MKTG2023 Chap.12 The Service Audit, Blueprint Lab and Capstone
The Service Audit, Blueprint Lab and Capstone
The audit and the lab
Task 2, the AI-augmented service audit, is an individual report of up to 1,500 words built on at least 200 customer reviews of a publicly reviewed brand, analysed for sentiment and topics, benchmarked against your own reading and turned into improvements supported by at least five peer-reviewed sources.
Task 3, the Service Blueprint + Servicescape Lab, is a group recording and handout on one real provider, combining a blueprint, a physical and digital servicescape analysis from a two-hour field observation, and literature-grounded fixes for its fail-points.
The consulting capstone
Task 4 is a 3,000-word consulting report answering a simulated client brief, shaped by three client meetings, with at least ten peer-reviewed sources and a 500-word reflective post-review from each student.
The peer review
Task 5 is an individual peer review linked to the capstone, worth 5% and submitted through Canvas.
The sprint and the defence
Task 6 is a ten-minute group presentation of a service-improvement project with a non-commercial community entity, followed by individual viva-style questions in which each student’s mark rests on their own answers and no AI is allowed.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The AI-augmented service audit
- 02
Benchmarking AI insights against your own reading
- 03
Blueprint, servicescape and fail-points
- 04
The consulting capstone and client meetings
- 05
Peer review and statements of contribution
- 06
The improvement sprint and the oral defence
Worked example · free
Plan the last fortnight of assessed work
- 1Week 11 brings the third Task 4 client meeting, so the report’s recommendations should be tested there.
- 1Task 5, the peer review, closes at 22:00 on Friday 30 October 2026 through Canvas.
- 1Task 4 closes at 23:59 the same evening through Turnitin, with its disclosure and contribution statements.
- 1Task 6 follows in Week 13 or 14, so presentation rehearsal starts once Task 4 is submitted.
Key terms
- AI-Augmented Service Audit
- Task 2 report in which customer reviews are analysed with AI tools, checked against human interpretation and turned into evidence-based improvements.
- Service Blueprint
- Map of a service process that separates the front stage customers see from the backstage support behind it, used to locate fail-points.
- Fail-Point
- Step in a customer journey where the service is likely to go wrong, such as unclear fees, waiting or a complaint nobody owns.
- Statement of Contribution
- Signed record, agreed by every group member, of what each person contributed to a group or pair task.
- Oral Defence
- Individual viva-style questioning after the Task 6 presentation, worth 10% and marked only on the student’s own answers.
The Service Audit, Blueprint Lab and Capstone FAQ
What does benchmarking AI insights against human interpretation mean in Task 2?
It means comparing what your sentiment and topic analysis tool reports with what you conclude from reading the reviews yourself, and explaining where they agree and differ. The task rates AI Green because it is the analytical engine, but the prompts log must show iterative refinement and checks for accuracy, bias and hallucination.
How should a group choose a provider for the blueprint lab?
Pick a real, publicly accessible provider with a visible customer journey that the group can observe for the required two hours, and narrow it to one focal journey. The Week 4 workshop warns that a whole chain is too broad and suggests something observable, such as ordering and collecting lunch at one outlet.
What does the capstone report have to contain?
It frames the client’s service problem, analyses it with at least ten peer-reviewed sources, proposes evidence-based recommendations and includes a 500-word reflective post-review from each student. The 3,000 words exclude the title page, contents, references and appendix, and work past the limit is not read.
What happens in the Task 6 presentation?
Each Task 3 group gives a ten-minute in-class presentation, in Week 13 or Week 14, on a small service-improvement project carried out with a non-commercial community entity such as an ANU club or a volunteer-run service. The convener stops the talk at the time limit, and individual questioning of each member follows straight away.
Assessment move
Keep one shared folder for the group with the Week 4 templates, field notes from the observation, the client meeting notes and a running prompts log. For every recommendation, record the theory and the source that support it as you go. Before the defence, have each member explain a section they did not write, out loud and under time pressure.
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