judged with respect to attractive style. Moreover,
the “blueprinting” concept that is used in operations
management was applied. The idea behind
blueprinting is to reinforce that services need to be
carefully designed as a physical product and documented
with a blueprint of its own. This technique
illustrates the virtual separation of the aspects that
are transparent to the customer (that is, front desk
activities) and those that are not (that is, back office
activities) using the “line of visibility.” Above the
line of visibility reside those characteristics that are
visible to and experienced directly by the customers.
Below this line are those characteristics that are not
visible to and are not directly experienced by the customers;
however, they would have an impact on the
characteristics that affect customer satisfaction. For
example, the service characteristics below the line of
visibility are “IT & automation system,” “customer
surveys,” “material inventory,” and “monitoring
system for reporting of broken/damaged items in
need of replacement/repair.”