Service

The service approach offers a system of ongoing support for users, and interaction points that create an overall experience designed for ease of use. This approach is about reconfiguring systems so the user experiences a new relationship to an organisation, transaction or product. This model is based around providing new kinds of value for the consumer, ie a fun, worry-free or money-saving experience. In some cases the service model removes the need for outright ownership or consumption, allowing for a new kind of sharing economy. For example, the recent rise of car sharing, enabled by technology and mobile platforms. Sometimes known as transmaterialisation, this is the process of providing the benefits of a physical product, using a service. The service might be a virtual replacement such as digital music, or a more efficient way of using a physical product, such as public transport or power tool sharing.

Services can play an enabling role for other circular economy strategies, such as design for reuse. It might be a consumer facing service allowing people to refill food and drinks containers, or a business-to-business service allowing organisations to collect their distributed packaging or products. This focus on great customer interactions through simple and intuitive touchpoints incentivises uptake beyond just the niche.

Strategies such as design for disassembly are also hard to deliver without taking a supportive service approach. If an organisation goes to the trouble of designing an item specifically so it is easy to take apart, which might require more upfront investment in design and material costs, they need to ensure there are systems in place to enable that lifecycle. This is where a service approach becomes a systems approach. Considering a holistic viewpoint and supporting the weak links in the system will allow the whole thing to operate with more resilience.