Service Blueprint Assignment
Last updated January 4, 2007

The purpose of this assignment is for course participants to develop a thorough understanding of service blueprinting. Your mission is to employ service blueprinting to analyze the service process for a local company and to graphically capture the process on paper.

Steps in the process

1.

Form teams of two or three class members.

2.

Choose a local service provider, or a business that has a significant service component. Please focus on a specific company. To complete this assignment, you may need to visit and observe your chosen company.

3.

Send me an e-mail message (drmartin@hawaii.edu) that includes the names of your team members, the chosen business, and when you would like to give your presentation to the class. Presentations will be given on March 5, 7, and 9 during class.

4.

Read Chapter 9 in the course text. In particular, study the section titled "Service Blueprinting." Also, read A Guide to Writing Assignments and the Grading Guide for Writing Assignments to understand how writing assignments should be constructed and how they will be graded for this class ).

5.

Create a complete blueprint of the service that you have chosen. Each blueprint should include the components listed in Chapter 9 and discussed in class. All lines should be labeled clearly, and arrows should be included in the blueprint to indicate the order of activities. The blueprint should include at least four "boxes" of support processes. Potential "bottlenecks" or "fail-points" in the service delivery process also should be identified.

6.

In addition to the actual blueprint, your group must write a 3- or 4-page paper (double-spaced) that addresses the following issues.

a.

Describe why you selected this organization to blueprint.

b.

Describe what you believe to be the three key elements of physical evidence revealed in the blueprint and discuss how they influence the customer's experience.

c.

Identify and describe three potential bottlenecks (points in the process where backups or slow delivery may occur) and/or fail-points (points in the process where problems may occur.

d.

Suggest possible solutions/alternatives to address these potential problem areas.

7.

The written paper is due on March 12. You may turn in the assignment earlier.

 Copyright © 2007Drew Martin

Questions and Comments to: drmartin@hawaii.edu

This document was last modified January 4, 2007