Service Blueprinting course lesson

Service blueprinting provides a comprehensive and detailed view of the service delivery process, encompassing both customer-facing and behind-the-scenes elements. It visualizes all the actions, interactions, and touchpoints involved in delivering a service, shedding light on the customer's journey and the organization's internal operations.

This technique identifies inefficiencies, pain points, and opportunities for improvement and is particularly valuable for optimizing service operations, internal coordination, and resource allocation.

While service blueprinting shares similarities with customer journey mapping, there are distinct differences. Customer journey mapping primarily focuses on the customer's perspective and their interactions with a service, whereas service blueprinting takes a holistic approach, considering both customer-facing and behind-the-scenes components.

Service blueprinting is valuable for businesses delivering services but not mandatory for all organizations. The decision to utilize service blueprinting depends on factors such as service complexity, company size, and the desired level of optimization.

Exercise #1

What is a service blueprint

A service blueprint is a diagram that shows how different components of a service — such as people, props, and processes — are related to specific touchpoints in a customer's journey. It's like a map that helps organizations understand how their services work and how they can improve them. Service blueprints are particularly useful for complex services that involve multiple touchpoints and departments.

They are created to align with specific user goals and business objectives, such as improving user or employee experience or streamlining processes.

A service blueprint typically consists of 6 components, including:

Customer actions
Frontstage actions
Backstage actions
Support processes
Primary lines
Secondary elements

Pro Tip: You may need to create multiple blueprints for the same service if there are different scenarios to accommodate. For example, a fashion retailer may have separate blueprints for online ordering vs in-store purchasing.

Exercise #2

Benefits of service blueprinting

Service blueprints are a valuable tool for organizations to improve their service delivery process. They offer numerous benefits such as:

Improved customer experience. Organizations can use blueprints to identify pain points in their service delivery process and make changes to improve the customer experience at each stage.
Increased efficiency. Service blueprints can identify redundancies, bottlenecks, or inefficiencies in the service delivery process. By streamlining processes and eliminating unnecessary steps, organizations can save time and resources.
Better collaboration. Organizations can identify opportunities for collaboration and alignment by understanding how different departments or teams contribute to the service delivery process.
Enhanced employee experience. Service blueprints can help organizations identify pain points or challenges for employees involved in the service delivery process, in turn improving employee satisfaction and retention.
Improved alignment with business goals. By mapping out the service delivery process and identifying areas for improvement, organizations can make changes that support their broader business goals and strategy.

Exercise #3

Customer actions

Customer actions outline the specific actions that customers take as they interact with the service. These actions are often divided into three categories:

Pre-service actions: Any actions customers take before using the service, such as researching the service online or making a reservation
In-service actions: Actions customers take while using the service, such as placing an order or receiving assistance from an employee
Post-service actions: Actions customers take after using the service, such as leaving a review or recommending the service to a friend

Identifying specific customer actions can help organizations gain a better understanding of the customer experience and identify areas for improvement. For example, if customers consistently struggle to make reservations online, the organization may need to make its online reservation system more user-friendly.

Exercise #4

Frontstage actions

Frontstage actions are the interactions between the customer and the employees who are delivering the service. This section focuses on the activities that are visible to the customer. For example, a server taking a food order at a restaurant to a bank teller helping a customer open a new account.

Mapping out these frontstage actions can offer a better understanding of the customer experience and identify areas where improvements can be made. For example, let's say customers frequently complain about long wait times to speak with a customer service representative. In this case, the organization may need to increase its staffing levels to improve response times.

Exercise #5

Backstage actions

Backstage actions are the processes that contribute to the service delivery process but are not visible to the customer. This includes activities that take place behind the scenes and are essential for delivering a seamless customer experience. For example, inventory management or scheduling and training of service employees.

Mapping out backstage actions can help organizations gain a better understanding of the operational processes that support the service delivery process. This can help identify areas where improvements can be made.

Exercise #6

Support processes

Support processes are internal processes that indirectly impact the customer experience. This can include interactions between the organization and partners or third-party suppliers.^[1] For example, in the service blueprint of a healthcare organization, some support processes might include:

Maintaining accurate patient records
Maintaining the website, app, or telephone system needed for patients to book appointments
Coordinating with insurance providers for billing and reimbursement

These processes ensure that customers have a good experience without necessarily interacting directly with these processes.

Exercise #7

The primary lines

Components on any service blueprint are connected through different types of lines. They include:

Line of interaction that depicts the interaction between customers and the service-providing organization
Line of visibility that separates frontstage and backstage actions and processes
Line of internal interaction that separates contact employees who interact directly with customers from employees who don’t
Custom perspective lines that show specific information related to the project being worked on. These lines could include things like interactions with external partners and organizations

Exercise #8

Secondary elements

Service blueprints are versatile and can be adapted to the business goals and context by introducing additional elements as needed. Some of these elements include:

Arrows: These indicate relationships and dependencies. A single arrow suggests a linear, one-way exchange, while a double arrow suggests the need for agreement and codependency.
Time: If time is a primary variable in the service, an estimated duration for each customer action can be represented in the blueprint.
Regulations or policy: Any policies or regulations that dictate how a process is completed can be added to the blueprint. This information will help teams understand what can and cannot be changed to optimize the service.
Emotion: Employees’ emotions can be represented in the blueprint to identify points of frustration or motivation.
Metrics: Any success metric that can provide context to the blueprint will help the business identify where time or money is wasted due to miscommunication or other inefficiencies. For example, the time spent on various processes or the associated financial costs.