Business Finance Homework Help

Objective:  

To develop a thorough understanding of service blueprinting by analyzing the service process for a given service company and graphically capturing the process on paper.

Directions:

This assignment is to seek out a service provider and develop a service blueprint. The project should focus on a business, school, or nonprofit—just one small division/department of one.  The intent of the project is to construct a thorough, detailed service blueprint for the chosen service provider. In order to ensure we do not have teams blueprinting firms from the same industry, and in order to receive full credit for this assignment, topics must be approved by the instructor.  (Approvals will be made on a first-come, first-serve basis.) You must also confirm that the provider will allow them to take pictures of the service process and/or physical evidence by this date.

Requirements:

Graphical Portion of Service Blueprint. This assignment is expected to allow students to demonstrate (a) an understanding of the blueprint concepts from class and (b) an ability to apply them in looking at a specific service provider. Each blueprint should include the components listed in Chapter 9. Blueprints should have all lines clearly labeled, and arrows should be included in your blueprint to indicate the order of activities. Potential bottlenecks or failpoints in the service delivery process should also be identified. 

Visual/Pictorial Portion of the Service Blueprint. To complement the graphical portion of the service blueprint, each student is expected to visit the business/university office/department chosen and to visually capture the different steps (customer or employee actions) of the service delivery process and the various components of physical evidence that customers experience. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to take pictures with a digital camera.  Students should secure permission to take pictures of the service process from management of this service provider prior to constructing the blueprint. Hyperlinks should be included in the graphical portion of the service blueprint to each digital image. There is no fixed number of images required, but a minimum of 5 images (in jpeg format) would seem reasonable for most service blueprints; a larger number of images would certainly be encouraged. 

Written Assignment. In addition to the actual blueprint, each student is to write a short paper (1-2 pages, double-spaced) that addresses the following issues:

(1) describe why this business/school/nonprofit was selected to blueprint;

(2) describe three key elements of physical evidence revealed in the blueprint (photos/images of these elements should be included in the visual portion of the blueprint) and discuss how they influence the customer’s experience;

(3) identify, number, and describe three potential failpoints (points in the process where problems may occur) and/or bottlenecks (points in the process where backups or slow delivery may occur);

(4) suggest possible solutions/alternatives to address these (potential) problem areas;

(5) discuss how a service blueprint might be used in each of the following areas in this organization:  marketing, human resource management, and operations;

(6) discuss what was learned in doing this assignment and how it could be applied in the business world.

Electronic Submission of Assignment. Both the blueprint and the paper should be submitted in electronic format by attaching to the assignment link in Blackboard. Blueprints can be (and have been) created using a variety of software products. The most commonly used tools include PowerPoint, MicroSoft Word, and MicroSoft Excel. (The final version of any files submitted must be in PC format only; no Mac files will be accepted, as the instructor has no easy way to open and read such files).

Formatting Guidelines for paper:

1” margins

12 pt. Ariel font

Double spaced

Use headings as appropriate

Cite Sources

Use APA style

My service provider is about a university, you can choose any one small division/department as you like, then I can change the name.