Service Blueprinting - Shouldice Hospital - Case Study Example

Blueprinting Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: Date of Submission: Service Blueprinting Introduction The service blueprinting process is a tool for enabling users to view a framework for improving services. It is a service-planning tool, used to develop innovative services and ways of improving the current services. Thus, it can be identified as a tool for improving services within a firm (Hoffman & John, 2010). The chosen service falls in the hospital industry. The hospital the essay evaluates is Shouldice Hernia Centre, which is a private hospital in the country of Canada. The hospital is funded publically but administered privately. The hospital deals with hernia repair (shouldice, 2016). The hospital gives patients the power to plan the time schedules of their operations and surgery. The hospital has sufficient facilities for the operations of the patients, with an increasing demand. The main service the hospital provides is the surgeries of hernias. The components of a blueprint as included in this paper are actions of the customers, frontstage and backstage contact employee actions, among other processes that support the success of the business (Maik, et al., 2009). The services mentioned have been selected due to the influence they have on quality service provision to its customers in the hospital. Customer Actions Customer actions refers to the activities and interactions that customers have while engaging in the process of purchasing, evaluating and consuming the services offered at the hospital. That is; it focuses specifically on the choices, and steps the customers undertake to attain the services provided by the hospital. The customer actions refers to the line of interaction between customers and the hospital staff for acquiring the services provided in the hospital (Hoffman & John, 2010). The main customer actions include answering the medical questionnaire that provides their contact details and other necessary information. This, action involves providing the necessary information that the surgeons need to contact a patient and evaluate their medical need. That is; depending on the questionnaire answers the surgeons determine whether it is a risk Hermia or minor that can be handled with minor weight programs. The action is critical in ensuring sufficient service quality since, it helps in informing the doctors of the seriousness of their Hermia, and provides the contact information that they can be reached in (Maik, et al., 2009). On the stipulation that they need urgent medical assistance, this action will guarantee they receive it. Another action of the customers is to wait in the patient room. This is the room the patients wait to see a doctor, who then prescribes to them the procedure to be followed to determine the seriousness of the Hermia. The importance of this action is showing respect to those who can first. That is; treatment and consulting the doctors is done in a mannerly manner, where everyone’s time is considered. It ensures quality service experience of the customers since they do not have to worry about waiting in line for more than they should to see the doctor. Another major action the customers make is setting the date of the operation (Cardoen, et al., 2010). That is; they have to go through minor counselling and planning to ensure they set the date of the surgery at the appropriate time. The time cannot be too late. This is an important action since it determines whether the customers get treatment at a time they are comfortable with. That is; they do not have to deal with schedules of other commitments. The action ensures effective service quality by ensuring the patients other commitments are considered throughout the entire process of operation include the time they stay in the hospital (Fisk, et al., 2008). Front Stage Contact Employee Actions The main front stage actions of the employees include determining the type of Hermia that a patient has, including identification of the risky signs of the Hermia. The other important action is waking up the first surgery patients and thirdly, injecting the patients with anaesthetic. Determining the type of Hermia is important for effective treatment. On the stipulation that the contact employees misdiagnosed a patient’s Hermia, the doctors will treat the wrong Hermia leading to major complications in the main Hermia and development of other problems mainly due to the mistreatment. Accurate diagnosis of patient conditions ensures that treatment to reduce the problem is provided in a timely manner, which improves the health condition of a patient leading to successful service provision to the customers (Webb & Pass, 2004). Misdiagnosis makes the patients lose a lot, where accurate diagnosis ensures that the patients gain by improved health care quality leading to the successful service experience of the customer (Schnakers, et al., 2009). Waking the first surgery patients: This is an important action for the contact employees since the patients cannot miss their scheduled operation dates (Bitner, et al., 2008). The process importance in customer service experience is that when they are woken up at the right time, they get time to prepare for the operation, including having the anaesthesia in time. Giving the patients enough time to prepare before the surgery improves the service experience they encounter in the hospital (Spraragen & Carrie, 2008). Injecting patients with anaesthesia: It is an important action for the employees since they need the right doses for the patients (Neal, 2010). That is; the dose cannot be too much, such that after the surgery the patient takes longer to wake up, or does not wake up. On the other hand, it cannot be too small here the patients may wake-up during the surgery. Thus, it is one of the most critical actions of the front stage employees actions and guarantees the service experience of the customer at the hospital (Miller, 2010). Physical Elements The blueprint reveals physical evidence of the Shouldice Hermia Center include the waiting room, the recovery room (where they sleep) and the operating room. The physical elements mainly place in marketing affect the perception of an individual regarding the expected services to expect from such a facility (Lovelock, et al., 2011). The waiting room is the service area where the customers get admitted to the hospital. This section plays a major role on the customer experience the customers should expect in the entire hospital and other staff members. The medical declaration the customers answer determines the rest of the processes in the hospital. The physical evidence of the waiting room provides the customers with a warm and satisfactory environment. It influences the customer experience by increasing their expectations and ensuring they can trust and rely on the staff. That is; such elements appeal to the customer, which are perceived as a pocess of marketing to the customer through the services offered (Fisk, et al., 2008). The recovery rooms where they sleep, as depicted in the pictorial guide provided, are very comfortable. The quality of these rooms stipulates that the customers will have a pleasant experience in the hospital (Shouldice Hospital, 2016). They are treated as guests, where all their needs are met, and less stress on where to sleep, or quality of the services. Thus, customer service is influenced since the recovery room stipulates that the patients received a patient focused care. The operating room is one of the most important rooms in the hospital since that is where all the action takes place (Cardoen, et al., 2010). As presented in the blueprint, the room influences the customer experience since it is more about ensuring operational efficacy in the hospital. When patients go for a surgery and nothing is missing or limited during the operations, they experience successful operations. Thus, the customers are satisfied with the operations improving their experience in the hospital (Catchpole, et al., 2008). Fail Points Perception of customer illness Questions are not clear Referral with a poor judgment Misinterpretation poor communication Employees do not help answer the questions Fail points above lead to misdiagnosis and mistreatment One of the main possible fail points is during the process of determining the Hermia to decide the treatment. According to the information provided above in the blueprint, the treatment is dependent on the medical declaration that the customers provide. Thus, the declaration of the customer maybe misguided giving symptoms for other dealing. Since the next step is dependent on the declaration, the client may take some lightly when they actually should be urgent leading to the development of problem due to the failure of recognizing the misguided information. Consequently it leads to the fail point of misguided patients that give poor risk signs (Lovelock, et al., 2011). Some patients go through the internet when feeling in pain, where the internet may misinform them of the condition they are currently suffering. The information from the internet will guide how the patient answers the questionnaire, which is misguided since the patient will be giving a positive diagnosis of what they read in the internet. On the other hand, the patient may have been seen a doctor who is not efficient or informed on such situations. Thus, the patient will consider any suppositions by the referral doctor during the questionnaire declaration, which leads o misdiagnosis. On the other hand, another critical fail point that develops is the mistreatment based on the misguided and misdiagnosis from the phase of determining the type of Hermia and risk signs that a patient has. More importantly, the patient maybe suffering from a headache or normal pains that day, that may influence the treatment and questionnaire declaration. Thus, the entire process leads to a serious problem of mistreatment, which can be linked to negligence of the hospital (Schnakers, et al., 2009). Possible Solutions The Shouldice Hospital is a well spoken off hospital that provides sufficient health care to its customers. Based on the service blueprint provided of the hospital, it is clear that the hospital meets the needs of the customers while increasing their satisfaction (Wilson, et al., 2012). However, based on the possible fail points presented above, the hospital needs to improve its services to solve such problems that may occur in the business. The fail points observed above derive from the point of determining the Hermia the patients suffer from. The process of determination is linked to the questionnaire declaration that the patients answer. The declaration maybe misguided due to many possible causes as presented in the fishbone diagram above. The main solution that the hospital may use to eliminate such fails from happening is using a screening process to determine the Hermia of an individual first before the declaration. That is; when the patients are admitted to the hospital and provide their contacts they should go directly to see a specialist who can use his/her questionnaire to evaluate the patient. Depending on the analysis, the patients can then be sent to a screening room where they are critically evaluated and later provided with the questionnaire declaration that will be compared with other results before an analysis or setting the date of the operation. Recommendations I recommend the usage of a service planning tool to improve the services offered by the hospital though they provide satisfactory customer experiences to the patients. The focus recommendation is that the hospital should evaluate all the process and actions that the employees undertake using a cause and effect analysis that will assist them in identifying possible fail points they did not recognize earlier. The process would be beneficial in ensuring that the processes the employees and customers take to the next stage (action) are thoroughly considered and evaluated where the advantage and disadvantage (fail point) of each action is considered and improved where necessary. Conclusion The service blueprinting process as presented is an effective tool for identify the best ways to improve customer satisfaction and experience in any business. For instance, as the study presents, through blueprinting, the Shouldice Hospital can identify the processes that ensure customer experience in their care is exceptional, and those that can be improved for increased customer satisfaction. It is important to differentiate between customer and employee actions in an organization while providing the frontstage and backstage actions to identify effectively, which stages need improvement. In the business world, service printing could be used to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty based on the satisfaction they currently attain (Wilson, et al., 2012). It could assist in identification of market target groups, and their needs, which is then used to improve the services they offer, and consequently the business profits. Service blueprinting is an important strategy to analyze the service processes used in businesses while identifying where improvement or changes are necessary. Such changes lead to high/improved financial performance of the organizations. References Bitner, M. J., Amy, L. O. & Felicia, N. M., 2008. Service blueprinting: a practical technique for service innovation. California management review, 50(3), pp. 66-94. Cardoen, B., Erik, D. & Jeroen, B., 2010. 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Journal of Translational Medicine, pp. 2 - 35. Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V. & Bitner, M. G. D. D., 2012. Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm. New York: McGraw Hill. Appendix Shouldice Hernia Center Service Blueprint Customer Actions Front Stage Backstage Support Processes Read More