Co-Creating Service – Customer and Provider Responsibilities

Best practice has proven that to be dynamic and to consistently meet changing business requirements, services must be co-created with our customers.

I learned in a recent ITIL 4 certification class titled Driving Stakeholder Value (DSV) that providers will start with a stakeholder map and follow up with a customer journey map. If you are not yet familiar with Customer Journey Mapping, I strongly recommend learning about this critical skill needed to enable the co-creation of services.

Once you have a stakeholder map and have mapped the customer/user journey, you will need to identify the roles required. In our example below, we use the two roles of customer/consumer and service provider. Each of these, although not the only stakeholders involved, is critical to the success of co-creation.

Notice a relationship is being established via these responsibilities

Both the service provider and the consumer have responsibilities.

An IT service provider, for example, manages resources such as infra, personnel, contracts, and more. When it is part of an agreed service action, the delivery of goods is also the responsibility of the service provider. In some cases, the consumer will provide their own resources, such as a laptop, phone, or internet device. All aspects of the service relationship must be identified and agreed upon to understand clearly defined roles and responsibilities in the co-creation of a service.

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