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Services Marketing Project Spring semester, 2023 Dr. Rowan Kennedy

Assignment Guide: Service Blueprint

% of overall Word count Learning addressed Due date

assessment (approx.) outcomes
Sunday
Assessment 2100/student A1, A2, A3 B2 & B4, Week 15
35% OR CEPS 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 & 8
Task 3 4200 (pair)
(May 07th)
5pm

Objectives blue print

• To become familiar with practical applications of material learned in (bloÿoÿprÿntÿ)
class
• To develop research and writing skills • To
develop critical reasoning and analytical skills • To
experience teamwork (this is optional)

Structure
This project will be presented in report format using APA style referencing. Separate
guides to:
If you only have a hammer, everything is a nail.
If you have a service blueprint a) presenting reports for Marketing b)
everything is a detail to be nailed down, using the APA style of citation are
even those details that don't contribute to
available on the Moodle site to guide you
your ultimate goal.

teamwork
You may work on this project individually, or may work in teams of two. If a team situation is
chosen, the word count will be doubled to 4200 as detailed above.
In this case, you are expected to coordinate efforts on the assignment, give each other feedback,
evaluate each other's work effort, and maintain an environment that rewards creativity and
discipline.

TheTask
Completion of the project requires the knowledge of services marketing
gained from all of the chapters we have covered during the semester.
However, the task specifically relates to Chapters 8 & 14 (Designing
Service Processes and Improving Service Quality and Productivity) of
the Wirtz & Lovelock textbook.

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Services Marketing Project Spring semester, 2023 Dr. Rowan Kennedy

Your assignment will be divided into the sections outlined below, comprising three primary sections
covering the theory and application of service blue printing and service quality:

Current Service Blueprint

Diagnosis of GAPs
Service Re-Design
*(see points 3, 4, & 5)

Here's how to go about it.

1. Select your company. I prefer it to be the company you work for - or another company with
which you are familiar (i.e. familiar enough to know what goes on the frontstage as well as
the backstage).
2. Assume you (or your team) have been hired to consult with management to improve the
company's service design and delivery.
3. Gather enough information to prepare a detailed blueprint showing how a specific service is
created and delivered to the customer of this particular service. You may find it necessary
to interview a small number of your company's customers, as well as some employees from
departments like marketing, human resource and operations.

4. You may not have all of the information that you would like at your disposal. Do the best you
can and be sure to explicitly state any assumptions you are making. If there is information
that you cannot obtain (due to confidentiality issues, etc.) but would want to obtain, be sure
to specify that in your paper.
5. Simultaneously, begin to gather and read your secondary research sources relating
to service delivery, gap analysis and improving services.

As you are using report format, you will begin your plan with an introduction.

Approx. 75 words
1.0 Introduction
The Introduction paragraph will introduce your company: where you are located, what your core offer
is, how many there are currently on your staff. Briefly explain company objectives and management
philosophy. Identify the process to be blueprinted (for example, in a hotel it may be the restaurant,
front-of-house, or housekeeping) and the customers who are served by the process.

Explain why you are undertaking this study of your supplementary services and what you expect to
achieve. Follow this with a brief exploration of Service Blueprinting (Wirtz, Chew & Lovelock, 2012,
Chapter 8).

Although your customers won't love you if you give bad service, your competitors will.
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Services Marketing Project Spring semester, 2023 Dr. Rowan Kennedy

2.0 Flowcharting & Service Blueprints Approx. 300 words

Examine the standing literature on flowcharting and service blueprints and write a
paragraph on the relationship between service delivery and blueprinting. You may even
want to discuss its relationship with flowcharting.

Discuss what the latest research is uncovering about how/when this is used as a tool of
diagnosis/analysis - or if, in fact, it's used for any other purposes.

3.0 (Your company's) Current Service Delivery Approx. 300 words

Prepare a detailed blueprint of the service including all relevant elements both front stage
and backstage. Add a written narrative and evaluation of the process in its present form,
paying particular attention to service quality.

Approx. 350 words

4.0 Diagnosis of GAPS
You will begin this section with an examination of the literature on the GAPs model to
show the depth of your understanding of the model,
and the relationship between blueprinting and the Check out this little 10min clip on how to go
GAPs model. about
blueprinting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNp2sv

Then, using the GAPs Model, diagnose the different

gaps that currently exist in the service design and delivery. Using the knowledge you've
gained from this course, consider what the company could do in order to close those
gaps (what changes or improvements could/should be made to improve service delivery).

Approx. 375 words

5.0 Service Redesign
Based on the original blueprint you developed, and using your findings from the Gaps
analysis, redesign the service processes and outline a new blueprint that
will detail the processes involved to ensure that the identified gaps are
eliminated or at least minimized.

Provide a written narrative and evaluation of the redesigned processes,

paying particular attention to service quality.

If you think it may be useful, think about comparing your proposed approach
with the processes used by your leading/major competitors. Add suggestions for any
changes or improvements.

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Services Marketing Project Spring semester, 2023 Dr. Rowan Kennedy

Keep in mind that service redesign is typically required due to either:

a) changes in the external environment;
or b) internal institutional 'rusting' - natural weakening of internal processes, rules,
regulations, or the development of unofficial standards (badly thought out shortcuts).

Your Objectives for the service redesign

You are aiming to achieve several objectives here:
1. Reduce number of service failures;
2. Reduce cycle time from when the customer first starts the service process to its
completion;
3. Enhanced productivity;
4. Increased customer satisfaction.

6.0 Conclusion Approx. 100 words

Just finish off your plan with a statement concluding about the role of supplementary
services in your company. Think about whether the recommendations you have made
would give you a sustainable competitive advantage. What would the impact and outcome
be for your company?

Notifications on Blueprints

There are two common notations on a service blueprint. Arrows and annotations.
Arrows
Arrows have a very important meaning beyond the direction of the value exchange. They
indicate who or what system is in control at any given moment.
Single headed arrows means that the source of the arrow is in control in the value
exchange.
Double headed arrows show that agreements must be reached between actors prior to
the process moving forward. For example, agreeing on the pick-up time with a pharmacist,
or negotiating a price in a non-fixed cost structure.

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Services Marketing Project Spring semester, 2023 Dr. Rowan Kennedy

Annotations
As you do the research and field observations necessary to build a blueprint, remember
that blueprints can be a powerful way to communicate what's working and what isn't
working for both service users and employees in the existing process. You can make notes
any way you like on your diagrams (they are, after all, your diagrams) but I recommend
that you use icons with a legend to keep things legible and clear (see the figure below for
example).

Some notable moments to consider capturing:

• Pain points which should be fixed or improved

• Opportunities to measure the quality of the service

• Opportunities for cost savings or increased profits

• Moments that are loved by the customer and should not be lost

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Services Marketing Project Spring semester, 2023 Dr. Rowan Kennedy

Key Takeaways

Service blueprints are a very useful way of fully understanding the processes related to a
service. They enable you to map all the interactions related with delivering a service and to
determine the quality and time KPIs for those interactions.

Your blueprint is designed to improve the service delivery in your company, but it may be
useful for other purposes, such as:

• 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 ingrained 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.

Here's where the marks are!

Your paper will be evaluated based on the quality
of the GAPs analysis and your justification for: Service Blueprint
the decisions you make about the proposed Front Matter 2.5%
blueprint redesign Executive summary 5%
your consistency in linking strategic and Introduction 2.5%
tactical decisions Service blueprinting 15%
current blueprint 20%
the depth of knowledge about services
GAPs analysis 25%
marketing that you demonstrate based on Proposed Blueprint 20%
your discussion of course concepts Conclusion 5%
the level of detail provided, and Referencing
the quality of the writing and referencing • In text 2.5%
• Reference List 2. 5%
100%
Submission of the project (you can see by this that I consider the referencing very important
and I'm expecting you to be able to interrogate the library
databases to access academic papers (as opposed to the Web).
The assessment task should be completed in Times
New Roman, Size 12, 1.15 spacing.

The hand-in date for the essay is Sunday Week

15. It should be submitted via email to:

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Services Marketing Project Spring semester, 2023 Dr. Rowan Kennedy

(rowan@squ.edu.om) by COB (5pm) Sunday 07th May 2020.

If you need any more help, don't forget I'm only a text, call or email away.

Kind Regards,

Rowan
(2414 2966)