Proposal of a Methodology to Integrate the Human Factor in the Service Blueprint

Abstract

In the field of service design, modeling is often used to visually represent the structures, flow, and operations of a service. This modeling, usually referred to as a “workflow” or “service blueprint”, is usually conceptualized in a linear or matrix form. These models, while useful for visualizing the structures and processes involved in service production, fail to consider the contribution of human factors – motivation, emotion, satisfaction, etc. – that are also essential elements of service interactions. It is therefore necessary to focus on the satisfaction and behavior of customers and employees. The ultimate goal is to try to eliminate the obstacles and conflicts of human order to generate an improvement of the whole service. We propose the development of an “enhanced” service blueprint which includes human factors dimensions, and attempt to compare its use to that of a traditional blueprint.