[Opinion] Customers Are Satisfied As Much As They See

Professor Shostack's Service Blueprint, contributed to the Harvard Business Review in 1984, is literally a blueprint that allows one to see the entire flow of a service at a glance. Based on this blueprint, service operation managers can not only understand the overall flow of the service industry but also identify where failures or customer waiting primarily occur and use this as a basis for improvement.

When creating a service blueprint, the first step is to identify the series of processes from when the customer enters until they leave. For each identified process, the tasks of front-stage employees and back-stage employees are divided and aligned with the customer process. Here, front-stage employees refer to staff who directly interact with customers, while back-stage employees are those who do not directly engage with customers but support the front-stage employees' work processes from behind the scenes. To explain with a typical example of the restaurant industry, when a customer enters, the front-stage employee guides them to a seat and takes their order. The order is then passed to the back-stage employees in the kitchen, and once the food is prepared and handed back to the front-stage employees, it is served to the customer.

The dividing line that separates the processes of front-stage and back-stage employees is called the Line of Visibility. In the service blueprint, activities above the Line of Visibility are handled by front-stage employees, while the support processes below the line are managed by back-stage employees. This line is called the Line of Visibility because customers cannot see the activities below it.

But do customers really have no interest in the activities below the Line of Visibility? The answer is obviously "No." Consider a wedding or a hotel buffet restaurant. Customers often stand in long lines where pasta is made fresh on the spot or steaks are cooked. Customers enjoy watching their food being prepared. This not only stimulates their appetite before eating but also builds trust by allowing them to check the kitchen’s hygiene. Sometimes restaurants reveal their kitchens with transparent glass to show hygiene conditions and to reassure customers, as well as to reduce the psychological waiting time by showing that their food is being prepared.

Customers are curious about how the service they receive is provided and created.

When we order goods online, checking the delivery tracking number to see when the package will arrive can reduce our psychological waiting time. Additionally, depending on the restaurant’s circumstances, the kitchen may not be open to the public. In such cases, if the chef or staff informs customers about the process of how the dish was made and what ingredients were used, customer satisfaction will easily increase.

Recently, the domestic chicken franchise market has become fiercely competitive. Among them, one franchise, which motivated me to write this column today, has installed CCTV that allows customers to view the kitchen of the store online or via mobile when they order chicken. Through this, the franchise gains customers’ trust by showing that clean oil is used, and it reduces customers’ psychological waiting time by letting them know when their delivery will arrive. The days when customers, tired of waiting for delivery food, call the store and hear "It just left" will soon be over. It is essential to build a transparent service process that can be disclosed to customers.

Professor Changhee Kim, Department of Business Administration, Incheon National University