Tool Tip: Service Blueprinting Basics

Recently, Alec Dalton connected with Janelle Mansfield, CEO and Customer Experience Evangelist of AmplifiedCX. During his segment in her series of "60 second" soundbites for amplifying customer experiences, Alec highlighted service blueprinting as a technique CX leaders can use for understanding the operational implications of their experiences.  Check out the recording below, and continue reading to learn more.

As Alec shared in the video, service blueprinting is an extension of customer journey mapping. Blueprints use process flow diagramming to show the steps customers take along their journey, as well (and perhaps more importantly) the steps the business takes in parallel. The benefits of service blueprinting include:

• Understanding the actions and effort required of customers;
• Visualizing business processes that support the customer journey;
• Identifying critical touchpoints and moments-of-truth where customers and the business co-create the experience;
• Tying performance metrics to customer and business processes; and,
• Exposing opportunities for greater operational efficiency, effectiveness, and overall excellence.

​The following screenshot shows some of the basic elements in a simplified service blueprint:

Looking vertically, you can see an array of actions and lines that form the core components of a blueprint:

• Customer actions represent the customer journey (this row can be borrowed directly from existing customer journey maps).
• The line of interaction delineates between what the customer is responsible to do (above the line) and what efforts the business owns (below).
• "On stage" business actions display employee actions and digital activities that the business conducts but that the customer sees and participates-in.
• The line of visibility distinguishes what operations the customer can see (above the line) and what is hidden from view (below).
• "Back stage" business actions are the operations that keep the business running, even though the customer doesn't see them.
• The line of internal interaction separates the business processes impacting the customer experience (above the line) from the "overhead" mechanisms (below) that keep the business running.
• Support processes do not directly impact the customer journey, but they do allow a business to operate; examples include IT systems, HR management, and financial planning.

As the example shows, each of the actions and processes is connected with flow lines to depict the movement of tasks and effort as an experience is prepared, created, and evaluated. Additional features common on blueprints include metrics like the duration of each task, the quality of outputs, and customer satisfaction at key events. The level of depth a single blueprint provides explains why the tool is a prized addition to any CX toolkit.

If you're keen to learn more, consider joining Alec's blueprinting masterclass during the E3 digital conference, hosted on Oct. 19-22, 2020 by the Customer Experience & Service Association Middle East (CXSA). You can also read "Service Blueprinting: Shifting from a Storyboard to a Scorecard", which he published in the Journal of Foodservice Business Research in collaboration with Dr. Peter Szende.