Service Designing Co-working Possibilities. Internal Communication in Virtual Expert Teams.

Abstract

The Master’s Thesis focused on service designing co-working possibilities and internal communication in virtual expert teams in the case organization. The aim of the thesis was to provide first iteration of virtual customer team communication framework to be piloted and iterated by the commissioner organization. The scope and the focus of the thesis is in the most complex customer segment. The methods used to meet the research goals were literature review, planning meetings, analysis of the secondary research data, employee and customer interviews, self-documenting, observation, co-design workshops, ideation, brainstorming, and concepting. The service design tools used were stakeholder map, business model canvas, personas, storytelling, visualization, and service blueprint. Based on the research, and employee and customer experiences, the case organization is following its core values in its service creation. The values are proactivity, passion to succeed, willingness to develop and to delight the customer. However, certain development areas in the internal communication were identified in collaboration with customer team members. Internal communication practices should be clarified in certain service journey situations to improve customer centricity. Services need to be more coordinated and customer responsibility and roles should be clarified. Customer success measurement tools should be developed to evaluate performance. As an outcome of the research, a framework for virtual customer team’s internal communication was concepted. The framework was visualized as a service blueprint, and a plan for the concept implementation was introduced. The concept includes guidelines and tools for communication practices of the virtual customer teams.