The service blueprint is an applied process chart which shows the service delivery process from the customer's perspective. The service blueprint is one of the most widely used tools to manage service operations, service design and service.
Elements
A simple way to think about blueprints is as a process chart which consists of inputs, process and outputs.
Inputs (raw materials) → Process (transformation) → Outputs (finished goods)
A service blueprint is always constructed from the customer's perspective. A typical service blueprint identifies:Zeithmal, V. A. and Bitner, M.J., Services Marketing, Mc Graw-Hill, N.Y., 1996
Customer Actions: The steps that customers take as part of the service delivery process. Front-stage (Visible Contact Employee) Actions: Steps taken by contact employees as part of the face-to-face service encounter. Back-stage (Invisible Contact Employee) Actions: (The 'line of visibility' separates the front-stage and back-stage actions). Non-visible steps taken by contact employees behind the line of visibility. e.g. taking a hotel or restaurant reservation by telephone. Support Processes: Activities carried out by employees who are not contact employees, but whose actions are required for the service to be delivered. Physical Evidence: Tangible elements associated with each step that has the potential to influence customer perceptions of the service encounter e.g. uniforms, delivery vans Inventory (if required): the amount of inventory build up required for each step Line of Visibility: Line that separates front-stage and back-stage actions
Optional inclusions – depending on intended application:Fließ, S. and Kleinaltenkamp, M. (2004) "Blueprint the Service Company: Managing Service Processes Efficiently," Journal of Business Research, vol. 57, no. 4, pp 392-404
Line of Interaction which separates customer actions from service provider actions. Line of Internal Interaction which separates the back office and the support process. Line of Implementation which separates management zone from the support zone. That is management are responsible for planning and controlling while support activities include preparation. Arrows: Relationships between stakeholders. A single arrow will indicate a one-way relationship/dependency while a double-sided arrow will indicate a two-way relationship/co-dependency. Duration: Time per Customer Action. If timing of the service is a factor to consider, include the estimated time for each customer phase. Emotions: Customer or Stakeholder feelings. If satisfaction is a factor to consider, mapping out the emotional state of the user or stakeholder may help provide context to the overall customer and/or employee journey.
Yet other scholars and practitioners have recommended adding different lines including
Line of Order Penetration which separates customer-induced activities from customer-independent activities Minimum expected wait times Potential bottlenecks and/or fail pointsZeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M. J. and Gremler, D. D., Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm, 4th ed, McGraw-Hill Irwin, Boston, Mass. 2006
History
The service blueprint is a technique originally used for service design, but has also found applications in diagnosing problems with operational efficiency. The technique was first described by G. Lynn Shostack, a bank executive, in the Harvard Business Review in 1984.Shostack, G. Lynn. "Designing Services that Deliver", Harvard Business Review, vol. 62, no. 1 January - February 1984, pp 133–139 <Online:>
Since its original development, a number of scholars have sought to increase its usefulness by adding various modifications that provide additional information and more demarcations. Zeithaml and Bitner recommend adding four lines to the map. (1) the Line of Visibility (as in the original); (2) the Line of Interaction which separates customer actions from service provider actions (3) the Line of Internal Interaction which separates the front office and the back office and (4) the Line of Implementation which separates management zone from the support zone.Zeithmal, V. A. and Bitner, M.J., Services Marketing, Mc Graw-Hill, N.Y., 1996 The addition of these lines helps to separate the functions of planning and controlling from support activities including preparation. Yet other scholars and practitioners have recommended adding different lines including (5) the Line of Order Penetration which separates customer-induced activities from customer-independent activities.Fließ, S. and Kleinaltenkamp, M., "Blueprint the Service Company: Managing Service Processes Efficiently," Journal of Business Research, vol. 57, no. 4, 2004, pp 392-404
Lovelock, Patterson, and Walker (2001) suggest that the service blueprint may also be useful for specifying the level of variation from standards that would be tolerated at each step of the process without affecting customers' perceptions of quality and timeliness.Lovelock, C.H., Patterson, P.G. and Walker, R.H., Services Marketing: An Asia-Pacific Perspective, French's Forest, NSW, Prentice-Hall, 2001, p. 226 Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler (2006) also recommended adding bottlenecks and fail points to the map. A bottleneck is a point in the system at which consumers waiting time is likely to exceed average or minimum tolerable expectations. A fail point is any point within the encounter that has potential to affect customer satisfaction or quality.Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M. J. and Gremler, D. D. (2006), Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm, 4th ed, Boston, MA, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2006 These additions increase the diagnostic value of the service blueprint.
Applications
Service blueprinting has three main applications: simple representation; diagnosing operational deficiencies and service design (planning for structural change or new service development).
(1) Simple Representation A basic application for blueprints is as a simple form of representing or codifying what is actually occurring in the current operation. In visual form, the blueprint can be used in training programs, employee manuals to help clarify service processes. Blueprints may be used in market research as a means of helping respondents to visualise aspects of a service that may be the focus of an investigation.Shostack, G.L> "How to Design a Service", European Journal of Marketing, vol. 16 no. 1, 1993, pp. 49–63 Blueprints can also be used in employee training programs and manuals to assist staff to visualise the service process and the relationships between steps in the process.
(2) Diagnosing Operational Deficiencies Blueprints have also found widespread applications as diagnostic tools designed to uncover operational weaknesses and reduce redundancy. A number of scholars have championed the diagnostic value of blueprints.Lovelock, C. H., "Managing Interactions Between Operations and Marketing and their Impact on Customers," in Bowen, D.E. Chase, R.B. and Cummings, T.G. (eds), Service Management Effectiveness. Balancing Strategy, organization and Human Resources, San Francisco, 1990, pp 343-69Swank, C. K., "The Lean Service Machine, Harvard Business Review, vol. 81 no, 10, 2003 While this technique can be applied to many use cases, the service blueprint is most valuable within cross-departmental collaborations. In most cases within a service, each department would own a touchpoint in which the department is responsible for, whether it is front-facing or back-facing. Each department defines its success criteria by its ability to deliver its service or product at such touchpoint. If a specific department cannot deliver, it may impact the overall organizational goal. The service blueprint allows businesses to aggregate every departmental contribution in relation to the customer journey map, and it allows businesses to understand where the operational weakness is occurring. The blueprint can be analyzed in terms of the appropriateness of physical evidence provided at each contact point as well as the suitability of contact personnel in relation to activities. In the event that any deficiencies are identified by the blueprinting process, management can develop operational standards for critical steps in the process.Womack, J. P. and Jones, D. T. , "Lean Consumption," Harvard Business Review, vol. 83, no. 3, 2005, pp 58–68
(3) Service design: Planning for Structural Change/ New Service Development Shostack's original intention was that blueprinting be used as a planning tool.Shostack, G. L., "Service Positioning through Structural Change," Journal of Marketing, vol. 51, no. 1, 1987, pp 34-43 Using a simple diagrammatic representation of the process, management could pose "What if?" type scenarios and reconfigure the service process in the blueprint form, without causing major disruptions in real time. For example, a planner might ask, What if we give employees wider latitude? What if we reduce latitude by scripting every step? What if we reduce complexity by combining two or more steps into a single procedure? What if we add complexity by having different contact staff take responsibility for each step?
Building a blueprint
The original service blueprint is a highly visual, graphical map that delineates the key contact points in the service process and the nature of the contact – whether with physical evidence, personnel or procedures. It can be seen as a two dimensional map in which the horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents the basic steps in the process. A line of visibility is included to separate actions visible to the customer from actions out of sight. Employee latitude, which refers to the amount of discretion given to employees to vary the service process, is shown on the map a call-out sign attached to the step. Process complexity is shown simply by the number of steps in the process.
The process of structuring a blueprint involves between five and seven steps, depending on the intended application.Wilson Alan/ Zeithaml, Valerie A./ Bitner, Mary Jo/ Gremler, Dwayne D. (2008): Services Marketing: Integrating Customers Focus Across the Firm, Glasgow, 2008. (p. 203-206) From the outset, the blueprint was designed to be seen from the customer's perspective while simultaneously providing insights for management. Accordingly, the starting point should be to imagine the customer's step-by-step contact points, indicating, where known, customer's expectations in terms of minimum tolerable waiting times for each step.
Basic Service Blueprint
Identify activities, sequence of activities and linkages between activities. Activities include (a) customer actions (b) front stage contact personnel actions (c) back stage contact personnel actions (d) support activities Identify line of visibility and add to blueprint. Identify standards and tolerances, scripts, operating procedures, supporting services and inventory for each step and add to blueprint. If required, draw additional lines such as line of physical interaction and line of IT interaction (optional, but recommended for complex services). Specify timeframes. Show average timing or minimum tolerable customer expectations for each step and indicate responsible personnel. Diagnostic Information (optional) Identify and note fail points and excessive waits. Manipulate divergence and complexity.