The service concept plays a key role in services design and new services development literature, surpisingly little has been written about the service concept itself and its important role in services design and development. The service concept defines the how and the what of services design, and helps mediate between customer needs and an organization's strategic intent. We define the service concept and describe how it can be used to enhance a variety of service design process. As illustration here, we apply the services concept to service design planning and service recovery design processes.