Any service constitutes of processes that are visible to the customers and has processes that are invisible to the customers. Line of visibility provides us with the segregation between these processes that customers can actually see and ones that stay hidden from the customer eye. This segregation isn’t always done very analytically and sometimes it turns out to be an aspect least studied and highly ignored while designing the service. Question here is does line of visibility have any co-relation with the desirability of a service? In other words, is it possible that manipulating line of visibility would lead to improvement in desirability of the service? This is the question we will ponder over in this article.

One industry that can be immediately cited and considered as an example in this regard is the restaurant industry. Often the customer visibility ends with giving the order to the waiter. He has no idea about the hygiene levels in the kitchen, the quality of vegetables, or whether the food served to him is safe for consumption or not. If the person is busy in interaction with his partner, is he even interested in knowing what happens between the point order was placed and the point food got served? Some restaurants believe customer does care and so they make use of open-kitchen strategy to attract attention to the way they cook food. Kitchens can get messy while cooking but still in open-kitchens the cooks stay right in front of the public eye; not just to display their confidence, cleanliness, mastery and efficiency in the manner they cook but also because customers gain entertainment value from watching them cook food expertly. Who won’t love the sight of the cook swirling Roomali-roti high in the air before it is served? It increases our appetite and consequently our delight which ultimately boosts restaurant sales. There are many famous examples in Indian context too, like Bade Miya stall in Mumbai where though the entire restaurant is in the open; people flock in huge numbers simply because unknowingly visibility enriches the experience of dining. Isn’t consuming food is often about the ‘experience’ of it?

In hotel industry, for example, if the cleaning staff cleans the room under the roving eye of the customer then the feedback is immediate and it causes speedy improvement in the quality of the process. This is because it leads to higher customer involvement and their active interaction in monitoring the process. It is logical that some services are kept more visible – ones that directly affect the customers. Say in case of restaurants, cooking food is a process which is of direct consequence to the customers and hence its visibility is well-justified.

But there is an aspect of extra cost added due to the increase of visibility in forms of higher maintenance, use of IT or training to the employees. For example, open kitchens must be well-furnished and well-designed as they are always in the public eye and cooks should be paid more to be hygienic at all times. This extra operating cost can be a huge deterrent for improving the visibility and transparency of the service as economies of scale is not achieved. It takes time and energy to interact with the individual customer.

Courier services have made their transit processes very transparent. Customers can know exactly and accurately the status of their package – whether it is in transit and the location it has reached. This helps to take care of their anxiety as it may be very important for the customer that the package safely reaches its destination in time.

If customers are given an option of increased visibility then there is significant improvement in the area of technical processes too. Say for example, if customer has lodged a complaint to Telecom department over the unsatisfactory functioning of our land-line phone, then he would certainly like to keep track of the status of his complaint. More information can make the customer connect more with the complexities of the problems, the culture and the environment within which the services are being provided. Observing the professionalism and concern of employees can increase his confidence in the service. Since he knows his request is being attended to and can follow the progress of his service request, quality improves, understanding is achieved and ultimately there is higher desirability towards the service.

Higher visibility has significant benefits but the quantum of the benefit depends on and varies according to the nature of the service. However it is a very good way to improve customer participation which is an essential component and ingredient of any service. Service designer should experiment more with the line of visibility to study the impact it can have on that particular service and take an extra moment to contemplate on: Is the line of visibility placed too high in the service blueprint for my service?

Author: Ameya Anil Tikekar, IIM Kozhikode 2010-2012.

References:

Where is your line of visibility?, Neil McBride,

Centre for IT Service Management, De Montfort University