Design and application of service blueprint for improving the service quality of franchise restaurant using walk-through audit and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)

Abstract

This study attempted to lay the foundation for empirical service quality that can detect service failures and improve service quality for efficient management of franchise restaurants that are facing intensifying competition. The service process was checked through a walk-through audit, and service quality failures at franchise restaurants were classified according to the service stage. Then, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) was used to derive the risk priority number(RPN) of each failure mode, and it was applied to the design of the service blueprint. For this, a checklist was developed based on previous studies. Then, a walk-through audit, based on the checklist from a customer perspective was conducted for 14 branches of chicken concept franchise restaurants. Finally, the service blueprint and 42 service failure modes were derived from the results of the walk-through audit. In addition, to analyze the risk degree of each service failure mode more empirically, the survey was conducted on restaurant franchise managers. The risk value was computed by multiplying the severity, occurrence, and detection of all service failure modes, and RPN were listed in order. As a result, the top risk modes were “foreign substances are found in food,” “unkind behavior and attitude of an employee,” “an employee smoking near the restaurant,” “no response or late response when calling an employee for an order,” and “unclean tableware.” Finally, by applying service failure modes with high-risk priority numbers to the improved service blueprint, the study identified the actual service failure points that may occur in the field according to the service process.