This study takes a holistic view on new service development (NSD) tools. A thorough literature review was conducted to identify the commonly used NSD tools, together with their purposes, strengths and weaknesses. We executed a large-scale survey among Singapore financial institutions to offer empirical evidences regarding NSD tools usage patterns, their impacts on NSD performance, and the contingencies on NSD innovativeness. The results showed that: (1) NSD tools are still underutilized in service firms; (2) NSD tools have positive influences on NSD performance; and (3) more tools are adopted when services are new to the firm and new to the customer.