What's a good structure for a Service Blueprint?
My two cents
The base structure of a Service Blueprint shows the customer journey (frontstage) with under it what needs to happen below to create that experience (backstage).
It can be hard to start building out a Service Blueprint, especially for a new service idea you're trying to prototype. In such moments pre-made structures can be pretty useful. Here are a few that you can use to get started:
It can be hard to start building out a Service Blueprint, especially for a new service idea you're trying to prototype. In such moments pre-made structures can be pretty useful. Here are a few that you can use to get started:
- The classical one: Aware, Join, Use, Develop, Leave. That's the one you learn about in the book "Service Design From Insight to Implementation" by Andy Polaine, Ben Reason & Lavrans Løvlie
- The classical one with a twist: I personally like to add a "Re-join" phase at the end of my blueprints to think about the fact that possibility of people coming back to the service and how that might happen. This gives us the following structure: Aware, Join, Use, Develop, Leave, Re-join
- Marketing funnel + classical one: If you want more details for the aware phase, you can easily zoom in by using the structure of the marketing funnel. Here you can use whatever flavour of funnel that you prefer, for example, the Purchase Funnel, Google Moments. This could give you this structure: Awareness, Desire, Interest, Join, Use, Develop, Leave.
The AI answer
I've asked ChatGPT this question, and here is the raw response I got. Always take it with a grain of salt.
A service blueprint typically consists of three main parts: the customer actions, the business actions, and the supporting infrastructure.
The customer actions are the steps that the customer takes during the service experience, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. The business actions are the steps the business takes in response to the customer’s actions, such as processing an order or providing support. The supporting infrastructure includes the physical and digital resources required to support the service process, such as systems and processes.
In addition to these three main parts, a service blueprint may also include additional elements such as points of contact (e.g. phone, email, in-store), the physical environment (e.g. store layout, website design), and any relevant stakeholders (e.g. employees, partners).
The structure of a service blueprint will depend on the specific service experience you are designing or improving. It is a good idea to start by mapping out the customer journey and the business actions that occur at each step and then add additional elements as needed.
The customer actions are the steps that the customer takes during the service experience, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. The business actions are the steps the business takes in response to the customer’s actions, such as processing an order or providing support. The supporting infrastructure includes the physical and digital resources required to support the service process, such as systems and processes.
In addition to these three main parts, a service blueprint may also include additional elements such as points of contact (e.g. phone, email, in-store), the physical environment (e.g. store layout, website design), and any relevant stakeholders (e.g. employees, partners).
The structure of a service blueprint will depend on the specific service experience you are designing or improving. It is a good idea to start by mapping out the customer journey and the business actions that occur at each step and then add additional elements as needed.
Service Blueprint resources
You can find all the Service Blueprint resources I've created here. This includes courses, templates and a library of external links and resources.
More Service Design questions and answers like this one
Check out all the questions about Service Blueprints, customer journeys or journey maps.