This presentation was prepared for Operational Management classes by Natalia Adamczyk and Urszula Para.

1. Natalia Adamczyk
Urszula Para
Service Process Design
Service Blueprint

2. Outline:
1. Service characteristics
2. Nature of service
3. What is service blueprinting
4. Blueprint content
5. Steps in service blueprinting design
6. Sample blueprints

3. Services characteristics:
process and experience based
intangibility – cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard before
purchase
variability- each service is unique. It is one-time generated,
rendered and consumed and can never be exactly repeated as
the point in time, location, circumstances, conditions…
inseparability- service provider is indispensable for service
delivery as he must promptly generate and render the service
to the requesting service customer.
simultaneity – are rendered and consumed during the same
period of time
perishability- cannot be stored

4. Services as processes:
dynamic
experiential
unfolding over a period of time
sequence or constellation of events and steps (chain)
the entire sequence should be coordinated as a whole
focus on steps and resources which provide value to the
customer

6. Process strategy
A process/transformation/ strategy is an organization’s
approach to transform resources into goods and services. The
objective of a process strategy is to find a way to produce
goods and services that meet customer requirements and
product specifications within cost and other managerial
constraints. The process selected will have a long-term effect
on efficiency and flexibility of production as well as on cost
and quality of the goods produced .

7. Service Blueprint:
process analysis technique that focuses on the customer and the
provider’s interaction with the customer
a customer-focused approach for service innovation and
improvement – allows firms to visualize the service processes, points
of customer contact, and the physical evidence associated with their
services from their customers’ perspective
operational tool which describes nature and characteristics of service
interaction
shows touch points with the customer and backstage actions
transform the intangible nature of services to a visible design object –
helps address the challenges in delivering the intangible
helps to set roles and responsibilities of customers and providers
customer-experience design

8. Blueprinting is a technique
for simultaneously depicting:
the service process
the points of customer contact
the evidence of service from the customer’s point of view
Service
Blueprinting
The service
process
The points of
customer contact
The evidence of
service

9. Service blueprint
components:
1. Customer Actions
2. Onstage/Visible Contact Employee Actions
3. Backstage/Invisible Contact Employee Actions
4. Support Processes
5. Physical Evidence

11. Physical evidence
It is defines as the
environment in which services
are delivered and in which the
firm and customers interest,
and any tangible commodities
that facilitate the performance
or communication of the
services.

12. Customer Action
All of the steps that customers
take as part of the service
delivery process
depicted chronologically across
the top of the blueprint.
The actions of the customer are
central to the creation of the
blueprint, and as such they are
typically laid out first so that all
other activities can be seen as
supporting the value
proposition offered to or co-
created with the customer

13. „Onstage” contact employee
actions
Those actions of frontline contact
employees that occur as part of a
face-to-face encounter are depicted
as onstage contact employee
actions. Every time the line of
interaction is crossed via a link
from the customer to a contact
employee (or company self-service
technology, etc.), a moment of truth
has occurred

14. „Backstage” contact employee
actions
Everything that appears above the
line of visibility is seen by the
customer, while everything below it
is invisible. Below the line of
visibility, all of the other contact
employee actions are described,
both those that involve non-visible
interaction with customers (e.g.,
telephone calls) as well as any other
activities that contact employees do
in order to prepare to serve
customers or that are part of their
role responsibilities.

15. Support Processes
These are all of the activities
carried out by individuals and units
within the company who are not
contact employees but that need
to happen in order for the service
to be delivered.
Vertical lines from the support
area connecting with other areas
of the blueprint show the inter-
functional connections and
support that are essential to
delivering the service to the final
customer.

16. Steps in service blueprinting
design
1. Identify the service to be blueprinted.
 basic business concept
a service within a family of services
a specific service component
2. Identify the customer segment that receives the
service.
3. Map the service from the customer’s point of view.
4. Draw the line of interaction.

17. Steps in service blueprinting
design
5. Draw the line of visibility.
6. Map the service from the customer contact
person’s point of view distinguishing visible
(“onstage”) activities from invisible (“backstage”)
activities.
7. Draw the line of internal interaction.
8. Link customer and contact person activities to
needed support functions.
9. Add the physical evidence.

18. Blueprint samples

19. Benefits of service
blueprint:
Shows the points where customer experiences value
Constitutes a rational basis for external marketing
Notes potential failure points and opportunities for service
improvement (e.g. poka-yoka technique)
Illuminates the elements and connections that constitute the
service.
Clarifies competitive positioning
 Provides a customer focused basis‐

20. Do it yourself!

22. Gracias

23. Sources:
https://www.phonakpro.com/ content/dam/phonak/gc_u
s/ Documents/PracticeDevelopment/ 2011/Phonak_Servic
e_Blueprint_ Slides_20111021.pdf
http://www.ida.liu.se/ divisions/hcs/ixs/material/ service
designGbg10/1% 20Methods%20and
%20techniques/ ServiceBlueprinting.pdf
http://www.customercrossroads.com/.a/6a00d8341bfffd5
3ef0134860888d9970c-popup
“Operation Management”, by Heizer and Render, Pearson
Education LTD