Marc Fonteijn invites everyone to the Service Design party

Melanie Broder · Content Creator and Coordinator

    Three insights on Journey Management from one of the Netherlands’ Service Design pioneers.


    Journey Management and Service Design have a lot in common. Both are relatively new fields, and both have the end goal of creating great customer experiences for modern businesses. In the not-so-distant future, journey managers and service designers will work side-by-side to drive the customer-centric revolution.

    Marc Fonteijn is leading service designers into this future. He hosts the Service Design Show on Youtube; runs the Circle, a community for Service Design professionals; and founded the first Service Design agency in the Netherlands, 31Volts. Marc has been a part of TheyDo’s story since our founding, working closely as a partner and events facilitator.

    What is Service Design?
    Service Design is not a traditional design field. Instead of focusing on the creation of physical or digital products, it focuses on developing systems for optimizing the quality and efficiency of service-based businesses.

    Marc Fonteijn explains Service Design the following way: “Imagine you have two coffee shops right next to each other selling the exact same coffee at the exact same price. Service Design is what makes you walk into the one and not the other, come back often and tell your friends about it.”

    Marc spoke to the TheyDo team at our on-site in Barcelona and shared several insights about how he uses TheyDo, and how other service designers can make the most of Journey Management.

    Check out the video above, or skip ahead to the insights below.


    Insight 1: Service Design is now an established career path

    While academics and entrepreneurs have been studying Service Design since at least 1982, its practices have never really made it into the mainstream. According to Marc, that’s changing now.

    “One of the big trends I’m seeing in Service Design is orgs growing their in-house capabilities. Design is getting more recognition. Momentum has started, and it’s not going to stop,” he says.

    One of the benefits of Service Design gaining recognition is that designers can spend less time getting buy-in from leadership and more time developing customer-centric experiences.

    As Service Design becomes more common, businesses will invest more deeply in customer experience efforts, develop mature CX departments, upskill new service designers, and create more opportunities for innovation.


    Insight 2: AI-assisted Journey Management is becoming standard

    Like other design fields, the generative AI boom has also changed Service Design. Marc calls the latest advancements “computer-aided design,” and he thinks it will accelerate the development of enhanced customer experiences.

    Some of the uses of AI for Journey Management include:

    • Predicting customer needs and behaviors

    • Automating journey mapping

    • Personalizing customer journeys for everyone, not just set personas

    • Creating action plans from user research

    • Prioritizing high-ROI solutions to develop

    • Improving customer experiences more efficiently and effectively

    At TheyDo, we’re already working on ways to incorporate AI into customer journey workflows. You can learn more about Journey AI in this article by TheyDo’s CTO Charles Beaumont.


    Insight 3: Journey Governance is key to shaping human-centric organizations

    Just as Service Design is trending upward, the future of Journey Management is bright. Marc sees the future of customer journeys as evolving from mapping, to management, to journey governance.

    Journey Governance is when an organization aligns its business strategy, operations, human resources, and products around providing excellent customer journeys. It’s the scaled-up vision for Journey Management.

    By putting the customer first, companies not only increase the value of services, but drive better decision-making at the highest levels, and create more empathetic workplaces.

    As Marc says, “[Journey Governance] is helping to create more human-centered organizations.”


    Join the customer-centric party

    One of the challenges of pioneering a field like Service Design or Journey Management is that its newness makes others hesitate.

    Marc compares it to a party where you’re the first to arrive. “It can feel like you’re the only one on the dance floor,” he says. “How do we get people who are sitting on the sidelines on the dance floor?”

    Marc does his part by educating others about Service Design and building community around it. At TheyDo, our goal is to make the most inclusive collaborative tool for all CX pros, while also facilitating collaboration with CX experts like Marc to build community momentum around Journey Management.

    The field of Customer Experience doesn’t exist without the unpredictability of interaction, and Service Design thrives on the uniqueness of the individuals and teams that create it. All the better reason to invest in service design now, and join the customer-centric party.

    Want to stay up to date with the latest trends and tips on Service Design and Journey Management? Join the Journey Management Slack Community.

    Melanie Broder · Content Creator and Coordinator

    Join the revolution

    You don’t have to shuffle between spreadsheets, email, and other tools to keep your customer journeys on course.