Overview

Understanding users, their goals, expectations and motivations, is at the core of management for every service based business. This chart examines the positioning and provision of Savannah Hearse Tours through the experience of a persona, who represents a likely user group. The eight journey mapping techniques examine user experience on various attributes. When used together, strategists, managers and service business employees gain an insightful view of where their business can be optimized and scripted to ensure a higher quality of service provision, as well as better manage customer expectations. 

Service Blueprint

The goal of the service blueprint is to provide a comprehensive visualization of the current state of a service or the potential service encounter from the perspective of consumer actions.This is probably the most straight forward service mapping tool. A basic visualization of the service encounter from the consumer’s perspective can be realized very quickly for evaluation of interactions and pain-points. It has the ability to examine a service at a high or low level. However, the basic service blueprint lacks backstage evidence. Practitioners should be careful not to rely too heavily on this one technique, because even though it tells a good basic story, it does not tell the whole story of services; especially when they get complicated. 

Enhanced Service Blueprint

The enhanced blueprint focuses on taking the original service blueprint developed in the early 1980s and adding additional elements. The significant enhancement suggested by Sparagen is the addition of visualizing customer frustration and trust levels. This mapping technique can be used to identify where services are good at establishing trust and making the customer happy as well as where it does a poor job, signifying where the service has room to improve. The enhanced blueprint is excellent at telling a complete story of the entire service encounter step by step from both the customer and service provider perspective. It is also an effective internal tool to ensure service employees understand their responsibilities and roles. Frustration and trust levels can be substituted for other variables. This is one of the more complicated service mapping techniques and is generally not suitable for rapid service visualization. 

Customer Decision Journey

The consumer decision journey map aims to visually depict the decision making process of a customer in what Court et al. argue is a more accurate representation of reality than the traditional funnel. Using this tool, key decision points in the customer journey can be examined in detail. Advantages include: steps leading to decision making can be evaluated and show areas for innovation, market positioning can be visualized along side the customer journey in the same map, and the consumer decision journey map gives a relatively high level view of the service, which makes it easy to identify areas for innovation. However, where this tool falls short is in its assumption that evaluated services have a loyal customer base and actively attempt to encourage repeat encounters. 

Customer Journey Through Channels

This mapping method examines the customer journey and service provision through the lens of channels involved during each point of contact and how those channels relate with one another. Focusing on channels can present strategists the opportunity to streamline the service more easily, especially for digital services or businesses with omnichannel points of sale. It also indicates points where new channel implementation or facilitated interactions could be implemented or improved; areas for innovation within channels. On the negative side, too much focus on the channels can over shadow the service provision and customer steps. For this reason, this map should be used as a stand alone analysis, co-design or instructional tool. When paired with other journey maps or used for ideation however, it can be very effective. 

AT-ONE Cards

AT-ONE Touchpoint Card Sorting is a tool for mapping the user journey through actors, touchpoints, offerings, needs and experiences to be used in structured co-design sessions for identifying sources of innovation. Steps are loosely defined so cards can be sorted in whatever fashion makes sense to the participant. The way participants sort the cards, not only the moments where they place them, can be a valuable source of insight. AT-ONE is a great tool for team building and co-design within cross-functional and interdisciplinary teams. Touchpoints are limited to those that are on the cards, which may not accurately reflect the service. For this reason, decks must be customized for different services. The inclusion of “wild cards” or blank cards where participants interject their own touchpoints could be helpful for identifying points for innovation. 

Goal Driven Decisions

This technique forces designers and strategists to delve deep into the mind of the target group. The aim of goal driven design decisions mapping is to visualize customer thought process at key moments in the service provision. It does an excellent job of balancing low level and high level consumer goals, motivations and how those goals are accomplished, showing both where the service helps with goals and fails to help consumers achieve even minor facilitating tasks. This mapping technique gets very low level into the decision making thought process of the user. Doing so does not provide a very good picture of the over all service and its offerings. However, it can still be a powerful tool when used in unison with others. 

Moment Mapping

Moment mapping aims to identify each moment of the service encounter including white space where Shaw and Ives suggest there is significant room for service innovation. The technique also indicates customer expectations, threats to those expectations and suggests how they can be exceeded at each moment in the process. Moment mapping encourages the participants in the mapping exercise to consider how the service could innovate at every moment of the service encounter, including and especially for moments of white space. The tool does not work to evaluate the current service provision particularly well except for identifying moments of white space that are open for innovation.

Customer Centered Innovation

The goal of Bettencourt and Ulwick’s customer centered innovation map is to identify potential opportunities for innovation at each of eight steps they suggest every job has. Areas for innovation are considered at each step in the jobs process. When seeking holistic service innovation, this tool a bit broad. The map does not provide a detailed picture of the holistic service, and all of its intricacies and interactions. However, when applied to individual moments in the service encounter it can be highly effective.