The Peculiarities of Blueprint of KFC

A service blueprint is a picture or map that accurately portrays the service system so that the various people involved in providing it can understand and deal with it objectively irrespective of their roles or individual perspectives. The service blueprint which is shown in this section demonstrates the operations conducted in a similar manner among all the KFS's. The service blueprint plays the role as a platform for successful decision-making It aids in identification of the drivers for providing high-quality service which is known as 'customer-focused process. This is a tool that helps to find ways to deliver superior service and build optimal customer experiences. The figure below is the KFC's blueprint. It is used to ensure that all variables are present. It is also to identify the parts of service failure. It shows the different internal actors and inter-relationships in customer service with their different actions. The current blueprint includes five aspects. Those five are the customer actions, aspects of the front stage and backstage, physical evidence and support process.

The physical evidence is the restaurant's external appearance and includes the layout, decoration, bins, tables and chairs, the menu display, lighting, advertisement, Website, Music, LCD TV and Carpark, which is also known as on-stage elements. These elements would the first to be observed by the customers. The backstage elements would be the kitchen process, where the preparation of food takes place and that includes cleaning too. The support process would be the website management, coordination with suppliers and the customer service department.

The restaurant's front-stage operations include customer actions, on-stage technology actions and on-stage contact with employees. The restaurant's customer actions involve selecting the food item from the large menu display over the counter and standing in the queue for placing an order. The customer makes payment, receives the receipt of the order and is waits until the food is prepared. They collect their order and picks up napkin and straws, choose the best place to sit and leave the restaurant after they've done, disposing of the plates in the dustbin or to leave the left over at the table. Customer service staff's function is to greet and interact with visitors and assist them by providing information on new offers or combo meals or in making a decision for food choice, accompanied by payment and billing. They must provide the transaction's invoice and include payments via coupons or vouchers. Some of the on-site staff are involved in serving the food, cleaning the bins, tables and safekeeping. Employees are also advised to seek feedback from customers to meet their standards. In the restaurant, the front stage and the backstage functions take place concurrently, and the interrelationship is shown in the blueprint above.

The backstage

KFC's backstage tasks includes maintaining fresh food stocks (importation of food products, daily procurement of fresh vegetables such as tomato and onions etc), tracking inventory (frozen / frozen) conditions (correct refrigeration of perishable goods and soft drinks), safekeeping, online services updates (indirect contact between staff and customer) and menu boards, and dining area cleaning and maintenance. The members of the backstage are the cooks, the prep staff, and the cleaning crew. The front and back staff are well equipped to provide exemplary hospitality service and provide food in lesser than one minute. The employees in the backstage are also responsible for the reusable items such as plate and cup dishes. They will need to wash them and store them for other customers usage.

Physical evidence

The capacity and atmosphere in which the service is delivered, both tangible goods that help to interact and execute current service and intangible experience of the current customers, and the ability of the organization to convey customer satisfaction to potential custome. Printed or media advertisements, KFS’s official website, music played in the outlet, LCD screens which shows current deals, carpark facilities, dining area and counter service are the physical evidence of the KFC based on the current blueprint. This are also which the customers experiences before and after they walk in.

Customer actions

The visualization of customer actions reveals customer's interactions with KFC'S product and services. Customers will first visit the website to locate the nearest outlet at convenience, check the operating hours, choices in deals in the menu and other necessary information. Secondly, upon their entry into the outlet, they experience the atmosphere and procced to look through the menu once again. Thirdly, to place the order and payment. Lastly, to wait at the counter to receive the food and after which to either dine in or to pack to go and leave the restaurant once done. For dine in customers as they leave, some leave their left-over food in the table and some clears by throwing at the bins placed around the outlet.

Support system

The support processes are known to be separated from the contact employees by the internal line of interaction. These are all tasks carried out by people and teams within the company who are not contact staffs but need to be carried out in order to provide the service. The support processes from the blueprint are responsible for the company's information systems taking its responsibility for, for instance, website creation to communicate with their customers and employment. The website provides information about the products, services, ordering, details and locations in the storefront of KFC. Inventory check and placing orders to suppliers to stock up inventory, pricing and handling customer’s feedback with response also falls under support processes.

The 'moments of truth happens at the very moment when a contact is made with the customer (directly or indirectly via mail, telephone or website), which then gives an impression about the organization. The opinions formed may be both negative or positive based on the experience of the customer. The atmosphere of KFC, staff appearance and service quality, hospitality are all the “moments of truth”. The optimistic moments of truth include the attitude of politeness towards the customers by the employees, a clean environment, high food quality, product choice, culture and very little waiting time that produces a positive image for any KFC customer. Furthermore, customers are pleased that all KFC outlets located in the popular areas are easily accessible. For the organization and its customers, the other important moment of truth is the competitive pricing strategy selling the discounted hot deals. The value pricing and bundle strategies expanded the base of the consumer. An example would be the ‘for sharing’ options which serves more than 5 people at a discounted price which has elevated the sales volume. KFC has succeeded in creating excellent customer experience by recognizing the 'reality of the whole process of service delivery and its various stages revealed to customers'. An example would be the welcoming atmosphere with great music and dining area. This has opened up opportunities for KFC to sustain customers in the long run. In both external consumer orientation and internal customer attention, KFC is active. This provides the consumers with more clarity in the process to show their back operations. It has helped to create a successful service brand for the organization This is evident, as most customers prefer to eat at the restaurant than to take home the package. Furthermore, KFC has comprehensive marketing strategies, its advertisements ending with 'Finger Lickin ' Good' emotional expressions and eye-catching visuals, draw millions of customers. Managing this moment of truth is a major challenge for the organization in service marketing.

Although KFC has succeeded based on many aspects as mentioned, their customer service needs to be improvised. Based on the mystery shopping experience in an outlet, it was observed that employees at the counter was not enthusiastic about their job has silence was observed with rude greeting. Their communication and coordination between the frontstage and backstage also lack. The waiting period to receive the order seemed long and cleanliness of the dining area was not well maintained.

Critique of service delivery blueprint

KFC, has a wide array of strengths. Those strengths include best locations with easy access, good atmosphere with good music, well maintained dining area, good branding and delivery system and positive image among consumers with consistency in service and good media and printed advertisements. With regard to employee cleanliness and the physical environment, customers found employees dressed professionally and well represented KFC's brand, and the restaurant atmosphere was generally clean as well. These small but contentious problems have a significant impact on future purchasing motives of the consumer.

This consistency however, does not apply to service delivery by employees at the outlet the mystery shopping was conducted. With the current blueprint, it shows areas of fail points, with long waits, lack of communication and coordination within employees and rude greeting gestures by the employees at the counter. Based on the reflected timeline in the blueprint, the service was generally fast with delivering the food but that wasn’t the case for every customer as the employees was not aware of the stocks in the inventory and the customers has to be told out of stock after some time of wait which was also an unnecessary wait for the customers.

As a follow up, alternative food options were given to the customers as payment was already made. This is seen in two ways. Firstly, there’s an excess demand, where the demand exceeds the available stock which resulted in some loss of business and customers had to be turned away and secondly, the demand exceeding the optimum capacity level, although alternate options was given to the customers, there is still a reduction in perceived service quality.

Situations like these affects not only that outlet in particular but the brand as a whole. This may be the result of mismanagement. Mismanagements in forms of poor employment method/style, poor employee training and poor customer handling etiquettes at an active operational outlet which also includes queue management.

Recommendations for change

• Usage of technology channel, to implement a mobile application for KFC. The mobile application should allow customers to place orders for dine in, take-away and delivery and also payments options of payment at counter following the collection of food with cash or card and payment within the application itself. To place orders for dine-in, customers will have to scan a QR code placed around the outlet and to receive a message for collection of food at the counter. For take-aways, customers may place the orders through the application and choose a collection point at convivence with a specified time for collection and orders to be made at least 30 minutes in advance prior to collection for preparation.
• To increase the number of full-time and part-time qualified employees through proper hiring process/system and to hire additional staffs during busy seasons to maintain sufficient manpower to handle heavy flow.
• To provide proper training for all employees before the commencement of work and refreshments courses in between their period of work. For example, after every six months, staffs will have to attend a refresher course. Cross-training would also be of great help for KFC, as through that training, when required, employees whom can perform various functions can be transferred to bottleneck points. With training and empowerment of frontstage and backstage personal to control quality with above average wages, with intensified selection effort, extensive training, with employee satisfaction and positive service attitude comes high service quality which results in high profit margin.

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