A Service Process Audit is a simple technique for gathering and compiling information from employees and customers about a process. Human resource (HR) managers sometimes evaluate the performance of employees by surveying their managers, co-workers, subordinates, and even customers in what has come to be known as 360-degree evaluation. A Service Process Audit is similar in that we are documenting and evaluating a process from multiple perspectives.
A Service Process Audit assesses customer and employee perceptions about their experience with the given process being studied. Where possible, it should involve interviewing multiple employees and multiple customers. A Service Process Audit interview includes three parts:
- Have them describe the given process from their perspective.
- Have them identify parts of the process that they think customers would consider valuable.
- Have them identify parts of the process that are burdensome or problematic.
The three parts are described in Essentials of Service Design and Innovation – in chapter 6 of the 4th edition or chapter 21 of the 3rd edition.
A Service Process Audit can be conducted using the Service Process Audit survey instrument.
Information from that survey instrument can be turned into a PCN Diagram with the PCN Wizard (Beta version 0.4). Note that the PCN Wizard is Beta and undocumented at this time. Effort is in place to develop the wizard further.