Introduction

[paragraph_big] Let's be honest, in the era of ultra-digital, all-suite, Amazon Prime… we all have very high expectations! It has become natural for each of us that any service works perfectly, as if by magic, but also that it is available where and when we want it! [/paragraph_big] For a company, responding to the changing needs and journeys of the customer is extremely difficult to achieve! Between organizational and/or operational problems, increasingly complex processes, the proliferation of customer data, it is sometimes difficult for the company to have a clear idea of ​​its relationship with the customer. What experience does the customer receive from the company? It is to answer this question that the Service Blueprint was invented.

Ok, but why not use a "Journey map" to trace the experience of users?

Well, simply because journey maps and customer stories don't show the inner workings of the organization. The blueprint service will allow us to discover and document everything that is happening on the side of the company: to visualize the operation of the company and to understand how the experiences of the customer have occurred. In fact, the service blueprint will describe the journey of a customer who discovers, explores, buys and uses your product or service.

The service blueprint, a service design method

The service blueprint comes straight out of service innovation. Used to diagnose organizational problems or conceptualize structural changes, this tool, in the form of a plan, describes the nature and characteristics of interactions between customers and the company.
Hint: To make touchpoint mapping easier, I highly recommend using post-it notes. It thus becomes easier to think, or to position the interactions.
Once finalized, this plan becomes a detailed expert discussion process through a number of workshops. This tool helps the team move faster. It makes it possible to tackle problems upstream and therefore to solve them more quickly.
One could for example wonder which documents will be involved at such and such a stage? Or what payment process should be in place? etc.

“A service blueprint is an operational tool that visualizes the components of a service experience in sufficient detail to analyze, implement, and manage them. »

Thanks to this detailed and global mapping, it becomes easy to demonstrate to each department, when and in what way, its service has an impact on the customer experience.
Do it early!
In a project, I would recommend that you do the exercise from the first team meeting. The result will certainly be amazing – the team will align and focus from the start on the version of the customer journey they want to build. And in this way, we will avoid discovering at the launch deadline that people have differing opinions.

Design a service blueprint.

To create a service blueprint, you must first have identified one or more customer journeys, called scenarios. These customer journey-based scenarios can also include organizational scenarios that take place internally away from the customer's view.

The blueprint in 6 steps

To design a service blueprint, we need:

#1 Identify the service or product that needs to be analyzed

For example, the service of a trip with an “Uber” driver.

#2 Add what is called physical evidence at each stage of the interaction between the consumer and the company

Physical evidence is the tangible evidence to which the consumer is exposed.
In the case of our Uber ride, it would be the car. For other services/products, it could be stores, receiving an email, loyalty points….

#3 Define user actions

also called “Customer actions”. We describe the customer/user journey by imagining the best possible experience. (If your product is aimed at different personas, it may be useful to carry out a service blueprint per target). In our example of an Uber trip, our user could start by connecting to the application on his phone (define the pick-up time and his route, estimate his trip, etc.), get into the car, chat with the driver , pay for his purchase, receive the invoice, then give an evaluation to his race or his driver.

#4 Identify frontstage touchpoints

ie the visible actions of the employees.
In our example, the frontstage contact points would be: the Uber application, the Driver's welcome, the presentation of the car, the race... In another example, it could also be a product interface, a an advertisement or face-to-face interaction with a salesperson in a store.

#5 Identify the actions of backstage employees

ie all the invisible tasks of the employee, those which are necessary to carry out the “Frontstage” actions.
For example: clean the car so that it is presentable for the customer, have an elegant suit for our driver, have small bottles of water and sweets inside the car, take gas before receiving a customer, update his GPS.
In the case of purely digital products, it is not necessary to detail the “Backstage” actions.

#6 List supporting processes

(“Support Processes”). These are the internal business activities necessary to provide the best customer experience across the various touchpoints.
For example: “order” bottles of water in advance, buy sweets.
The blueprint service is represented in a graphical form, listing the touchpoints on the first row and each step of the customer interaction in the column. The following lines represent the customer and his actions, the actions of the back and frontstage employees and finally the technologies such as the website.
 

TAKE AWAY

The blueprint is a logical continuation of the analysis of your customers in digital marketing. Once your personas have been established and the typical customer journey drawn, mapping the ideal relationship you will have with them will allow you to be more effective in your communication and identify the key channels to communicate.
In addition, allowing you to link online and offline, the blueprint allows synergies that will allow you to develop a global marketing strategy, adapted to your targets with an effective mode of communication.
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