Part 4

ALIGNING
SERVICE DESIGN
AND STANDARDS

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Provider Gap 2
CUSTOMER

COMPANY

Customer-Driven
Service Designs and
Standards
Service Design and
Standards Gap

Part 4 Opener
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Company Perceptions
of Consumer
Expectations
2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Objectives for Chapter 9:

Service Development and Design
Describe the challenges inherent in service design.
Present the stages and unique elements of the newservice development process.
Demonstrate the value of service blueprinting and how to
develop and read service blueprints.
Managerial Implications of Design and Blueprinting

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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.1

Risks of Relying on Words Alone to

Describe Services
Oversimplification
Incompleteness
Subjectivity
Biased Interpretation

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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Types of New Services

major or radical innovations
start-up businesses
new services for the currently served market
service line extensions
service improvements
style changes
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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.2

New Service Development Process

Business strategy development or review
New service strategy development

Front-end
Planning

Idea generation
Screen ideas against new service strategy

Concept development and evaluation

Test concept with customers and employees

Business analysis
Test for profitability and feasibility

Service development and testing

Conduct service prototype test

Implementation
Sources: Booz-Allen & Hamilton, 1982;
Bowers, 1985; Cooper, 1993; Khurana &
Rosenthal 1997.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Market testing
Test service and other marketing-mix elements

Commercialization
Postintroduction evaluation
2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.3

New Service Strategy Matrix for Identifying

Growth Opportunities
Markets
Offerings

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Current Customers

New Customers

Existing
Services

Share
building

Market
development

New
Services

Service
development

Diversification

2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Service Components Exercise

Think of Bison Football as a service organization:
What is the core service?
What are the supplementary services?

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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.5

Service Blueprinting
A tool for simultaneously depicting the service process, the
points of customer contact, and the evidence of service
from the customers point of view.

Process

Service
Blueprint

Points of contact
Evidence

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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Service Blueprint Components

Customer Actions
line of interaction
Onstage Contact Employee Actions
line of visibility
Backstage Contact Employee Actions
line of internal interaction
Support Processes
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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.6

Service Blueprint Components

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.7

Truck
Packaging
Forms
Hand-held Computer
Uniform
Customer
Calls

Truck
Packaging
Forms
Hand-held Computer
Uniform

Customer
Gives
Package

Receive
Package

Line of interaction
Driver
Picks Up
Package

Deliver
Package

Line of visibility
Customer
Service
Order

SUPPORT PROCESS

CONTACT PERSON
(On Stage)
(Back Stage)

PHYSICAL
CUSTOMER EVIDENCE

Blueprint for Express Mail Delivery Service

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Line of internal interaction

Dispatch
Driver

Airport
Receives
& Loads

Fly to
Sort
Center

Load on
Airplane

Fly to
Destination

Unload
&
Sort

Load
On
Truck

Sort
Packages
2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.8

Hotel Exterior Cart for

Parking
Bags

CUSTOMER
SUPPORT PROCESS CONTACT PERSON
(Back Stage) (On Stage)

PHYSICAL
EVIDENCE

Blueprint for Overnight Hotel Stay Service

Arrive
at
Hotel

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Give Bags
to
Bellperson

Desk
Registration
Papers
Lobby
Key
Check in

Elevators
Hallways
Room

Go to
Room

Cart for
Bags

Receive
Bags

Room
Amenities
Bath

Sleep
Shower

Menu

Call
Room
Service

Delivery
Tray
Food
Appearance

Food

Receive
Food

Eat

Bill
Desk
Lobby
Hotel Exterior
Parking
Check out
and
Leave

Line of Interaction
Greet and
Take
Bags

Deliver
Bags

Process
Registration

Deliver
Food

Process
Check Out

Line of Visibility
Take Bags
to Room

Take
Food
Order

Line of Internal Interaction

Registration
System

Prepare
Food

Registration
System

2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 9.9

Building a Service Blueprint

Step
Step11

Step
Step22

Step
Step33

Step
Step44

Step
Step55

Step
Step66

Identify
Identifythe
the
process
to
process tobe
be
blue-printed
blue-printed

Identify
Identifythe
the
customer
customeroror
customer
customer
segment
segment

Map
Mapthe
the
process
processfrom
from
the
the
customers
customers
point
pointofofview
view

Map contact
Map contact
employee
employee
actions,
actions,onstage
onstage
and
andback-stage,
back-stage,
and/or
and/or
technology
technology
actions
actions

Link
Linkcontact
contact
activities
activitiestoto
needed
needed
support
support
functions
functions

Add
Addevidence
evidence
ofofservice
serviceatat
each
eachcustomer
customer
action step
action step

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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Application of Service Blueprints

New Service Development
concept development
market testing

Supporting a Zero Defects Culture

managing reliability
identifying empowerment issues

Service Recovery Strategies

identifying service problems
conducting root cause analysis
modifying processes

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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Blueprints Can Be Used By:

Service Marketers
creating realistic customer
expectations:
service system design
promotion

Operations Management
rendering the service as
promised:
managing fail points
training systems
quality control
McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Human Resources Management

empowering the human
element:
job descriptions
selection criteria
appraisal systems

System Technology
providing necessary tools:
system specifications
personal preference databases

2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Blueprinting and Strategy

Complexity is the number and intricacy of the steps
in delivery.
Divergence is the degree of freedom allowed or
inherent in a step or series.
(Choice, Discretion, Customization)
Both can be changed.
Why are Subway employees artists?
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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Divergence Tradeoffs
Decreasing typically:
- Increase Uniformity (Consistency)
- Lowers Costs
- Increases Productivity
- Increases Efficiency
Increasing typically:
-Increases Personalization
-Increases Differentiation
-Allows a price Premium
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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Complexity Tradeoffs
Decreasing typically:
- Increases Specialization
- Increases Focus
- Results in Limited Service
Increasing typically:
- Allows more coverage
- Efficiency can be + or
-Results in more Full Service
Example: Floral Shop
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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Benefits of Blueprinting
Ex. 9.3 Condensed
1. See the Big Picture
2. and the parts
3. and the critical connections
a. customer and service employee
b. employee and support
4. Appreciation all the activities and functions
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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Service Branding
Name, Term, Symbol use to distinguish:
Product versus Organization
Importance of in Services
Case of Marriott

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2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.