This is VISUALdocumentation and analysis of service processes

SINTEF ICT

June 2016

This work by the VISUAL project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Content

• About VISUAL– Key facts

– Who can use this material?

– Project partners

– How to make diagrams?

• Introducing VISUAL– Modelling approach

– Customer journeys and touchpoint typology

– Overview of diagrams

• Symbols

• Customer journey diagram

• Swimlane diagram

• Customer experience in VISUAL

• More advanced use of VISUAL

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Key facts• VISUAL is an innovation project financed by the Research council

of Norway from October 2012 to June 2016.

• The fundamental goal of VISUAL was to develop a formal language for specification and visualization of service processes.

• VISUAL consists of terminology, diagrams, methods and tools.

• VISUAL is particularly targeting service processes that are technology-driven, standardized, and repeated in high volumes.

• VISUAL is well suited for service processes extending over time, being mediated by different communication channels.

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Customer Journey Modelling Language (CJML) is the formalized part of VISUAL. CJML is a domain specific language for detailed and unambiguous modelling of service processes.

Who can use this material?

• VISUAL should appeal to people working with service delivery or service innovation, independent of their role and background.

• You can use this material under the following conditions:

– It is licensed under the Common Creative license CC BY-SA 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike4.0 International License.

– Read more about the project and download the Visio stencils here: www.visualproject.org

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Project partners

• Halogen AS (project owner)– Halogen is Norway's leading consultancy in service design.

Please contact Halogen for any assistance with your customer journeys. Contact person: Lasse Pedersen (lasse.pedersen<at>halogen.no)

• SINTEF (R&D partner and project leader)– The development of VISUAL has been driven by SINTEF in close cooperation

with the project partners. The iterative development has been based on feedback collected through empirical case studies and evaluation activities. Contact person: Ragnhild Halvorsrud (ragnhild.Halvorsrud<at>sintef.no).

• Hafslund Strøm (industry partner)

• FINN.no (industry partner)

• DIPS ASA (industry partner)

• Linköping University, Sweden (R&D partner)

• Please visit www.visualproject.org for more information.

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How to make diagrams?

• You can simply copy-paste the graphical elements in these slides and modify for your own use.

• The graphical elements are also available as a set of stencils in Visio and Omnigraffle.

• You can download the graphical elements, PowerPoints or stencils from the project web site: www.visualproject.org

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VISUAL

Introducing VISUAL

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VISUAL

• VISUAL targets only the part of the service process that can be encountered by the customer (or end user, consumer, citizen etc.)

• VISUAL addresses the detailed interactions between a customer and one or more service providers.

• VISUAL describes service processes both in its hypothetical state (planned journey) and as it is experienced in a real context (actual journey).

• VISUAL supports service processes involving more than one customer (e.g. C2C services), or a network of service providers.

• VISUAL differs from other diagrammatic languages in two principal ways:

– It models the service process from the customer's point of view

– It aims at being intuitive for all users, and does not require a technical background

The states of a service

The VISUAL language distinguishes two states of a service: The planned, hypothetical service process and the actual service process resulting when a user executes the service. The two states can also be distinguished as "theory versus reality" or "static versus dynamic."

The planned service process• as intended and implemented by the service

provider - regardless of whether it was deliberately designed or resulting from an ad-hoc development process

• can be described and modelled

• may branch into sub-journeys according to conditions, e.g. choice of alternative communication channel

The actual service process• always involve an end-user and results in an

individual experience

• may deviate from the planned service process

• results in an experience which is subjective, context dependent, and may change over time

"Services exist in two different states of being.." Lynn Shostack (1982). How to design a service. Eur. J. Marketing 16, 49-63.

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What is a customer journey?

As a common method in service design, customer journey mapping is practiced in various ways. However, there are some common factors that can be identified across all approaches:

1. The journey is based on the customer's point of view2. The journey has a time dimension – or a process nature3. The journey is divided into steps

Note that a customer journey might involve both voluntary and/or mandatory aspects, and the outcome might or might not be desirable for the customer (e.g. tax reporting resulting in an additional tax payment is an example of a customer journey that is mandatory and with an undesirable outcome).

About customer journeysThe term customer journey is generally used as metaphor for taking a customer's (or a user's, consumer's, citizen's) perspective.

Customer journeys or customer journey mapping also denote a method in service design. The method is often used to express a service user's experience.

Although the method is commonly used in the service industry, it lacks a theoretical foundation and a formalization.

A customer journey is often divided into "before", "during" and "after" the service. Sometimes, the borders between these stages are not can be hard to define.

Customer journeyIn VISUAL, a customer journey is modelled as a sequence or constellation of touchpoints involved for a customer to achieve a specific goal or an outcome. The start and end of the journey must be seen in context with the purpose of the analysis.

The Customer Journey Modelling Language (CJML) is a domain specific language for modelling and visualizing a service process.

Examples

Customer journey representing a hospitality service: Going to the cinema to watch a movie. The service process comprises ordering and payment of the ticket, retrieval of the ticket, procedures at the movie theatre, and the movie itself.

Customer journey representing a health service: Having a knee surgery. The service process typically comprise a visit to the general practitioner, a MR scanning service, a consultation with a specialist, and finally the surgery. The customer has a relation to more than one service provider during this customer journey.

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Who are involved in a customer journey?

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Directly involved actorsThe actors on the left side are directly involved in delivering the service to the customer. They are responsible for (parts of) the customer's journey.

External actorsThe actors on the right side may influence the customer's journey, although they are not responsible for any part of the service delivery.

This could be the newspaper that made the customer aware of the film, or a friend who recommended the film.

In the cinema example, this is the cinema company. If they have outsourced the online ticketing system, a subcontractor is also directly involved.

Service provider

Sub-contractor

Friend

Newspaper

Customer

• Customer journeys involve complex combinations of products (tangibles), services (deeds), spaces, and information.

• The customer often see the set of service providers as "one entity," and does not distinguish (or care) about their interrelation.

Example, directly involved actors:

Example, external actors:

Touchpoints – the "atoms" of the journey

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Service provider

Sub-contractor

Friend

Newspaper

Customer

TouchpointA customer journey is modelled as sequences of steps and events that we refer to as touchpoints. Communication points are a sub-class of touchpoints that represents instances of communication or interaction between the customer and other actors. The other sub-class of touchpoints are actions, which do not involve directed communication. Actions are not part of the illustration, but will be further described.

Communication pointsCommunication points are instances of communication or interaction between the customer and other actors. Communication points forms "the backbone" of a customer journey, and they are associated with

• a sender• a receiver• a communication channel

Touchpoints

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Service provider

Sub-contractor

Friend

Newspaper

Customer

The customer sendsan e-mail to the service provider

The customer receivesan e-mail from the service provider

• The communication channel is represented by a symbol

• Touchpoints with external actors has a shaded background

A friend calls and recommends the movie

• The communication points make up the backbone of the service process, and has several important attributes that are codified in the visual notation.

• Both the direction of the communication, and the communication channel itself are made visually distinct. Communication points initiated by the customer have a different color compared to the ones initiated by the service provider.

Touchpoint typology

Directly involved actorsThe actors on the left side are directly involved in delivering the service to the customer. They are responsible for (parts of) the customer's journey.

External actorsThe actors on the right side may influence the customer's journey, although they are not responsible for any part of the service delivery.

Communication with service provider. Part of the planned journey.

Action External action

Communication with external actor (not involved in service provisioning)

Lisa grabs a shopping cart

Lisa writes a shopping list

Communication point External communication point

Action involving the service system.

Action not involving the service system.

TOUCHPOINTS INVOLVING THE SERVICE SYSTEM

TOUCHPOINTS OUTSIDE THE SERVICE SYSTEM

Direct communication Steps involving a "sender" and a "receiver" in the context of the customer's journey.

A communication channel is always involved.

No communication Steps without communication are called actions. They may or may not involve interaction with the service system.

These are the touchpoints that can be controlled (to some extent) by the service provider.

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Overview of VISUAL diagrams

Customer journey diagram Swimlane diagram

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There are two main diagram types in VISUAL for describing service delivery:

Sequential diagram: for visualizing planned and actual customer journeys with few actors involved

Deviation diagram: for visualizing actual customer journeys

Swimlane diagram: for visualizing planned and actual customer journeys with many actors involved

VISUAL

Symbols

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About the VISUAL symbols

• VISUAL contains a set of symbols to represent actors, communication points, and customer experience.

• The symbols of VISUAL serve different purposes.

– Communication point symbols represent the channel or device that carries the touchpoint. Fore some channels and devices we provide several symbols. The symbols chosen should be seen in connection to the use of symbols in the customer journey as a whole.

– Actor symbols represent the actors in a customer journey (customers, employees, service providers).

– Customer experience symbols represents the customer's subjective experience of a touchpoint, and are used only for actual journeys.

– Health care symbols are symbols related to the health domain (institutions, systems, patients, doctors, nurses, secretaries).

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Overview of all VISUAL symbols

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Communication points Health care

Service providers

Customers Customer experience

Communication point symbols (1 of 2)

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telephone conversation

SMS

e-mail

social media interaction/message

letter

face-to-face interaction

self-service machine

internet via PC

internet via tablet

internet via smartphone

invoice

payment

Communication points symbols (2 of 2)

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chat

call centre

globe/internet

app on PC

app on tablet

app on smartphone

message service

telephone

fax

PC

tablet

smartphone

online shopping

shopping

shop counter

service desk

logistics

package

technician (visit)

unknown channel/device

Actor symbolscustomers, employees, service providers

service providers

bank

online bank

store

data system

customers

employees

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Health care symbolsinstitutions, systems, patients, doctors, nurses, secretaries

patients

doctor - general practitioner

doctors

surgeons

anaesthesiologists

nurses

chief nurses

health secretaries

secretaries/receptionists

hospitals

medical practices

hospital post office

hospital computer system

patient medical record

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VISUAL

Customer journey diagramVisual elements and syntax

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Main diagram elements

start ofcustomer journey

end ofcustomer journey

communication point

connectors

action decision point

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Customer journey

• A customer journey is modelled as a sequence of touchpoints involved for a customer to achieve a specific goal or an outcome.

• The scope of a customer journey should be defined in relation to the purpose of the journey mapping:– What is the start of the customer journey?

– What is the end of the customer journey?

Communication points are instances of communication or interaction between a customer and a service provider

Actions are non-communicative events or activities conducted by a customer or service provider as part of a customer journey

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Communication point – basics • Communication points are represented as circles.

• The boundary style carries information about:

– the actor initiating the touchpoint

– the status of the touchpoint

• The symbol area holds information about which channel or device the communication point is carried through.

• The symbols are introduced in separate slides.

boundary

symbol area

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service provider customer

completed missingactual journeys only

failingactual journeys only

Actor

Status

other actor

The colour of the boundary indicates the actor initiating the communication point:

• green: service provider

• orange: customer

• purple: other actor

The boundary style indicates the status of the communication point:

• solid boundary: completed

• dashed boundary: missing

• crossed touchpoint: failing

service provider sends an e-mail to customer

customer fails to retrieve ticket

Examples

Descriptions and identifiers

Descriptions may be added to provide a contextual explanation of the situation:• We recommend to keep the communication

point description relatively short

• When rich descriptions are needed, the diagram can be accompanied by a table holding the explanations and a reference to the communication point identifier

Description

Identifier T1

<Description of T2> <Description of T3> <Description of T4><Description of T1>

T2 T3 T4

Identifiers may be added for easy referral to specific communication points. The first letter reflects the status of the communication point:• Identifiers for planned journeys

– For planned journeys: T1, T2, T3, …

• Identifiers for actual journeys– Planned communication points: E1, E2, E3, …

– Ad-hoc communication points: A1, A2, A3, …

– Missing communication points: M1, M2, M2, …

– Failing communication points: F1, F2, F3, …

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Actions

• Actions are touchpoints in the journey that do not involve communication.

• Actions are visually represented as rounded squares containing text. Actions differ from communication points by lacking the communicative aspect.

• Two types of actions may be distinguished in VISUAL:

– Actions that involve parts of the service system (e.g. grab a shopping cart at the store).

– External actions that do not involve the service system (e.g. writing a shopping list before visiting a store).

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text description text description

External action (not involving the service system)

Action (involving service system)

text area

Action

External actiontext area

Actions - examples

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Train ride

Reading the electricity meter

Visiting the store

Going to the movies

Doctor's appointment

Decision point

• Decision points are used for generic costumer journeys, and refer to points in time where a customer journey can be routed into different paths.

• Decision points are used when there are two or more path alternatives.

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Does the customer want to receive information from the service provider by e-mail?

How does the customer want to receive information from the service provider?

Examples

Journey phase

• When convenient, a customer journey can be divided into journey phases.

• Journey phase can be used for all types of journeys.

• The journey phases can be based on e.g. the location where the touchpoints are initiated, periods or phases of the journey, or other convenient ways of dividing the journey into phases.

journey phase journey phase

• Example: air travel– Phase 1: Ordering ticket online and preparing for the trip

– Phase 2: Traveling to the airport

– Phase 3: At the airport for departure

– Phase 4: At the air plane

– Phase 5: At the airport of arrival

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Timeline

• When convenient, a timeline can be introduced to the customer journey to emphasize the detailed timing of when different touchpoints occur.

• The touchpoints are positioned according to the relevant time.

• Timeline can be used for all types of journeys, but cannot be used for actual journeys that contain sequence errors.

day 1 day 3 day 8day 2

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Example journey – "going to the movies"

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• Throughout this document, the following example journey is often used to illustrate different forms and features of the customer journey diagram.

• The journey represents a simplified version of the service process for going to the movies.

• The journey involves a person ordering and paying ticket via web (T1), receiving confirmation of bought ticket via e-mail (T2) and SMS (T3), retrieving ticket at a self-service machine at the movie theatre (T4), and finally showing the ticket at the entrance (T5).

Sequential diagramexamples planned journey with features

Planned customer journey consisting of a sequence in chronological order, with a timeline

Planned customer journey consisting of a sequence in chronological order, with journey phase

Planned customer journey containing an unordered sequence (brackets)

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planned journey

Sequential diagramexamples actual customer journey

Actual journey with timeline consisting of:

• three completed expected communication point (E1-E3)

• one missing communication point (M1)

• one failing communication point (F1)

• one ad-hoc communication point (A1)

Actual journey consisting of:

• four completed expected communication points (E1-E4)

• one failing communication point (F1)

• one ad-hoc communication point (A1)

failing communication point

ad-hoc communication point

missing communication point

failingcommunication point

ad-hoc communication point

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actual journey

Deviation diagram – description

• Touchpoints are shown in two different layers. See descriptions in in figure.

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E1

M1

E2 E3

F1

A1

All the expected elements are shown in the upper level

All the deviations (ad-hoc, missing and failing touchpoints) are shown in the lower level

Missing and failing communication points that are part of the planned journey appear as grey "ghost" symbols in the upper level

Missing and failing communication points that are part of the planned journey appear in the lower "deviations" level showing status and initiator

When a deviation follows as a direct consequence of an ad-hoc, missing, or failing element, it is displayed vertically below the touchpoint it originated from (as shown in this visualization)

When a deviation touchpoint follows an ad-hoc, missing, or failing touchpoint, but is not directly connected to the previous touchpoint, it is displayed horizontally beside this touchpoint

actual journey

Deviation diagram – example 1

• Customer journey consisting of expected communication points (E1-E4), with one failing communication point (F1) that in turn generates an ad-hoc communication point (A1).

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actual journey

Deviation diagram – example 2

• Customer journey including sequence errors and one failing element (F1) that in turn generates an ad-hoc communication point (A1).

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actual journey

VISUAL

Swimlane diagramVisual elements and syntax

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• VISUALs swimlane diagram can be used to visualize planned and actual journeys with many actors involved.

• The diagram visualizes each actor's journey in separate swim lanes, containing the touchpoints.

• Time extends in the horizontal direction.

• Actors represented in the diagram can be people, organizations, or data systems. The actors should always represent an entity encountered by the customer.

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About the VISUAL swimlane diagram

Swimlane diagram – visual elements• Touchpoints are represented as rounded squares.

– Communication points contain a symbol and a text field

– Actions contain a text field only

• A communication point appear as a "vertical pair" of boxes, each representing the sender and the receiver.– the sender's box has a dark background

– the receiver's box has a white background

– an arrow indicates the direction of the communication

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Time flow

ActorsCommunication

pointAction

(no communication)Communication

pointCommunication

point

Communication point initiatorsymbol text area

Communication point receiversymbol text area

Actiontext area

Swimlane diagram - phases and comments

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• Journey phases may be added to the diagram (top).• It may be convenient to add comments, clarifications, or notes

about simplifications in a separate field (bottom).

Patient

GP

Specialist

Sends notification about the appointment

Receives SMS-reminder about the appointment

Meets at specialist clinic for an examination

Examines the patient, decides for an operation

Comment

General pract it ioner 's off ice

Simplification: this is normally taken care of by a medical coordinator at the specialists clinique

W

A

I

T

I

N

G

T

I

M

E

Out-pat ient c l in ic

Medical examination of patient => need to consult a specialist

Meets at local medical center for an appointment with GP

GP prepares and sends an electronic referral to the specialist

Receives the referral and decide to call in the patient

Receives letter with date and time for appointment

Schedules and sends letter about appointment

Date/time Date/time

Deviations in actual customer journeys

• A swimlane diagram can also be used to represent actual customer journeys with deviations from the planned journey.

• The shape's boundary style carries information about its status, as illustrated to the right.

• When it is important to outline deviations in relation to a planned journey, a customer journey deviation diagram may be more suitable.

Completed

Missing

Failing

Ad-hoc

Sender Receiver

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Swimlane diagram – Example planned journey (part 1)

Customer

Power supplier

Bank-related

Grid company

Tele-marketing

Calls the customer and offers electricity deal

Receives call from telemarketing and agrees to electricity deal

Sends request for agreement confirmation and meter reading

Receives request for agreement confirmation and meter reading

Sends agreement confirmation and meter reading

Receives agreement confirmation and meter reading

Sends info about the agreement being processed

Receives info about the agreement being processed

Customer info is sent to power supplier

Receives customer info

Readsthe meter

Planned journey of ordering electricity from a utility company.

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planned journey

Swimlane diagram – Example planned journey (part 2)

Customer

Power supplier

Bank-related

Grid company

Tele-marketing

Calls customer for a welcome call

Receives welcome call

Sends notification for meter reading

Receives meter reading notification

Sends the meter

Receives the meter reading

Readsthe meter

Sends invoice to be forwarded to customer

Receives invoice to be forwarded to customer

Receives invoice

Pays invoice

Invoice ready for customer

Receives payment

Planned journey of ordering electricity from a utility company.

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planned journey

Swimlane diagram – Example actual journey (part 1)

Customer

Power supplier

Bank-related

Grid company

Tele-marketing

Calls the customer and offers electricity deal

Receives call from telemarketing and agrees to electricity deal

Sends request for agreement confirmation and meter reading

Receives request for agreement confirmation and meter reading

Sends agreement confirmation and meter reading

Receives agreement confirmation and meter reading

Sends info about the agreement being processed

Receives info about the agreement being processed

Customer info is sent to power supplier

Receives customer info

Readsthe meter

Actual journey of ordering electricity from a utility company.

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Missing communication point: The SMS about the agreement being processed is no received

actual journey

Swimlane diagram – Example actual journey (part 2)

Customer

Power supplier

Bank-related

Grid company

Tele-marketing

Calls customer for a welcome call

Receives welcome call

Sends notification for meter reading

Receives meter reading notification

Sends the meter

Receives the meter reading

Readsthe meter

Sends invoice to be forwarded to customer

Receives invoice to be forwarded to customer

Receives invoice

Pays invoice

Invoice ready for customer

Receives payment

Actual journey of ordering electricity from a utility company.

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actual journey

Failing communication point: The customer fails to send the meter reading.

VISUAL

Customer experience

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About customer experience in VISUAL

• In VISUAL, customer or user experience is conceptualized according to research from the human-computer interaction domain; as a subjective, dynamic and context-dependent phenomenon.

• Customer experience is thus associated with actual journeys only, based on self-reported input from the individual user.

• The visual notation allows textual excerpts of self-reported data, as well as assessments of the customer experience.

• Customer experience is visualized as call-outs containing the customer's subjective account of a given event.

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Customer experience symbols• VISUAL conveys CX in two different ways:

– Textual description based on the customer's own formulation

– Symbols representing the customer's rating. Smiley symbols are used to visualize the customer's experience

• The symbols can be used to match both a 3-point and a 5-point Likert scale.

• The VISUAL language supports CX in customer journey diagrams (using callout or table), as shown in the following slides.

• The CX symbols may also be inserted directly into the diagram in the close vicinity of a touchpoint.

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1 2

very satisfiedsatisfiedneutralvery unsatisfied unsatisfied

actual journey

Customer experience – callout• Customer experience collected from interviews, questionnaires, etc. can be visualized

using simple callout containing customers' statements.

• The example shows the use of callouts to express customer experience.

• The customer experience symbol relates to how the customer has rated a touchpoint.

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It was easy to order the tickets. I just chose the movie I wanted to see, selected a seat, and put in my payment details.

Very satisfied

I don't understand why I get this information on SMS when I also received it on e-mail.

Unsatisfied

The queue for getting into the movie theatre was a bit long, but the person at the entrance was very friendly and helpful.

Satisfied

order and pay ticket via web

e-mail confirmation

SMS confirmation

retrieve ticket

ticket control at entrance

E1 E2 E3 E4 E5

actual journey

Customer experience – table

• The example shows the use of a table to express customer experience.

• Customer experience collected from interviews, questionnaires, etc. can be listed in a table.

• The table consists of the touchpoint identifier, touchpoint description, customer experience, and a touchpoint score provided by the customer.

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Label Touchpoints Customer experience ScoreE1 Order and pay via web It was easy to order the tickets. I just chose the movie I wanted to see,

selected a seat, and put in my payment details.5

E2 E-mail confirmation It was nice to get an e-mail confirming my ticket purchase. 4

E3 SMS confirmation I don't understand why I get this information on SMS when I also received it on e-mail.

2

E4 Retrieve ticket I got a bit confused because the ticket machine was not so intuitive, but it went OK and I managed to retrieve my tickets. 3

E5 Ticket control at entrance

The queue for getting the tickets was a bit long, but the person at the service desk was very friendly and helpful. 4

actual journey

order and pay ticket via web

e-mail confirmation

SMS confirmation

retrieve ticket

ticket control at entrance

E1 E2 E3 E4 E5

VISUAL

Advanced features

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Unordered touchpoint sequence

• An unordered touchpoint sequence is a group of touchpoints that can occur in an unfixed order.

• This notation is useful when visualizing customer journeys that include groups of touchpoints that occur with no pre-defined sequence.

• The notation can only be used for visualizing generic and planned journeys.

No connector between the unordered touchpoints

Brackets that group the unordered touchpoints

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Sequence error• Sequence errors denotes situations where a touchpoint occur sooner or later than it was supposed to, as

anticipated in the planned journey.

• Main guidelines for connectors when sequence errors occur:– When the sequence error consists of a "jump forward" in the sequence, the connector should start from the bottom of the

touchpoint it originates from, and end at the bottom of the following touchpoint (see connector A in the figure)

– When the sequence error consists of a "jump" backwards in the expected sequence, the connector should start from the top of the touchpoint it originates from, and end at the bottom of the following touchpoint (see connector B in the figure)

– When the sequence error originates from an ad-hoc, missing, or failing touchpoint, the connector should start to the right of the touchpoint and end at the bottom of the following touchpoint when the sequence error consists of a "jump" forwards (see connector C in the figure), and at the top when the sequence error consists of a "jump" backwards in the expected sequence

• The actual sequence of touchpoints is revealed by following the connectors, while at the same time preserving the expected sequence.

ConnectorA

ConnectorB

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actual journey

• When customer journeys include repeated sequences of touchpoints, a placeholder may be used to simplify the diagram.

• Example: A web-based marketplace that connects sellers of goods with potential buyers. The communication process between the seller and the different buyers may include the same sequence of touchpoints.

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X

X

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T9

Touchpoints T2, T3, and T4 are collected in a bracket followed by an "X". Touchpoints T6, T7 and T8 are replaced by the "X", since this sequence is the same as for T2, T3, and T4.

T6 – T8

Placeholder for a repeated sequence of touchpoints

Concurrency

• In general, a customer journey may describe both sequential and concurrent communication points and actions.

• The UML fork/join notation is used for this purpose.

• In the example below, touchpoint T3 happens simultaneously as T4 and T5 is carried out.

• A typical situation is a telephone conversation (T3), where e-mails are being exchanges during the conversation (T4, T5).

• Concurrency can be used for all types of journeys.

The second heavy bar ("join") indicates end of concurrency

T3

T4

T1 T2 T6

The first heavy bar ("fork") indicates start of concurrent touchpoints

T5

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Special situations: handling uncertainty

• In some service processes there are uncertainty in how a communication point is mediated or executed, or even if it occurs at all.

• Example: A web-based C2C-service that connects two consumers of a service. After the two actors are connected, their profile information is exchanged through the web portal. However it remains uncertain, from the service provider's perspective, who initiates the contact, the number of communications that occur between them, the communication channel, and if they communicate at all.

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Uncertain initiator:

It might be uncertain who initiates the communication point.

?

Uncertain number of occurrences:

It might be uncertain how many instances of communication occur.

Uncertainty in occurrence:

It might be uncertain if a communication point occurs or not, hence the communication point can occur, but not necessarily.

Uncertainty in channel:

It might be uncertain in which channel the communication point is mediated.

VISUAL

THE END

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