The present Master’s thesis focuses on how service design methods and tools can be used to develop the dog physiotherapy service concept when the business is run by an entrepreneur in a one person company setting. The aim of the thesis was to co-design and develop the service concept with customers and to make further service concept development proposal for the client company.

The research questions in this study were: How can the current dog physiotherapy service concept be developed to meet and exceed customer expectations? What support would the dog owners benefit from in between dog physiotherapy appointments?

The thesis discusses the theory of design thinking, service design in business development and service concept development. The research methods included benchmarking, an online questionnaire, interviews, mystery shopping, a co-design workshop and a service prototype test. Six different service design tools were studied and tested. The tools were a stakeholder map, a business model canvas, a persona, a customer journey map, an empathy map, and a service blueprint.

As a result of this study, a service concept proposal was created for the client for further development of the dog physiotherapy service offering. The study shows that it is possible to implement and use service design methods and tools for a business run by one when developing the service concepts even when financial investment possibilities and manpower are limited.