Service design for Rhythm Therapeutic Center
My Role
Service Designer
Date
7 Sept 2024
Timeline
3.5 Months for end to end planning & implementation
Project Introduction
Download Magazine
Problems
Solution
What is RTC?
Rhythm Therapeutic Center (RTC) is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization that provides therapeutic horse riding programs for healing.
How do they do it?
RTC does it by focusing on both the emotional and physical benefits of interacting with horses. This helps their customers experience significant improvements in physical health, cognitive abilities, and emotional well-being.
Geographic reach
RTC is one of the only equine therapy center's that provides therapy for mental health disorders. There are total 3 equine therapy centers in the entire region of Georgia, however RTC serves most of the population in need that stays in the south of Georgia, research shows that even people from west prefer coming to RTC because of the impact of the therapy
Corporate Leadership and Team Building Workshops
These workshops are designed for businesses, focusing on leadership, communication, and teamwork.
Equine-Assisted Learning
EAL focuses on developing important life skills like communication, teamwork, and leadership. It’s especially beneficial for children, young adults, and groups, helping them build better interpersonal relationships and personal growth.
Therapeutic Riding Programs
These workshops are designed for businesses, focusing on leadership, communication, and teamwork.
Corporate Leadership and Team Building Workshops
These workshops are designed for businesses, focusing on leadership, communication, and teamwork.
RTC’s growth peaked in 2018 but declined after, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising social media driven expectations.
Outdated amenities and services further led to the decline of RTC’s growth.
Our mission is to create a nurturing environment where participants can build strength, confidence, and personal growth through their connection with horses, while having an exceptional, relaxing and a smooth service experience.
Understanding the Source of the Problem
To investigate the decline in user numbers, we conducted comprehensive research on RTC’s operations and users to identify key factors hampering its growth
Stakeholder mapping helped us identifies everyone involved in a service, showing their hierarchy of roles and levels of influence.
The most inner circle represents the Primary/Core Stakeholders who are involved in the functioning of the service.
Ex. - PATH certified staff, RTC on site staff, Participants etc.
The middle circle represents the Secondary Stakeholders who are in direct contact and influence of the core stakeholders. Ex. - Sponsors, Property owners, Donors, etc
The outer circle represents the Tertiary stakeholders who influence the Secondary stakeholders.
Ex. Government, Judicial system, Health care experts etc.
It helps us understand who impacts or is impacted by a service, so we can communicate better, prioritize needs, and make informed design decisions.
Background
Laura is a single mother of three kids, Jamie, Oliver & Lucas. Jamie, who is 8 years old, has been diagnosed with Autism and along with other treatments Laura has been advised to try Equine therapy for him. She works three jobs and gets one day off when she can take Jamie for Equine therapy but cannot afford a nanny to look after the other two kids so has to take them with her.
Goals and Ambitions
Find an Equine therapy centre that can cater to her son’s needs
Improvement in Jamie’s health
Fun day out with Oliver & Lucas
A get away for her and an opportunity to have some family time
Frustrations
Find an Equine therapy centre that can cater to her son’s needs
Improvement in Jamie’s health
Fun day out with Oliver & Lucas
A get away for her and an opportunity to have some family time
Motivation
Find an Equine therapy centre that can cater to her son’s needs
Improvement in Jamie’s health
Fun day out with Oliver & Lucas
A get away for her and an opportunity to have some family time
Expectations
Find an Equine therapy centre that can cater to her son’s needs
Improvement in Jamie’s health
Fun day out with Oliver & Lucas
A get away for her and an opportunity to have some family time
Before we stepped into the RTC’s solutions, this is how the customer journey looked like
Here are a few major painpoints of Laura from the storyboard
Lack Of Engagement
Non-participants have nothing to do while waiting.
weak online presence
RTC's digital outreach is limited, reducing
client engagement.
Booking hassles
The enquiry and booking process is time consuming and inconvenient.
outdated infrastructure
The interior and facilities are old and unwelcoming
accessibility issues
Some areas are not accessible to specially
abled individuals.
We collaborated with the stakeholders and did a cocreation workshop to understand the problems and come up with solutions taking the limitations into considerations
Why host cocreation workshop?
The purpose behind cocreation workshop conduction was for the stakeholders to collaborate, have a better understanding of each others roles and responsibilities and decision making.
This cocreation workshop was necessary for RTC and their sponsors to understand the problems faced by customers first hand and root cause behind user growth hindrance

The RTC staff, sponsors and customers were a part of the cocreation workshop along with the service design team. RTC staff on discussing and understanding problems from customers had an interaction with the sponsors demanding in kind and monetary sponsorship for the solutions of the problems found with the help of service design team.
We created an ecosystem map that has the missing links and the solutions with positive effects
Infrastructure development
Engagement area for non-participants
Accessibility to all buildings for specially-abled.
Interiors Update
Refreshment/Food
Urgent Medical Care
technological enhancements
Website Update
Integrating calendar and transportation booking system in the website
Feedback system
marketing for target audience
Update/build marketing team
Create strong social media Presence
Transportation facilitation
Partnership with Cab services
This shows how the ideal scenario would look like after implementing all the solutions we came up with
The service blueprint is a crucial map that helps us identify the gaps in the system and introduce new ones, it helps identify the cross connections between front stage actions, the back stage actions and support processes required for a smooth user journey
Simplifying booking & payment process
Ensuring smooth transportation for users
Delivering timely and reliable care
Fostering engagement through supportive spaces
Providing refreshing post-session experiences
The figure below shows predicted user satisfaction rate post solution implementation for each phase in comparison with the time required for implementation in months.
It starts with 3 months on the left and ends with 36 Months on the right.