Service blueprint shows the pains of delivering membership

In January 2018, I began my new role as Digital User Experience Manager at State Library Victoria. My first task was to map the current experience of joining the Library, both from offsite and onsite. However, user pain points and experience data were lacking.

Research

I performed a heuristic review of membership artifacts and backstage processes. Also, I gathered data from internal sources:

• Conversations with key stakeholders
• YouTube channel content
• Google Analytics reports

Instead of a customer journey map, I analysed and synthesised this data to create a service blueprint¹ that shows the processes involved in becoming a Library member. The blueprint exposes inefficient internal processes of how the business delivers membership.

Where journey mapping focuses on exposing the end-to-end of your customer’s front stage experience, blueprinting focuses on exposing the surface-to-core of the business that makes up the backstage and behind the scenes of how you deliver and operate, and ties that to the customer’s experience.

The difference between a journey map and a service blueprint by Erik Flowers and Megan Erin Miller

Initiate phase

The journey of becoming a member starts with people either self-directed or staff-mediated. Through the website, people navigated to a registration form. Onsite, people were directed to the registration form on a dedicated computer at a staffed registration desk.

Web form

Next, users completed a web form that lacked optimisation for touch devices. Completing sign-up on a mobile device took 40 seconds longer than a desktop device!

Thankfully the web form HTML and server-side technologies were bespoke. This gave our Digital Experience team the freedom to explore and innovate. Over the upcoming months, I designed, tested and iterated on the form. I lead mobile form improvements and other usability enhancements.

Member card collection choice

A branching question on the form asked people how they’d like to receive their membership card, with options:

• At the Library.
• By post.

The vast majority, 77%, chose to receive their card by post. Choosing postal delivery means:

• Travelling to the Library is unnecessary.
• Finding your way through complex buildings to a registration desk is avoidable.
• Interacting with staff is not required.

However, delivery by post is slow. Despite postal delivery being a self-service method, it required enormous internal manual processing efforts.

Manual processing

At the Library

Only 23% chose to collect their membership card at the Library.

1. New members had to present identification to the staff.
2. Then staff grab a plastic card from stock, and adjust a record in a computer system.
3. Last, the staff would hand the card to the new member.

By post

Backstage, staff manually removed spam registrations. Next, they also intervened to resolve incomplete or incorrect addresses.

Then staff would:

1. Retrieve a plastic card.
2. Make record adjustments in a computer system.
3. Match the card with the corresponding named and addressed envelope.
4. Pack in a welcome letter.

Then a batch of memberships were taken to dispatch. On business days, Australia Post would start the delivery.

Welcome in the mail

Then, members who chose postal delivery received both their card and a welcome letter. Some time ago the welcome letter was personalised with the member’s name. Not any longer. It also wasn’t customised. Members from other states and territories got the same messages about accessing e-resources as those residing in Victoria. However, accessing e-resources is a privilege that only Victorians are eligible for!

Customer time to membership benefits

Once a member has their card number, they can begin accessing benefits. For people onsite, joining only took a few minutes once they’d found their way to the registration desk. However, for Victorians to receive their card in the post took between 2 to 6 days.

Results of sharing the blueprint

This service blueprint shows opportunities for improvement at each stage and particularly around postal delivery of membership.

… you might be losing tremendous amounts of time, money, and employee morale … by using inefficient and painful internal processes.

— Erik Flowers and Megan Erin Miller

Although a web form and database existed, membership delivery was laden with manual processes and paper and plastic materials. Delivering membership was ripe for digital transformation.

After sharing the blueprint with stakeholders in June 2018, I led a self-service digital transformation project which introduced:

• Digital distribution of membership.
• Fast delivery of member benefits.
• Automation of manual processes.

In future posts, I’ll describe key aspects of the project, including manual accessibility testing of the web form wizard. With over 20,000 registrations every year, this simple transaction fits a sweet spot for digital self-service.

Footnotes

1. Marquez | Service Design: An Introduction to a Holistic Assessment Methodology of Library Services | Weave: Journal of Library User Experience ↩︎