PYB300 Chap.6 Service Models and Client Journey Maps
Service Models and Client Journey Maps
A service model shows how a program and all its elements will be delivered, and a client journey map shows how that delivery feels to the person using it.
This chapter follows the service model workshop in Week 6 and the tutorial that revisits it in Week 8: the unit's six-step template from eligibility to evaluation, a published Queensland government service model read stage by stage, and a journey map whose dips reveal barriers to engagement the design must answer.
What this chapter covers
- 01
What a service model shows and explains
- 02
Diagram plus written explanation, and their suggested lengths
- 03
The template steps: eligibility, entry, intake, services, exit, evaluation
- 04
Common elements: values, outcomes and staff roles
- 05
Reading a published service model stage by stage
- 06
Client journey maps: actions, thoughts and feelings
- 07
Using the journey map to find barriers to engagement
Worked example · free
Explain the intake stage of a service model
- 1Eligibility: young people aged 12 to 17 who provide regular unpaid care for a family member.
- 1Entry points: referral by school wellbeing staff or the organisation's family counselling service, or self-referral through a short online form.
- 1Intake: within five school days, the coordinator meets the young person privately to confirm eligibility, hear what caring involves and agree two goals, then, with consent, arranges a check-in with one trusted staff member.
Key terms
- Entry point
- A route by which a client reaches a service, such as referral from an existing service, an external agency, promotion or self-referral.
- Intake assessment
- The stage at which eligibility is confirmed and a client's needs, goals and preferences are assessed to plan their support.
- Outward referral
- Connecting a client to another service at or after exit when ongoing support is needed.
- Touchpoint
- A moment of interaction between a client and a service, plotted in order on a journey map.
- Warm handover
- A supported transfer to ongoing services in which the next provider is introduced rather than simply named.
- Barrier to engagement
- Anything that makes a client less likely to start or continue with a service, such as waiting, cost, distance or uncertainty.
Service Models and Client Journey Maps FAQ
How long should the service model be?
The writing guide suggests a one-page diagram and a written explanation of no more than one to one and a half pages. A Week 6 note adds that the explanation can be quite short if the diagram already contains text and the design is fairly simple. The picture and the words should work together, and the image has to be sharp.
What must a client journey map include?
A clear diagram of the client's journey and experience through the service, and a concise written explanation of no more than one paragraph. Its explanation should say how the service responds to client needs and lowers the obstacles to taking part. The map sets out, in time order, what the client does, thinks and feels, and what gets in the way, at each contact point.
Should evaluation appear in the service model?
Yes. The unit's template ends with an evaluation step asking what you would evaluate and what evidence would show the service had worked, and the guide describes the diagram as running from client entry through to service exit and evaluation. Showing where data is collected at each stage also links the model to your evaluation plan.
Where can I see a real service model?
One of the topic resources is the Accessible Pathways Home Project service model, published in 2025 by the Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works for public release. Its navigation stages, from referral and intake through pathway planning, transition and maintenance to a final review at exit, show the shape a complete model takes.
Exam move
Draft the service model only after the program description and logic are settled, because the guide notes you cannot write it without a solid understanding of the program. Answer the template's six questions in writing first, then draw the diagram from those answers.
Build the journey map from your persona and walk through every touchpoint asking what the person does, thinks and feels; wherever the feeling drops, add a design response to the model. Keep the two documents side by side when you edit so they stay consistent.
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