How to build a service blueprint and what you can achieve with it

A service blueprint is a systematic methodology to improve the way services are built and delivered.

Mr Lim Eyung, director at GovTech, shared his insights on service blueprinting at the Public Service Transformation Conference 2019.

A service blueprint is a systematic methodology for improving service building and delivery. Mr Lim Eyung, director at GovTech, shared his insights on service blueprinting at the Public Service Transformation Conference 2019.

Going to the movies may seem straightforward, but it involves multiple transactions between a moviegoer and the cinema. From the moment you decide on which show to watch to the time you purchase your popcorn and are comfortably seated in the theatre, you will have interacted at least five times with the service provider.

If everything proceeded without a hitch, then the cinema has done a pretty good job in mapping out its service journey with its customers. Ideally, every interaction between citizens and the government should be just as hassle-free, and the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech) hopes to realise that ideal by formulating its own service journey model.

But how does a government agency begin to piece together such a model? This was the key question that Mr Lim Eyung, director at GovTech, sought to answer at the ‘Service Blueprinting and OpsTech’ presentation during the Public Service Transformation Conference held at Our Tampines Hub on 18 July 2019.

“In a nutshell, we want to have a better version of the journey mapping tool that allows us to talk about what is the user experience? What are the actions [on the part of citizens and service providers]?” said Lim.

Ask, watch and learn

The first step of a service journey model involves painting an accurate picture of the current state of affairs. This takes some introspection. How does an agency work? What is easy for citizens to accomplish? What is hard?

Returning to the cinema analogy, Mr Lim described how a local cinema might first interview a lot of its patrons to understand their likes and dislikes as they go about the ticketing process. The next part is less obvious but absolutely essential: interview employees. Suppose the owner decides robots will improve efficiency, but by interviewing employees and then discovering the system cannot handle the scaling. In that case, the owner either needs to think of a different solution or consider upgrading the backend.

Finally, it is important to simply observe the process, said Mr Lim. In an interview, people may say things that do not accurately reflect their actual experience. They may gloss over major problems or exaggerate issues; hence, observation of behaviour helps service providers find out how complicated humans interface with a service.

Once a company has obtained an accurate perspective of the current system, it can then move on to build a service blueprint for the future.

Sometimes, less is more

A service blueprint is an outline to help people analyse pain points and figure out how to solve problems, consolidate processes or eliminate redundancies.

During the service blueprinting process, a small but helpful piece of advice Mr Lim gave is to have a “commissioning meeting”. This is a session where everyone in the team gathers, and specific jobs are commissioned to individuals. It helps the team understand their roles and the parts played by their colleagues. It also streamlines internal communications and clarifies job scopes. Thereafter, the team can then take a range of actions to improve the service journey.

For example, an organisation could combine or remove stages in the service journey. In the context of a cinema, moviegoers could purchase their tickets and snacks simultaneously via an online channel. Subsequently, when they arrive at the cinema, they need only display a QR code to pick up their food items and proceed into the theatre, validating their QR code as they go. This also would eliminate the printing of physical tickets, saving business costs on paper and helping the company “go green”, Mr Lim explained.

A gentle nudge goes a long way

In addition to consolidating processes, Mr Lim noted that nudging may be a desirable feature at some point in the service journey. A big mistake an agency can make is assuming that its customers are all proactive individuals. People these days lead busy lives, and while they may have intended to complete a transaction, they could become distracted and fail to follow through.

“From a business point of view, we want to make a call to action. We want people to sign up, to do something by a certain time or date, or to remind them before they get fined,” said Mr Lim.

Again referencing the moviegoing experience, he said that a cinema may send reminders to their customers a few hours before the movie starts. They can even offer deals on food or send customers an alert if better seats become available. Guiding customers along a service journey is an important step towards improving customer satisfaction, Mr Lim advised.

Precautions and product personality

From a service provider’s standpoint, one mistake to avoid is having employees go through an entire service journey model without testing a minimum viable product, said Mr Lim.

If the cinema owner wants to launch an app, for instance, a severe error would be to check in on the implementation of the service journey model three months later when the app is set to go live. Such a mentality increases the chance that a small error will crash the entire system or that the app design can’t be scaled. Instead, Mr Lim advised frequent reviews of service journey milestones as the app is being developed.

“An additional consideration is the product personality,” he added, referring to the tone of engagement, which includes things like the choice of language and imagery associated with the app or digital product. Having a consistent product personality eases user navigation and could create a positive perception of the product owner.

The service journey model thus pushes an organisation to put its customers first and streamline their experience. Internally, it helps the organisation actively become more efficient using an organised and systematic framework, Mr Lim concluded.