SERVICE MARKETING

Service Innovation and Design

Stanley S. Rodrick

Challenges of Service Innovation and Design

Because services are largely intangible and process oriented (such as hospital stay, cricket lesson, a football game or a sophisticated information technology consulting service), they are difficult to describe and communicate. Because services are delivered by employees to customers, they are variable. Rarely are two services are alike or experienced in the same way. Because services cannot be touched, examined or easily tried out, people have historically resorted to words in their efforts to describe them.

Risks Involved
Oversimplification: Words are simply inadequate

to describe a whole complex service system. Incompleteness: In describing services, people tend to omit details or elements of the service with which they are not familiar. Subjectivity: Any one person describing a service in words will be biased by personal experience and degree exposure to the service. Biased Interpretation: No two people will define responsiveness, quick, or flexible in exactly the same way.

New Service Strategy Development

Markets Offerings Markets Current Customers New Customers Existing Services Share Building New Services Service Development Diversification

Market Development

Types of Service Innovations

Major or Radical Innovations

Start-up Businesses
New Services for the currently Served Market Service Line Extensions

Service Improvements
Style Changes

Service Blueprinting
A Service Blueprint is a picture or map that portrays the service system so that the different people involved in providing it can understand and deal with it objectively, regardless of their roles or their individual points of view.

Blueprints are particularly useful at the design stage of service development.

A Service Blueprint visually displays the service by simultaneously depicting the process of service delivery, the points of customer contact, the roles of customers and employees and the visible element of the service.

Service Blueprinting
A technique for simultaneously depicting the service process, the points of customer contact, and the evidence of service from the customers point of view.
Process

Service Mapping

Points of Contact Evidence

Service Blueprint Components

Basic components of Service Blueprint are:
Customer actions Onstage contact employee actions

Backstage contact employee actions

Support processes

Service Blueprint Components

Physical Evidence Customer Actions Line of Interaction Onstage Contact Employee Actions

Line of Visibility
Employee Actions (Backstage/ Invisible

Line of Internal Interaction

Support Processes

Service Blueprint Components

Customer Actions: it includes steps, choices,

activities and interactions that customer performs in the process of purchasing, consuming and evaluating the service. Onstage Employee Actions: steps and activities that the contact employees performs that are visible to the customer. Backstage Employee Actions: steps and activities that occur behind the scene to support onstage activities.

Service Blueprint Components

Support

Processes: covers the internal services, steps and interactions that take place to support the contact employees in delivering the service.

Service Blueprint Components

Physical Evidence: above each point of contact the actual physical evidence of the service is listed. Line of Interaction: direct interactions b/w the customer and organization. Line of Visibility: this line separates all service activities that are visible to the customers from those that are not visible. Line of Internal Interaction: separates contact employees activities from those of other service support activities and people.

Blueprint Express Mail Delivery Service

Truck, Packaging, Forms, Hand-held Computer Uniform
PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
Customer Calls Customer Gives Package

Truck, Packaging, Forms, Hand-held Computer Uniform

Receive Package

(On Stage) CUSTOMER (Back Stage)

Driver Picks Up Pkg.

Deliver Package

Customer Service Order

SUPPORT PROCESS

Dispatch Driver

Airport Receives & Loads

Fly to Sort Center Load on Airplane Sort Packages

Fly to Destination

Unload & Sort

Load On Truck

Blueprint Overnight Hotel Stay

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE Hotel Exterior Parking Cart for Bags Desk Cart for Registration Bags Elevators Papers Hallways Lobby Room Key
Go to Room Receive Bags

Room Menu Amenities Bath

Delivery Food Tray Food Appearance

Bill Desk Lobby Hotel Exterior Parking

Check out and Leave

CUSTOMER

Arrive at Hotel

Give Bags Check in to Bellperson

Sleep Shower

Call Room Service

Receive Food

Eat

(On Stage) CONTACT PERSON (Back Stage)

Greet and Take Bags

Process Registration

Deliver Bags

Deliver Food

Process Check Out

Take Bags to Room

Take Food Order

SUPPORT PROCESS

Registration System

Prepare Food

Registration System

END OF THE CHAPTER