Module 4

Managing the Customer

Interface
Flowcharting Customer Service Process
A customer service flowchart is a diagram that illustrates the sequence of
steps a company takes to deal with a customer service request or inquiry.
The flowchart helps customer service employees handle requests efficiently
in line with company policies and procedures and ensures good service.
• Identify Customer Service Touchpoints
• Outline the Process
• Arrange the Sequence
• Eliminate Potential Problems
• Finish the Flowchart
• Distribute the Information
Service Blueprints
A service blueprint is a diagram that visualizes the relationships
between different service components — people, props (physical or
digital evidence), and processes — that are directly tied to touchpoints
in a specific customer journey.
Think of service blueprints as a part two to customer journey maps.
Similar to customer-journey maps, blueprints are instrumental in
complex scenarios spanning many service-related offerings.
Blueprinting is an ideal approach to experiences that are omnichannel,
involve multiple touchpoints, or require a crossfunctional effort (that is,
coordination of multiple departments).
Key Elements of a Service Blueprint
• Customer actions
Steps, choices, activities, and interactions that customer performs while interacting
with a service to reach a particular goal. Customer actions are derived from research or
a customer-journey map.
• Frontstage actions
Actions that occur directly in view of the customer. These actions can be human-to-
human or human-to-computer actions. Human-to-human actions are the steps and
activities that the contact employee (the person who interacts with the customer)
performs. Human-to-computer actions are carried out when the customer interacts
with self-service technology (for example, a mobile app or an ATM).
• Backstage actions
Steps and activities that occur behind the scenes to support onstage happenings.
These actions could be performed by a backstage employee (e.g., a cook in the
kitchen) or by a frontstage employee who does something not visible to the customer
(e.g., a waiter entering an order into the kitchen display system).
• Processes
Internal steps, and interactions that support the employees in delivering the service.
• In a service blueprint, key elements are organized into clusters with
lines that separate them. There are three primary lines:
• The line of interaction depicts the direct interactions between the customer
and the organization.
• The line of visibility separates all service activities that are visible to the
customer from those that are not visible. Everything frontstage (visible)
appears above this line, while everything backstage (not visible) appears below
this line.
• The line of internal interaction separates contact employees from those who
do not directly support interactions with customers/users.
Secondary Elements to Include in a Service Blueprint
• Arrows-Arrows are a key element of service blueprinting. They indicate
relationships, and more importantly, dependencies. A single arrow suggests a
linear, one-way exchange, while a double arrow suggests the need for
agreement and codependency.
• Time-If time is a primary variable in your service, an estimated duration for
each customer action should be represented in your blueprint.
• Regulations or Policy-Any given policies or regulations that dictate how a
process is completed (food regulations, security policies, etc.) can be added to
your blueprint. This information will allow us to understand what can and
cannot be changed as we optimize.
• Emotion-Similar to how a user’s emotion is represented throughout a
customer-journey map, employees’ emotions can be represented in the
blueprint.
• Metrics-Any success metric that can provide context to your blueprint is a
benefit, especially if buy-in is the blueprint’s goal.
 Servicescape
Servicescape deals in the settings where a service is consumed or
delivered and the place where both the company and customer
interactions with each other. It has a powerful impact on the
assessment, perception, and response of the customer
Aspects of servicescape
• Spatial layout and functionality
Spatial layout is about the way you arrange the furnishings, equipment and machinery,
their shape and size and of course, the spatial relationship which exists amongst them.
Functionality is about the ability of those items to accomplish customer satisfaction.
• Signs, symbols, and artifacts
The sign is one of the most explicit signals that can communicate directly with a
customer in a physical environment. These are prominently displayed on both exterior
and interior of a place and generally act as communicators.The signs can be used as
labels like the name of a department and company, for a directional purpose like
entrance and as rules for specific behavior like no smoking. Symbols and artifacts are
also effective in giving the implicit cue to the reader.
• Ambient conditions
The background conditions of an environment like color, noise, music, sound, lighting,
etc. are included in ambient conditions. These are important factors as they affect one
or other of our five senses and can change the mindset and perception of a person.
Roles of servicescape
• Facilitator
• Socialiser
• Package
• Differentiator
Types of servicescape environment
• Lean servicescape
Designing this type of environment is straightforward and includes fewer
interactions, elements, and spaces between employees and customers.
• Elaborate servicescape
Designing this type of servicescape requires teams that are skilled in their work
and are fully aware of the corporate vision and desired outcome. The elaborate
servicescape includes multiple spaces, elements, and interactions between
employees and customers.
 Service Quality Management
The process of managing the quality of services delivered to a customer
according to his expectations is called Service Quality Management. It
basically assesses how well a service has been given, so as to improve
its quality in the future, identify problems and correct them to increase
customer satisfaction. Service quality management encompasses the
monitoring and maintenance of the varied services that are offered to
customers by an organization.
Dimensions of Service Quality
• Reliability – This is the ability to perform the service dependably and accurately, as
promised. In software service, it would be the correct technical functioning of the
application and various features such as GUI features, billing, product information
etc.
• Responsiveness – How quickly the services are rendered to the customer and the
promptness of service delivery. With respect to software services, it would be the
ability to respond to customer problems or give solutions.
• Assurance – This is a measure of the ability to convey trust to the customers and
how well they extend the courtesy. Software assurance involves the amount of
confidence the customer has in handling the software application or navigating a
site, the belief he has on the information provided and its clarity, reputation etc.
• Empathy – Giving personalized attention, understanding the requirements and
caring for the customers. The software service would include customized
applications, one-to-one customer attention, security privacy and understanding
customer preferences.
• Tangibles – The physical attributes like appearance, equipment, facilities etc. When
we speak of software services, the tangibles would be aesthetics of the software
application or website, navigation features, accessibility, flexibility etc.
Testing Methodologies
• Static Testing – The processes of reviewing, inspection, walkthroughs
etc. wherein verification of the software takes place without actually
running the code, is called static testing. Syntax, code structure, data
flow etc. are checked and static analysis like mutation testing is also
used to check for efficiency of the test cases.
• Dynamic Testing – When the programs are executed with the help of
test cases and software is validated, the process is called dynamic
testing. This kind of testing is done even before the programming is
complete so that sections of code are tested individually using tools
like stubs or drivers and can be done manually or through
automation.
• White-Box Testing – The testing approach wherein the internal system of
the application is tested thoroughly and is applied at the unit, functional
and system level testing processes. It’s effectively used to detect the
maximum number of errors or bugs except the unimplemented sections
or in case of missing requirements.
• Black-Box Testing – This involves testing of the software functionalities
without going into the intricate details of the software code or system.
The user-end features are tested and several scenarios are tested for user
acceptance or integration etc.
• Compatibility Testing – A software application doesn’t serve the
desired purpose if it’s not compatible with other applications,
operating systems or target environments. Compatibility testing
ensures that these issues do not exist in the software developed.
• Regression Testing – Software development involves a lot of change
management due to changes in customer requirements and this
sometimes causes errors in software that was previously working fine.
Regression testing is very helpful to find bugs after a major code
change has happened or to uncover old bugs that might have crawled
in.
• Performance Testing – The performance of a application is tested to
measure several attributes like usability, scalability, responsiveness,
reliability, stability etc. The different kinds of performance testing are
as follows:
• Load Testing – Here the performance of the software is tested when large
numbers of users work on it at the same time or while handling huge volume
of data etc.
• Volume Testing – Method to test software functions when the file sizes are
increased
• Stress Testing – Used to measure software reliability when used for long
periods of time or when exposed to heavy workload. It’s also called as
endurance testing.
 Service perception
Customer perception is how customers feel about your product and
brand. It's an opinion that they've formed through every interaction
they've had with your company, both direct and indirect.
 Service Quality Audit
Quality auditing is the systematic examination of an
organization’s quality management system (QMS). A quality audit is
typically carried out by an internal or external quality auditor or audit
team. It is a key component of the ISO 9001 quality system standard.
The three types of quality audit
• Process audit - A process audit determines whether an organization’s
processes are working within established limits. It measures conformance
to any predetermined or industry standards, as well as the effectiveness of
any instructions.
• Product audit - This type of audit examines whether a particular product or
services conforms to the necessary requirement—whether that’s
specifications, customer requirements, or performance standards.
• System audit - A system audit verifies that all elements of a management
system are effective and appropriate, and have been developed,
documented, and implemented in accordance with the specified
requirements.
 SERVQUAL/ GAP Model of Service quality
• The GAP Model of Service quality helps to identify the gaps between
the perceived service and the expected service. Five Gaps occur in the
Service Delivery Process Like The gap between Customer Expectation
and Management Perception, Service Quality Specification and
Management Perception and many more.

• The GAP Model was first proposed by A. Parasuraman, Valarie

Zeithaml and Leonard L. Berry in 1985.
Five Gaps occur in the Service Delivery Process. They are:
• The gap between Customer Expectation and Management Perception
• The gap between Service Quality Specification and Management
Perception
• The gap between Service Quality Specification and Service Delivery
• The gap between Service Delivery and External Communication
• The gap between the Expected Service and Experienced Service
 Service Excellence
By definition, service excellence refers to the ability of service providers
to consistently meet and sometimes even exceed customer
expectations. This implies that the true meaning of excellent service is
related to the service itself and customer expectations of it, which also
means that the burden of providing excellent customer service falls on
even the cheapest brands.