According to recent research (Hollins, Blackman and Shinkins, University of Westminster, 2002 onwards) only one in five service sector companies has a written process for developing services. This suggests many businesses are vulnerable because of a lack of effective management procedures. These problems are accentuated by the failure of 48 per cent of companies to do research before developing services.
By putting customer convenience and satisfaction at the forefront of total design, designers are forced to think of (and then design) the customer experience. Often this starts by blueprinting the likely customer experience then improving the proposed service through the elimination of 'blockages' to efficiency and satisfaction.
Blueprinting has only recently been developed as a method for designing services. But it is increasingly being used much more widely in the design of – and for improvement in – services.
The process involves describing, in small detail, the various stages of the delivery of a service. In other disciplines it is sometimes called a Project schedule, Project or Process Plan, or a Process Map.
In fact it’s unlikely that an effective service can be designed without the use of a blueprint which describes both customer activities and parallel activities. This will show all interactions by and with customers – in fact, it almost defines what a service is.
The blueprint can be compiled at any stage of the design process to help identify potential problems and benefits.
Blueprints should always be presented with a base of time: this is essential for determining parallel stages and concurrencies, total time, and therefore cost.
- Focus mainly on the 'touch points' at which the customer interfaces with the service providers. There will also be other parallel blueprints that will affect customer satisfaction.
- Enhance the blueprint by looking at the sensory side of the customer experience. At each stage of the experience what does the customer see, hear, smell, touch or taste? By improving each of these the customer experience is enhanced.
- Look at the process. Look at the customer chain and understand how customers relate to the process. This will identify bottlenecks and areas where the service quality may be improved. Then you can design the problems out of the process.
- Through blueprinting service quality, which tends to be mainly qualitative and therefore difficult to measure, can be made more quantitative by giving the service process the appearance of a production line.
It is often not fully realised that design models can be linked with the use of service blueprints: the blueprint can almost be considered as a production process. (The linking of product and process design in manufactured products in Japan was one of the keys to improving quality and lowering costs which first enabled the country’s manufacturers to win world markets.) A service blueprint is really a demonstration of service process design.