Testing of service concepts

Faced with mounting competitive pressures, many companies are attempting to raise their profile in the market by offering new services. As a result, far greater attention has been accorded in the last few years to new service development and service engineering by researchers and businesses alike. However, if the standard suggestions for developing new services are considered it is conspicuous that testing of development results has been largely neglected in the past. This article describes how service testing can be realised in practice and presents a possible approach for simulating services with the help of virtual reality and service theatre.