IntroductionDesigning a well-defined service for a brand is becoming increasingly important in marketing channel as it captures the experience of customers and organizational employees through the physical platform, it brings possible opportunities to optimize the shopping experience between customers and the company itself. And service blueprint is a useful technique for designing and specifying intangible service processes in the business. Based on my working experience as a Fashion advisor with Chanel, for this article, I will examine how CHANEL service plays a significant role in their marketing to build customer loyalty by providing a one to one personal selling technique. The boutique, where the selling ceremony takes place, is a key element of the experience. The “5C” Chanel service approach is Care, Contact, Connect & link, Convince, and Conclude will be explaining in detail here. Besides that, I have drawn a service blueprint with Chanel “5C” service approach into a big picture to demonstrate how luxury service achieves customer satisfaction at each stage during service delivery.
Service blueprint of CHANEL
Scenario: a client comes to Chanel boutique to look for her designed collection of RTW.
What is the service blueprint? The service blueprint is a diagram or map that depicts the customer experience and service system. It can be seen as a service standard of the particular company, so that different people involved in the service delivery, regardless of their roles or personal views, can objectively understand the service. There are some components that need to be involved when drawing a service blueprint which are the customer actions, employee actions (onstage/visible), backstage/invisible contact employee actions, support processes, and physical evidence of the service. Because they are interrelated to each other which is directly linked to the touchpoints in a particular customer's shopping journey.
Let’s understand the components of the service blueprint The customer action area includes the steps, choices, activities, and interactions that customers perform in the process of purchasing, experiencing, and evaluating services. For example, the performance of the client in the Chanel boutique may ask a question or trying Chanel items during the shopping journey.
The visible employee actions are the activities of the frontline staff who serve the customer physically. For example, the Chanel fashion advisor delivers the service to the client in person for the whole service process.
The invisible employee actions are the support team behind the scene cooperate with frontline staff when serving the customers. For example, when Chanel client makes a purchase in the counter with the fashion advisor, the purchased item will be packed behind in the packaging room by a support team, it would be the staff especially doing packaging work.
The support processes section of the blueprint covers the internal services, steps, and interactions that take place to support the contact employees in delivering the service. For example, the support process of Chanel could be a registration system, preparing the drinks, cleaning the fitting room, or Chanel packaging for a client behind in providing the service delivery.
The physical evidence of the service blueprint would be such items show, and use in above each point in the service environment listed. For example, the items would be used and displayed in Chanel boutiques such as the uniform of the staff, the collection display in the boutique, the fitting room or even a bill desk, and so forth to support in delivering the service.
How Chanel “5C” Service Approach Of Service Blueprint Work Well in the Luxury Industry? 
1. Care: First, Chanel believes good preparation is 50% of success in sales and will lead to a good start of a day in delivering the service. Before the boutique opening of a day, Chanel staff need to prepare the boutique environment to ensure having enough stocks of the display collections, keep the boutique tidy as well as the beauty of the staff’s appearance in order to give a good impression to each client. However, once the clients arrive in the boutique, they would have to line up outside the window display as Chanel guarantee all the clients will get the best one to one service to satisfy their desire.
As each client would be welcomed by Chanel employees like a guest with a personalized phrase and a friendly smile when entering the boutique. As Oscar Wilde said ‘You never get a second chance to make a good first impression’. At first, the client will be taking action of window shopping around the boutique while the fashion advisor will start observing the client for around 20 seconds before approaching her. The given duration of time for a client at the beginning is to let her feel comfortable inside the boutique and enjoy the multisensory atmosphere. Besides that, keeping an appropriate distance approximately 20 steps away it would be a faster way to assist the client when she needs help since this distance will not make the client feel oppressed. For example, when customer walking to the Ready to Wear (RTW) area, the fashion advisor at this stage will follow the client behind with distance and paying attention to the client action and discovering about her style at what she says, what she looks at, what she touches, and what she wears in the boutique. By doing so, it allows the Chanel fashion advisor to know more insight into the customer so that it can give suitable advice to the client in the next following steps.
2. Contact: When the client touches the Chanel costume in the RTW area, the fashion advisor will come to approach the client by asking the question politely like “How may I assist you?”, and start to create a link between both parties. From the conversation, the fashion advisor will understand the client’s motivation coming to Chanel. For example, client motivation is to look at a specific model from the last collection. At this stage, some employee actions will take place before leaving the client to check for the designed model in the system. First, a fashion advisor will propose a drink such as juice, coffee, and tea or even snack based on the client's preference for refreshment. Second, invite the client to sit down and provide an Ipad browsing the latest 2 to 3 series collections because not all the items displayed in the boutique. By doing such an arrangement of entertainment can reduce the frustration of the client in the waiting period. Third, to be effective in delivering the service, the fashion advisor will inform a tea lady to prepare the drinks behind the scene, and deliver to the client with a luxury tray and serve together with a serviette. Hence, the client will be enjoying the luxurious treat in the comfortable sofa while waiting for the fashion advisor to get back to her.
3. Connect & Link: When the fashion advisor finds out the model is currently unavailable in the system; she will bring back the most appropriate products from the new collection in the stock. And explaining and apologizing to the client politely because of that exclusive designated model had great success and not available at the moment, so this is how the fashion advisor proposed an expanded and personalized recommendation that responds to her expectations.
Furthermore, the fashion advisor will romance a similar product (e.g. Jacket) that she brought and presents its benefits to the customer. Such as sharing the creation of the collection, (e.g. the name and the inspiration of this item relating to Chanel history). Also, sharing about the craftsmanship of traditional know-how in which the making process of the piece and the secret of the Chanel jacket (e.g. the exclusive button, chain inside the jacket could give a perfect fall). Besides, briefly talk about the material that suitable for the season, (e.g. fancy trims and buttons to embellish simple fabric). After sharing the information, the fashion advisor will invite the client to touch and try on the piece and prepare for the fittings salon. When the client is trying on the RTW, the fashion advisor will bring along the extra piece (e.g Chanel pearl necklace) from the boutique to surprise the client in order to give her a total look. By doing so, which shows her, with her desires and her story, it can go beyond what she may have imagined in the mix and match skill.
4. Convince-the fitting experience: To satisfy the client, the fashion advisor will create a link between the client and the world of Chanel which involves the client and her lifestyle at the heart of the selling point. In her total look, the fashion advisor gives the client compliments for her choice. However, there is an appropriate sentence to use while complimenting the client like saying that “this jacket highlights your personality, flatters your silhouette” rather than saying “it looks good on you”. To handle the objections, the fashion advisor will explain positively and naturally rather than just justifying to prevent the client from worrying. At first, it is to understand what the objective is of the client. At this stage, the fashion advisor evaluates the situation by questioning the client politely (e.g. “What makes you hesitate?”). Moreover, listen and agree with the client (e.g. “I understand your position”) and rephrase by the concept of self-blame like “I didn’t explain myself correctly” rather than accusation like “You didn’t understand me”. Also, the fashion advisor will find a clear solution to the client’s problem and come to an agreement.
5. Conclude – Make it happen: After solving the problem, the fashion advisor identifies the client’s decision-making moment and helps the customer commit to this decision. This is the final touch to build loyalty by setting up a long-term trusting relationship between Chanel and clients. Finalizing the sales can be explained in the following steps. First, guiding the client to the counter to make a transaction while other staff will clean up the fitting salon and take the piece to pack with a Chanel beautiful packaging. Second, creating a client book by writing down the client information for the purpose of after-sales service. Next, to maintain one to one service, the fashion advisor will deliver the packaging in a Chanel paper bag to the client herself with the little present as thanksgiving (e.g. small perfume or gift card), and inform her of the care instruction of the relevant piece as well as with the after-sales service policy.
For instance, all of the Chanel RTW has a one-year warranty and can only be dry cleaning. Finally, giving the client a business card or a brochure to offer a personalized message (e.g. It’s my pleasure to assist you”); as well as announcing when the next collection is launched, most importantly accompany the client to the door to remain elegant until the very end of her visit to make sure the client wants to come back in the future.
Conclusion Such an example of a Well-defined service blueprint of Chanel can give a clear insight into different people involved in the service process about what the luxury service is. Thinking about how to link all the elements of the service blueprint is important when coming to design the service blueprint for the company. That's because the high value of items makes customers expect a higher standard of service from the brands. Besides, the excellent service is classified as an owned channel in marketing communication and is applicable for all current and potential customers, especially it would create desire and dream for a new customer to achieve the goal of reaching beyond their expectations. This is what ‘Luxury is what you do not see, the experience is everything’. Hence, an effective service blueprint would create unforgettable indulgence shopping experiences for customers along with the positive word of mouth to the organization over the long run.
Reference
Zeithaml, VA, Bitner, MJ & Grember, DD n.d 2017, Service marketing: integrating customer focus across the firm, 7edition, McGraw-Hill Education.
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