation environments that engage stakeholders and customers.
- Evaluating service designs against customer delight, organizational capability and sustainability goals.
Related standards
Keywords: ISO/TS 24082:2021, service excellence, designing excellent service, customer experience, customer delight, service design, co‑creation, touchpoints, customer journey, unique value proposition.