2017524 ServiceBlueprintsCommunicatingtheDesignofServices|InteractionDesignFoundation

Service Blueprints -
Communicating the Design of
Services
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Service blueprints were rst described by Lynn Shostack, a banking

executive, back in 1982 in the Harvard Business Review. Theyve become
popularized over the last few years as service design has grown as a
profession. In addition to being useful in service design they are often
used by operational management to gauge the efciency of work within
an organization.

A service blueprint is, in essence, an extension of a customer journey map. A customer journey
map species all the interactions that a customer will have with an organization throughout
their customer lifecycle the service blueprint goes a bit deeper and looks at all the

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interactions both physical and digital that support those customer interactions and adds a little
more detail to the mix.

The blueprint is usually represented in a diagram based on swim lanes (each lane being
assigned to a specic category) with interactions linked between lanes (using arrows to
represent the ow of work).

Service blueprints enable great service and as Kate Zabrieskie, the world leading customer
service trainer says; Although your customers wont love you if you give bad service, your
competitors will.

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Author/Copyright holder: erik roscam abbing. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Service blueprints assist with service design which in turn ts into the bigger picture of brand
management.

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When Do You Need a Service Blueprint?

Service blueprints fulll a number of uses but most often theyre used for:

Improving a service. By understanding the original service in detail its possible to identify
and eliminate or ameliorate pain points.
Designing a new service. A blueprint for a new service allows for the creation of service
prototypes and testing before a service is launched to customers.
Understanding a service. There are many services which have become so engrained in
corporate culture that they are no longer understood by anyone. Blueprints can reveal silos
and areas of opacity in existing processes.
Understanding the actors in a service. When there are many actors (customers, suppliers,
consultants, employees, teams, etc.) it can be very useful to have a blueprint to help manage
the complexity of a situation.
Transitioning a high-touch service to a low-touch service or vice-versa. Broadening or
narrowing the audience for a service requires careful consideration as to how that might be
achieved a blueprint can help guide the way for this.

Author/Copyright holder: Standards and Conguration Management Team (SCMT). Copyright terms and licence: Public Domain.

Service blueprints can be drawn from business roadmap blueprints as a starting point.

What Goes Into a Service Blueprint?

The ve main swim lanes that are captured in a service blueprint are as follows:

The physical evidence. Anything that a customer can see, hear, smell or touch belongs in
this lane. This isnt limited to store fronts and websites but should include signs, forms,
products, etc.
The customers actions. What does your client base have to do to use the service at the
touchpoint? If the customer doesnt take action, you cant respond to their needs.
The front oce. The activities, people and physical evidence that a customer will be able to
observe after they have taken an action.
The back oce. The activities, people and physical evidence that is necessary to deliver the
service but that the customer cannot see or interact with directly.
Supporting actions. Anything that supports the service without being unique to the service.

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You should feel free to split up any of these lanes if you nd theyre getting too complicated. For
example, you might want to split digital and physical interactions into different lanes for clarity.

There are also some optional inclusions:

Time indicators. It can be useful to show the time taken at any step of the process. Knowing
the time can help you understand whether the service is ecient and meeting customer
expectations.
Quality KPIs. What are you going to measure and what are the targets for achieving
customer satisfaction?
Customers emotional state. Not all services deal with distressed customers but those that
do should give some thought to the emotions that a customer is dealing with at the point of
interaction.
Sketches. Anywhere that words are not enough feel free to include sketches, diagrams,
etc. to make the blueprint more user friendly.

Author/Copyright holder: brandon schauer. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-SA 2.0

An example of a well-articulated service blueprint with the swim lanes clearly dened and all
interactions clearly demonstrated too.

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2017524 ServiceBlueprintsCommunicatingtheDesignofServices|InteractionDesignFoundation

Structuring Your Blueprint

Structuring your blueprint is a question of following a simple process:

Identify the process to be blueprinted.

Identify the customers to be served by the process.
Examine the customers perspective of the service (the customer journey)
Identify the actions on the service by employees, technology and other actors (suppliers,
etc.)
Link activities together for natural ow in order that they occur
Ensure that you have identied the evidence and KPIs for a successful outcome

Notations on Blueprints
There are two common notations on a service blueprint. Arrows and annotations.

Arrows
Single headed arrows are used to denote the source of control moving to the next dependency.
Double headed arrows show that agreements must be reached between actors prior to the
process moving forward.

Annotations
You can make notes any way you like on your diagrams (they are after all, your diagrams) but it
can help to build a legend and key for clarity and ease of communication.

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Author/Copyright holder: Rosenfeld Media. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY 2.0

Service blueprints can be as detailed as you want to make them. Here you see notes and
images against the swim lanes of a service blueprint.

The Take Away

Service blueprints are a great way of fully understanding the process related to a service. They
enable you to map all the interactions related with delivering a service and to determine quality
and time KPIs for those interactions. In a world where the line between product and service is
becoming increasingly blurred it only makes sense for a UX designer to learn how to deliver and
use service blueprints in their work.

Resources
You can nd a technical paper on service blueprints offering more complexity to the process
here - http://les.g51studio.com/parsons/ServiceBlueprinting.pdf
Lynn Shostacks original article can be found at the Harvard Business Review -
https://hbr.org/1984/01/designing-services-that-deliver/ar/1
Hero Image: Author/Copyright holder: Cameron Degelia. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY
2.0

Topics in this article:

Service Design

Service Blueprint

User Experience (UX) Design

Customer Journey Map

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