Service Blueprint to connect journey & operations
A service blueprint is a visual overview of how an organisation delivers a service to a customer, across all channels and touch points.
A service blueprint is a visual overview of how an organisation delivers a service to a customer, across all channels and touch points.
Suppose your organisation is a restaurant. On your Service Blueprint, you will find a guest who dines (the customer experience), the interaction with the waitress (the frontstage), and a chef in the kitchen (the backstage). You will see that everything is connected and has an influence on the dining experience. A Service Blueprint gives you the overview that allows you to orchestrate everything to achieve an optimal customer experience.
This sounds more difficult than it is: Use this template and the instructions to make a Service Blueprint yourself! From our experience as service design agency working with lots of organisations, we guide you step-by-step and also provide you with tips and examples for how you can use a Service Blueprint for better collaboration in your organisation.
Our instructions for making your own Service Blueprint:
Service scenario: Identify the service you would like to be blueprinted (i.e. visit a restaurant, buy a product, departure for a flight, etc.), and break it down into a set of steps. This will be your starting point to fill in the Service Blueprint template.
Customer actions: Take your customer's perspective and identify the actions he/she takes or experiences in each of the steps of the service scenario (i.e. enter restaurant, order meal, pay the bill, etc).
Touch points: Identify every interaction that takes place between your organisation and the customer (i.e. telephone, physical, pin machine, etc.). Visualise these touch points in the circles on the 'line of interaction'.
Front stage actions: Define the actions that are taken by your organisation in each of the steps, that are visible to the customer (i.e. welcome guests, take the order, clear the table, etc).
Define the actions that are taken by your organisation in each of the steps that are invisible to the customer (i.e. order to kitchen, cook the meal, dishes, etc) under the ‘line of visibility’.
Supporting processes: Identify processes, systems or tools, that support the front- and back-stage actions. These can be related to IT, HR, Finance, suppliers, etc.
Connections & flow: Use arrows to connect dependencies or correlations between the customer actions, frontstage actions and backstage actions (i.e enter restaurant -> welcome guest).
Update: alternative approach with actors!
We've added a second approach (including template) in which you don't specify actions for front- and backstage, but for all involved 'actors'. This approach is especially useful if you want to get a clear picture who is doing what when in your service delivery, which helps to improve the orchestration of all activities.
Get started with this template right now.
Service Blueprint With AI
Works best for:
Research & Design
Integrate AI into your service design with the Service Blueprint With AI template. This tool helps you map out service processes and identify opportunities for AI enhancement. Use it to visualize interactions, streamline workflows, and improve customer experiences with AI-driven solutions. Perfect for teams looking to innovate and optimize services using advanced technology.
Low-Fidelity Prototype Template
Works best for:
Design, Desk Research, Wireframes
Low fidelity prototypes serve as practical early visions of your product or service. These simple prototypes share only a few features with the final product. They are best for testing broad concepts and validating ideas. Low fidelity prototypes help product and UX teams study product or service functionality by focusing on rapid iteration and user testing to inform future designs. The focus on sketching and mapping out content, menus, and user flow allows both designers and non-designers to participate in the design and ideation process. Instead of producing linked interactive screens, low fidelity prototypes focus on insights about user needs, designer vision, and alignment of stakeholder goals.
Customer Journey Map
Works best for:
Customer Journey Map
Customer journey mapping is a method that visualizes and narrates how users navigate a site or app to achieve their objectives.
Expanded Service Blueprint
Works best for:
Research & Design
The Expanded Service Blueprint provides a detailed view of your service processes and interactions. This template is ideal for comprehensive service analysis and improvement. Use it to align teams, visualize the customer journey, and identify opportunities for optimization. It's perfect for enhancing service delivery, fostering collaboration, and ensuring a seamless and efficient service experience for your customers.
Lotus Diagram Template
Works best for:
UX Design, Ideation, Diagrams
Even creative thinkers occasionally need help getting their creative juices flowing. That's where a lotus diagram comes in. It'll empower you to run smoother, more effective brainstorming sessions. This creative-thinking technique explores ideas by putting the main idea at the diagram center and ancillary concepts in the surrounding boxes. This template gives you an easy way to create Lotus Diagrams for brainstorms, as well as an infinite canvas for the endless ideas generated.
Service Blueprint
Works best for:
Research & Design
The Service Blueprint template is perfect for visualizing the orchestration of service components. It maps out frontstage and backstage elements, helping you analyze and enhance customer experiences. Use this template to align teams, identify pain points, and streamline processes, ensuring a seamless service delivery. It's ideal for creating a shared understanding of service dynamics among stakeholders and collaborators.