What you must do

What you must do

Assignment #2: service blueprinting

• Report and a blueprint (headings are needed. There is no need for a table of content and an executive summary or an abstract)
• Length: 2000-2500 words

Assignment #2: service blueprinting

• Think of a service firm
• Think of their services
• Think of their front stage and back stage employee activities
• Think of customer activities involved
• Think of physical evidence, and servicescape
• Think of supporting systems
• You should create a service blueprint for a service firm of your choice (e.g. dentist, funeral home, any retail store, zoo, student legal services, humane society, and hospital emergency service). In addition to the blueprint, you should write a report-type paper analysing the service processes of the firm using course concepts.
• Students who focused on an imaginary firm rather than a real firm, can use images from the internet to depict components of the physical evidence.

Assignment #2 blueprinting

• Components needed for assignment #2:
  • Graphical Portion of Service Blueprint.
  • Pictorial Portion of the Service Blueprint
  • Written Section of the Assignment (2000-2500 word report)

Example of a blueprint

Graphical Portion of Service Blueprint

• Blueprints must have all lines clearly labelled, and arrows must be included in your blueprint to show the order of activities and how they are connected to each other.
• At least three customer actions, three front-stage contact employee actions, three back-stage contact employee actions, and three distinct support processes should be depicted.
• At least three potential bottlenecks or fail points in the service delivery process must be identified.

Example of a showing fail points in a blueprint

Pictorial Portion of the Service Blueprint

• For the physical evidence layer of the service blueprint, each student is expected to visit the business chosen and to visually capture the various components of physical evidence that customers experience.

• A minimum of 3 images is needed to include in the blueprint (the images should be small and pasted in the physical layer of the blueprint).
• Larger number of images would also be encouraged. The additional images can be placed within the written section of the assignment.
• Images within the written section of the assignment can be:

• servicescape elements
• other physical evidence (tangible components)
• customer actions
• employee actions (both on-stage and back-stage)
• Try to draw a blueprint skeleton!

Pictorial Portion of the Service Blueprint

• For the physical evidence layer of the service blueprint, each student is expected to visit the business chosen and to visually capture the various components of physical evidence that customers experience.

• A minimum of 3 images is needed to include in the blueprint (the images should be small and pasted in the physical layer of the blueprint).

Pictorial Portion of the Service Blueprint

• Larger number of images would also be encouraged. The additional images can be placed within the written section of the assignment.
• Images within the written section of the assignment can be:

• servicescapeelements
• Other physical evidence (tangible components)
• Customeractions
• Employeeactions (both on-stage and back-stage)

• Try to draw a blueprint skeleton!
• Try to place the activities in the blueprint and show the interaction flows.
• Think of possible fail points and bottlenecks.
• Show where in the blueprint they occur.

Directions

The aim of the project is to develop a thorough, detailed service blueprint for a service firm. The project can focus on an imaginary service firm or a real service firm.

Graphical Portion of Service Blueprint. This assignment allows a student to demonstrate (1) an understanding of the blueprint concepts from class and (b) an ability to apply them in looking at a specific service provider. The blueprint must include the components described in Chapter 5 and content discussed by lecturer/unit convener. Blueprints must have all lines clearly labelled, and arrows must be included in your blueprint to show the order of activities and how they are connected to each other. At least three customer actions, three front-stage contact employee actions, three back-stage contact employee actions, and three distinct support processes should be depicted.At least three potential bottlenecks or fail points in the service delivery process must be identified.

Pictorial Portion of the Service Blueprint. For the physical evidence layer of the service blueprint, students are expected to visit the business chosen and to visually capture the various components of physical evidence that customers experience. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to take pictures with a digital camera (Students should secure permission to take pictures of the service process from management of this service provider prior to constructing the blueprint). A minimum of 5 images is needed to include in the blueprint (the images should be small and pasted in the physical layer of the blueprint). Larger number of images would also be encouraged. The additional images can be placed within the written section of the assignment.

Written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

• In addition to the actual blueprint (which should be placed in the appendix section of the report), you are required to write a report (2000-2500 words) that addresses the following issues and include appropriate associated headings:

Report Structure for assignment #2

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusions
• Reference list
• Appendix: (blueprint)

Written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

Introduction: Describe the firm you chose, what service(s) of this organization you will be blueprinting, and why you selected those particular service(s);

Written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

Body:

Section A:

• 1) Describe what you believe to be the three key customer actions depicted in the blueprint, and
• 2) discuss why they are so critical to a successful service experience;

Section B:

• 1) Describe what you believe to be the three key front-stage contact employee actions depicted in the blueprint and
• 2) discusswhy they are so critical to a successful service experience of a customer.

                                                    Written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

Body:

Section C:

• 1) Describe three key elements of physical evidence revealed in the blueprint (photos/images of these elements should be included in the visual portion of the blueprint) and
• 2) discuss how they influence the customer’s experience;

Written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

Body:

Section D:you need to use at least 4 peer reviewed journal articles

• 1) Describe three fail points (points in the process where problems may occur) and/or bottlenecks (points in the process where backups or slow delivery may occur);
• 2) For each of the fail points, a fishbone diagram should be placed within the text. Aspects outlined in the fishbone diagram should be elaborated in the rest of Section D, by relying on the literature in the area of services marketing (see page 427 for information on cause and effect analysis). In other words, you need to analyze each fail point and explain in detail what the underlying causes of the fail points might be.
• Note: If all fail points (or bottle necks) are relevant to an overall higher order problem (e.g. departure delays of an airline), you can briefly explain that overall problem first, and then place only one fishbone diagram within text. That single fishbone diagram then, should have at least three aspects— each relevant to one of the three fail points (or bottle necks) you described at the beginning of section D. Aspects outlined in the fishbone diagram should be elaborated in the rest of Section D, by relying on the literature in the area of services marketing (see page 427 for information on cause and effect analysis).

Example of Fishbone diagram  for a cause and effect analysis

Written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

Body:

Section E (Recommendations):you need to use at least 4 peer reviewed journal articles

• Suggest possible solutions/alternatives to address these problem areas. Using examples and support from the relevant literature in the areas of marketing, operations management and human resource management, justify why you think your suggestions can resolve the problems.

Written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

• Conclusion:Discuss what was learnt in doing this assignment and how it could be applied in the business world.

Important notes about written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

• Assignment cover page should contain: date, subject code (6366).
• You are required to use a minimum of 15 references from various sources, out of which 8 references should be peer reviewed journal articles. Please see the file on the Moodle called “How your Assignment #2 will be marked for details about number of required references for a particular section).
• Length of this assignment is to be approximately 2000-2500 words and is partially flexible (max limit 3000 words).
• The material should be professionally presented and typed.
• References are to be cited using Harvard system consistently.
• The report should be formatted using 5 spaced, 11 or 12 pt. font.

Important notes about written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

• NB: title page, contents, appendices, tables, graphs, charts, bibliography, etc. are not viewed as part of the text but as extra pages (they are not considered for word count).
• -Service blueprint should be placed in the appendix section of the report.

                            Important notes about written Section of Assignment #2(blueprinting)

• Students are expected to use concepts related to services marketing throughout their discussion to demonstrate an understanding of these concepts, as this is the primary purpose of this assignment.

The grading criteria used for evaluating your paper include:

• Your ability to relate material from readings and lectures to your paper,
• Your ability to diagnose probable causes of problems and match them with appropriate solutions,
• Depth and substance of your observations, persuasiveness of your discussion, and quality of writing.
• Concise and clear writing

• As such, you will not receive extra credit for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc., but will receive a poor evaluation of the assignment if these areas are found to be lacking.

• Also, please ensure the following:

• – Please note that for section D (discussion of fail points) you need to use at least 4 peer reviewed journal articles. Similarly, for section E (recommendations)you need to use at least 4 per reviewed journal articles.Overall, throughout the whole paper, you are required to use a minimum of 15 references from various sources, out of which 8 references should be peer reviewed journal articles.
• – Length of this assignment is to be approximately 2000-2500 words and is partially flexible (max limit 3000 words).
• – The material should be professionally presented and typed
• – References are to be cited using Harvard system consistently.
• – The complete report should be formatted using 1.5 spaced, 11 or 12 pt. font.
• – NB: title page, contents, appendices, tables, graphs, charts, bibliography, etc. are not viewed as part of the text but as extra pages.
• – Service blueprint should be placed in the appendix section of the written report.
• – Students are expected to use concepts related to services marketing throughout their discussion to demonstrate an understanding of these concepts, as this is the primary purpose of this assignment. The grading criteria used for evaluating your paper include your ability to relate material from readings and lectures to your paper, your ability to diagnose probable causes of problems and match them with appropriate solutions, depth and substance of your observations, persuasiveness of your discussion, and quality of writing. Concise, clear writing in your letter, brief summary paper, and presentation is expected. As such, you will not receive extra credit for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc., but will receive a poor evaluation of the assignment if these areas are found to be lacking.
• Professionalism and having work completed on schedule is a key to early success in one’s business career. Therefore, students are suggested to start now to develop good work habits for meeting deadlines.