Marketing Services and the Customer Experience
aman_2910
Lecture_Serviceencounteranddelivery.pptxService Encounter and Service Delivery Marketing Services and the Customer Experience Study unit 3
Service encounter
A period of time during which a consumer directly interacts with a service
(Shostack, 1985)
Personal exchanges between customer and service employees/other customers (face-to-face)
OR
impersonal interactions with technology, equipment, and physical surroundings
Critical incidents
Specific interactions between customers and service providers that are particularly memorable
whether for positive or negative reasons
(Bitner et al., 1990)
Will affect future behaviour:
Re-purchase intention and WOM
Servuction model
Customer
Other customers
Contact personnel
Inanimate environment
Operations infrastructure
(Langeard et al.,1981)
Back- stage/office
Front- stage/office
Servuction system
Factory metaphor to describe the service process: emphasises process, system, structure, inputs, speed and efficiency.
Recognises that several factors contribute to the bundle of benefits received by customer.
Customers regarded as co-producers with a role to play in the production of the service. A resource that can increase the speed and efficiency of production.
Model shows visible and invisible elements in the service production system, and how they interact and affect the customer experience
Theatre model
Setting
Actors
Audience
(Grove and Fisk, 1992)
Theatre model
Setting (stage and props): service facilities and physical environment. Affects behaviour of customers/employees and defines the service experience
Auditioning: hiring appropriate employees
Actors: employees whose attitudes, behaviour, appearance influence perceptions.
Rehearsal: Training
Audience: customers, with cognitive and emotional responses to the experience. Other customers (members of audience) affect experience
Performance: employees and customers each with a role and ‘script’ (sequence of behaviours) to follow
Back-stage production team: support staff who make a crucial contribution to service planning, production and delivery. Usually out-of-bounds to audience
Service as theatre
Peter Cross, CX director at John Lewis, commented: “Retailers have talked about 'retail theatre' but as shopping habits change this has never been more important. We're investing in this training with one of the world's leading theatre companies because actors are outstanding communicators and that's an important element in offering outstanding personal service”.
(Sillitoe, 2018)
Managing encounters: People
Employees trained and empowered to meet expectations, respond to special requests, and resolve service failure
Customers ‘educated’ to perform role
Customer compatibility management, including C2C interaction in virtual world (Martin, 2016)
Managing encounters: Technology
Migrate customers from face-to-face to computer-mediated encounters or technology-based self service (TBSS)
Customer’s own ‘labour’ replaces that of service provider
BUT
has implications for service quality
and value perceptions
10
Managing encounters: Technology
Sources of satisfaction
Perceived time/money saving
Ability to solve a problem immediately
More control over process (customization)
Greater reliability than human interaction
Sources of dissatisfaction
Technology failure
Process failure
Customer-driven failure
Insufficient value from customer resource application
11
Customer experience (CX)
A customer’s ‘journey’ with a firm over time during the purchase cycle and across multiple touch points
(Lemon and Verhoef, 2016)
Extends across pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase
Multi-channel
A separate (but related) concept from service quality:
An overall perception rather than a gap versus expectations
Begins before, and continues after, service encounter
CX elements
Cognitive
(goal attainment)
Social
(employees and other customers)
Emotional
(level of delight, joy, excitement, etc)
Sensory
(physical environment)
(Keiningham et al., 2017)
Cognitive
(goal attainment)
Sensory
(physical environment)
Measuring CX
(Klaus and Maklan, 2013)
Positive customer experience
Product experience
(choice)
Outcome
(swift, convenient process)
Moments of truth
(proactivity; service recovery)
Peace of mind
(expertise; advice)
Customer satisfaction
Service process
The service process describes the method and sequence of links of the service system
Process will be designed around contact personnel, back-stage personnel, customers, and technology
Tug of war between marketing effectiveness and operational efficiencies
Service process has key influence on customer evaluations of service quality
Difficult to achieve perfection
Customization and lack of standardization
Variability of the demand cycle
Variability of service demand
Customer and contact personnel mood
Involvement of customer in service process
Blueprinting
A graphical approach to depict a ‘map’ of the service ‘system’ showing:
All of the steps, tasks, choices, and support processes required to make, provide, and consume a service
Those responsible for each task
Sequencing and relationship of tasks or steps
Timing of tasks or steps
Physical evidence at each point of interaction
Seek multiple perspectives: operations, marketing, HR, employees, and customers
18
A multi-purpose tool
Marketing
Obtain customer feedback at concept and service development stage
Identify competitive advantage
Analyse appropriateness of physical evidence at each point of customer contact
Human Resources
Analyse staff roles and identify recruitment/training requirements
Show employees how their roles fit within the total service delivered to the customer
Operations
Identify potential operational fail points and improvements
Analyse the effectiveness and efficiency of the process
Making services available
| Factors to consider | |
| Purchase frequency | Competitor activity |
| Customer location | Cost of provision |
| Willingness to travel | Staff commitment |
| Channel preferences | Positioning |
Reference
Bitner, M., Booms, B., and Tetreault, M. (1990) The service encounter: diagnosing favourable and unfavourable incidents. Journal of Marketing. 54 (January), 71-84.
Grove, S. and Fisk, R. (1992) The service experience as theatre. Advances in Consumer Research. 19 (1), 455-461.
Keiningham, T., Ball, J., Benoit, S., et al. (2017) The interplay of customer experience and commitment. Journal of Services Marketing. 31 (2), 148-160.
Klaus, P. and Maklan, S. (2013) Towards a better measure o customer experience. International Journal of Market Research. 55 (2) 227-246.
Langeard, E., Bateson, J., Lovelock, C. and Eiglier, P. (1981) Marketing of Services. Cambridge, MA: Marketing Sciences Institute.
Lemon, K. and Verhoef, P. (2016) Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing. 80 (Nov), 69-96.
Martin, C. (2016) Retrospective: Compatibility management. Journal of Services Marketing. 30 (1) 11-15.
Shostack, G.L. (1985) Planning the service encounter. In Czepiel, J., Solomon, M. and Surprenant, C. eds. The Service Encounter. Lexington: Lexington Books, 243-254.
Sillitoe, B. (2018) John Lewis staff receive theatrical training. Available from: https://www.essentialretail.com/news/john-lewis-acting-classes/
