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Chap 2: Frameworks for Managing the Customer’s Experience

Objectives1. To examine the key components of the service

experience2. To describe three different frameworks that

capture the customer’s service experience: – Services marketing mix– Servuction framework– Services theater framework

3. To provide an in-depth illustration of service as theater

4. To discuss the emotional aspect of the service experience


Components of theService Experience

1. Service workers – Those who interact with customers, and those who contribute to the service delivery out of the customers' sight.

2. Service setting – The environment in which the service is provided to the customer and areas of the organization to which the customer normally has little access.


Components of theService Experience (cont’d)

3. Service customers – The persons receiving the service (e.g., the diner or the depositor) and others who share the service setting with them.

4. Service process – The sequence of activities necessary to deliver the service.


Framing the Service Experience

• Service frameworks perform several important functions:– Aid comprehension of service experiences by

describing their components. – Make communicating about diverse services much

easier since a framework may include components that are applicable to them all.


Framing the ServiceExperience (cont’d)

• The Services Marketing Mix• The Servuction Framework• The Services Theater Framework


The ServicesMarketing Mix Framework

• Adds three new Ps to the four Ps of the traditional marketing mix:– Participants are all people, whether customers and

workers, who are involved in the service production. – Physical evidence means the service environment

and other tangible aspects of the service that facilitate or communicate the nature of the service.

– Process of service assembly refers to the procedures and flow of activities that contribute to the delivery of the service.


The Servuction Framework

• The service’s invisible organization and system – Aspects contributing to the service production

beyond the customers’ view.

• The visible elements include:– The inanimate environment (the physical setting in

which the service is performed)– The contact personnel (the employees who directly

interact with the customer to provide the service)– Customer A (the customer receiving the service)

and customer B (others who may be present in the visible area)


The Servuction Framework (cont’d)

• The bundle of service benefits a customer receives grows out of the interaction with the contact personnel (e.g., their courtesy and competence) and the inanimate service environment (e.g., its comfort and decor).


The Servuction Framework (cont’d)


The Services Theater Framework

• Actors (service workers) are those who work together to create the service for an audience (customers).

• Setting (service environment) is where the action or service performance unfolds.

• Performance is the dynamic result of the interaction of the actors, audience, and setting.


The Services TheaterFramework (cont’d)

• The frontstage actions that service actors perform for the customers usually rely on significant support from the backstage.

• Much of the planning and execution of the service experience occurs backstage, away from the audience’s inspection.


The Services TheaterFramework (cont’d)


Comparing ServiceExperience Frameworks


Raising the Curtainon Services Theater

• Why will the Services Theater Framework be used throughout this textbook?– It’s easy to use.– Most people will intuitively understand it.– It employs simple and fun concepts.

• Subway example


The Emotional Side of Services

• Realization that services involve people as customers and/or employees

• People interact with each other• People are affected by their surroundings • The service experience can be positive or

negative based on emotions displayed or evoked during the encounter


Supplemental Slides

• Marketing of Services (implications of category characteristics: tangible act, intangible act, the recipient, the setting, the actor)

• Chapter Web Sites


Marketing of Services

• Category characteristics of services• The act and the recipient of the act• The setting of the interaction• The actor


Marketing of Services (cont’d)

• Category characteristics present managerial implications as situations to be addressed with the marketing mix.

• Tangible act – The outcome is tangible, direct contact with the recipient of the act. Therefore:– For the customer: Outcome is evidence of service

performance; process may be hidden if the recipient is a “thing,” and completely visible if the recipient is the “person.”

– For the marketer: Managing customer interaction is more critical when the recipient is the “person.”




• Intangible act – The outcome is intangible, direct or indirect contact with the recipient of the act. Therefore,– For the customer: Outcome is hard to see and

evidence of service performance may be in the process itself.

– For the marketer: Opportunities to demonstrate service performance may include many elements of the process and not just the outcome of the service performance.




• The recipient – Can be a person or a thing; and can be shared with other customers. Therefore:– For the customer: The service performance might

require direct or indirect interaction; or, the service experience could be affected by other customers.

– For the marketer: The service performance can be dependent on recipient behavior.




• The setting – Can be face-to-face or via technology (e.g., cyberspace). Therefore:– For the customer: Some interactions require going to

the service factory while others may be conducted from anywhere, such as home, office, etc.

– For the marketer: Service delivery and setting have to be configured to meet customer preferences.




• The actor – The service performance may be conducted by people, equipment, or a people-equipment combination. Therefore:– For the customer: Product needs to be available and

produced when needed.– For the marketer: Supply must match demand,

otherwise (revenue) opportunity to produce is lost; the task is to manage rather than to build demand.

4362ch2 sp10

Business

service setting

service actors

service delivery

service production

illustration of service

service experienceto

customers service experience

inanimate service environment