Importance of Service Encounter in the Service Sector - Term Paper Example

The service of Seminar in the Introduction In the service sector, the most important factor is encounter between and the server. Here, economics and emotions meet in real time and the service quality is judged by consumers as well as organizations. So, it is extremely essential to relate the service encounter strategies to exact customer requirements in order to avoid conflicts and optimize service operations. In the subsequent sections, an analytical framework for evaluating service encounter will be discussed. This analytical framework will further be used for describing the service encounter with a firm. Various facets of the framework will be described by citing examples and situations faced while visiting the service firm during the course of work. Significance of the service encounter According to the science of service, customer satisfaction is predominantly treated as an engineering function measuring the output quality. As a result, if level of customer satisfaction is high and variability in process output is low, scholars assume that service process is optimized (Winsted, 2000). There are various visible and internal needs associated with purchase decision making. Sometimes, these decisions are influenced by services offered as well as behaviour of different participants in that particular service setting. Various acts of services encounter such as, requests, greetings, apologies, acquisitions and explanations, can influence the decision making process as well as fulfilment of customer’s psychological needs. Customers frequently experience low quality services and end up arguing with employees of the firm. On the other hand, employees providing service can also face conflicting encounters with customers. The potential economic and human costs from these conflicts can be significant, ranging from stress-related illness, psychological strain, staff turnover and absenteeism, customer revenge and disloyalty to lost profits and productivity (McColl-Kennedy, et al., 2009). Literature Review In services industry, consumption process is determined by the interaction between organization providing the service and customer receiving the service. Popularly known as moments of truth, these interactions are service encounters. Service encounter provide consumers with opportunities such as, evaluation of service quality as well as ability to manage and meet perception of customers. On the contrary, service providers utilize these interactions for improving their quality of service as well as understanding perception of customers towards service quality. Service encounters include a provider of service (employee) and receiver of that service such as, clients, customers, patrons or patients. Service encounter are considered as the major form of social interaction between customer and organization in the services sector. The process involves dialogues as well as reciprocal influences among various interacting groups. However, the topic of service encounter is more focused on mechanisms affecting behaviours of consumers in the services industry (Bitner, 1990). Higher satisfaction among consumers results in positive word-of-mouth communication as well as repeat purchase. Internal referrals include customers communicating with relatives and friends regarding their negative or positive experience with the company. This in turn influences purchase intentions of these relatives and friends. Service encounter can be described as the time period over which a consumer interacts with a particular service. These services might include machines, customer-contact staffs, physical facilities, automated systems or any other visible provider of service (Homburg and Stock, 2005) Service encounter has garnered quick attention owing to importance of service quality offered during interaction between service providers and customers. At this stage, the services are judged by customers and perceptions are formed regarding the company. The level of customer satisfaction generated during this encounter is also termed as transaction satisfaction, which is the sum total of satisfaction with delivery process as well as with outcome of the service. The dramaturgical view of service encounters For the current research, Goffman’s Dramaturgy theory has been taken as a framework for analyzing service encounter for company under study. The model has been considered as relevant as it views people as actors. So, behaviour of these actors is influential while determining the service delivery process. The dramaturgical approach developed during the early 19th century. According to symbolic thought schools in Reynolds’ Interactionism (1993, p. 103), “man is a symbol user and interacts with others based upon interpretations assigned to different features present at the behavioural setting.” Researchers have found various similarities between literature regarding service marketing and that of dramaturgical views on behaviour. Both show inclination towards actions and strategies involved in creation and maintenance of a positive impression in front of an audience. Also, both concepts believe that positive impression can be achieved by impacting impressions, which are considered as desirable among audience. The most important contribution of dramaturgy in service marketing is a framework explaining exchange situation between service provider and customer. Marketers have realized the importance that customers pay to symbols involved in services and goods exchange (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985). A dramatic metaphor is used in this model, which will be described in detail later. According to this model, customers are treated as audience and events are described in stage form. This metaphor has also been extended to backstage. Hence, performance quality is influenced by understanding of audience as well as interaction with them. In the backstage, learning is seen as a social process. In addition, overall presentation of actions in front stage might be significantly different from that in backstage. The literature for marketing has successfully elaborated and discussed the drama approach in service marketing. In the service sector, marketing mix has been extended by inclusion of new Ps. These are physical evidence, process and participants, which run parallel to the dramaturgical approach with audience, actors, performance and setting. So, the dramaturgical approach suggests four critical elements that should be examined for identifying the drama metaphor. 1. Actors: These include participants such as, service staffs, customer representatives and service providers, who are responsible for exchange of service during the service encounter. Their role is to understand demands and needs of customers and provide highest quality service to them. Audiences are important on stage as they act as reviewers and critics. In a similar manner, audiences in the service business provide useful feedback and information about the service offered. 2. Audience: Audience are individuals who receive the service. They form specific perceptions regarding the brand and company with services offered to them. As a result, it is important for actors to connect well with the audiences. 3. Setting: A drama setting is the physical evidence, where services are delivered, consumed as well as service quality is determined by other participants, including customers and management. It can also be described as a stage, where service encounter takes place. According to Bitner (1990), physical environment can create a positive or negative image as well as influence overall satisfaction and behaviour of customers and employees in the service business. The researcher developed a framework for understanding the critical relationship between customers and employees and their surrounding physical environment. According to the framework, an individual’s internal responses such as, emotional, cognitive and physiological, at physical evidences established by the service provider can generate positive or negative approach towards service offered. 4. Performance: Performance is the method, process as well as outcome of the service encounter and subsequent consumption by the customer or audiences. It comprises all encounters among the contact personnel, current and potential customers as well as other front stage and backstage service providers. Here, customers or audience evaluate overall service aspects such as, functioning, ease of delivery process, technological know-how and expertise of service providers. Each service encounter contributes to service production and performance in the outcome. When overall performance is divided into smaller subsets, performance of each service provider is determined in order to realize his/her value to the overall service delivery process (Goleman, 1995). The dramaturgical approach to service counter is implemented to understand the consumer’s experience of service consumption (Grove and Fisk, 1983). Sociologists have discussed various impression management theories according to which drama metaphors are used in present guidelines for controlling the process of service encounter. Earlier, the concepts were used for comprehending social behaviour. This led to emergence of a sociological thought of school, where humans were viewed in particular manner in order to derive meaningful assumptions. Brissett and Edgley (1990) have suggested that the above metaphorical depiction of the service encounter process offer better insights as it focuses on facial interactions, especially in high-valued services. Service encounter is increasingly considered as a social encounter as service experiences involve high customer contacts. While marketers largely perceive that most service encounters are similar and share similar characteristics, it is also true that huge difference lie between client perceptions and expectations, characteristics of provider as well as realities of service delivery processes (Menon and Dube, 2004). A significant amount of customers’ perceptions and expectations as well as their social behaviour is influenced by cultural values surrounding them. All kinds of social interactions take place within the purview of a definite cultural background. These include participants such as, service providers and clients. Hence, cultural has an important but unrecognized role in the process of service encounter. While studying services through dramaturgical framework, cultural aspects are taken into consideration and are evaluated along with other value orientations of individuals such as, time, nature, activity as well as relationship with other individuals (Reynolds and Harris, 2006). The dramaturgical framework has been implemented in various service marketing sectors. For example, it was used to examine the backstage and front stage behaviour of service advisors and sales staff in an automotive retail firm. Findings revealed that behaviour of backstage and front stage employees were significantly different. While front executives valued customer relationship and customer satisfaction as the highest priority service, service advisors at backstage gave higher priority to technical knowledge as opposed to providing excellent service to customers (Schneider, 1980). Thus, it can be said that wider the gap between perception of customers and service providers in a service encounter, more will be the problems in the firm. The overall culture of the organisation is also critical while offering services to customers. Analysis and evaluation Sulets is a well-known letting firm owned and run by joint partners, Leicester University and student unions of the DMU. The letting firm is considered as the best option for Leicester and DMU students, who are searching for accommodations across Leicester. The trustee board governs the agency (Sulets, 2014a). It consists of seniors members from universities, student union’s head and representatives of the students. Various services offered by the letting agency include; 1. Improving overall standard of accommodation services for students 2. Offering a transparent and fair service to all students without any biased process 3. Supporting the student union for overall development of students (Sulets, 2014b). In the next section, overall service encounter experience with the chosen company, Sulets, has been described. The section will categorize various actions as well as participants, as per the concept of dramaturgy and discussion will be held on their effect on overall service encounter and perception of customers towards offered services. The front stage includes visible part of the services offered. It can also be referred as physical evidence adding tangibility to the services offered by the company. The objective of attractive physical evidence is to enhance overall customer experience. The reception area of the letting agency included the office desk, which was placed at the corner. The customers were not able to see it directly while entering the office. The waiting was prepared in open style with two-seated sofa as well as payment information was put on the wall. The waiting area also had a number of leaflets and brochures. This indicated that information was provided to every customer or potential customer entering the office. There was a desk on one side of the room, which was used as information area for customers. The area was also decorated with wallpapers. The office desk had credit card machine and flowers. Overall, it can be said that front stage created by the company was a positive one. A gentle and comfortable lighting as well as soothing temperature ensured pleasant experience. The staff was wearing a common black dress code, besides wearing a smile. The office had a fresh smell and was well-ventilated. The office door was painted in red and white and carpet was in dark grey colour. Overall, the first service encounter in the form of servicescape was positive (Broderick, 1998). As discussed above, two most important participants in the dramaturgical concept are audience and actors. The audience were the students, original customers, telephonic customers, observers. The actors in this setting were staff members as well as other students. The stage is divided into two settings. During the first setting, the staff perceived us as students on projects. As a result, attitude of the staff was cold towards the students. Audience, which in the present setting was our group, was not offered to sit even when there were additional chairs. After the staff realized that we were prospective customers trying to find new accommodation, there was a change in their service behaviour. Now, the staff was standing and we were sitting. Their attitude was friendlier and this could be associated with their profit making motive. We were made comfortable and offered a lot of information regarding accommodations and available properties. The objective here was to make us feel welcomed. For this, we were taken to the facilities and were allowed to access technology through use of computer in order to surf the internet (Zeithaml, 2000). In the next situation, the service encounter between a staff and customer was observed. When the tenant came into the office, the staff asked for a minute from us and went to talk with the customer. A significant observation here was that when another customer arrived, we were asked to wait. The overall tone of the staff was sincere while reassuring the customer that she will take care of the issue. Also, the staff showed concern by asking whether the customer was alright. This situation showed unequal treatment by the staff. A valuable learning from the service encounter was that it is important to be friendly with your customers as well as to show sincerity and concern towards them (Broderick, 1998). During the same period, we were looking for information regarding properties at the company’s website. The second stage for service encounter was observed, where the medium of communication was phone. The service provider or staff answered the phone in a very welcoming and soft voice and was following a standard script. The learning from this service encounter observation is that a presentable and favourable telecommunication is influential in proceeding services delivery in the positive direction (Pranter and Martin, 1991). The third stage of service encounter was observed between the second staff and customers. A standard script was followed by the staff while dealing with customers. The importance of standard procedures in services is that these help in defining the job role and responsibilities. The dialogue between the two actors in this stage suggested that employees maintain a cordial relationship with each other. This is another important factor in a service sector. Employees become face of the brand and as a result, it is important that employees are perceived as customer and employee friendly. In the service marketing industry, loyalty towards a company or service often occurs because of the service provider. For instance, in the current stage, an old lady waited for a particular staff in the office, even though there was another staff ready to attend her. Service marketing is often termed as a personalised marketing, where employees who are aware of their customer’s specific needs and demands are most preferred (Smith and Lewis, 1988). Scripts are pre-written two-way communication strategy used by employees working in a service industry. In the service sector, both formal and informal communication is used. However, the letting agency, Sulets primarily used formal conversation script for new and potential customers; whereas, it gave more preference to informal conversation while dealing with current customers. These scripts also help in identifying proper communication strategy while dealing with difficult customers. Apart from that, proper scripts avoid any deviation from the communication strategy between customers and service providers (Price, Arnould and Tierney, 1995). Some of the frequently used props observed within the agency were desktops, leaflets, posters and brochures. The significance of using props during service encounter is they help in enhancing service capabilities as well as overall quality of service (Vavra, 1997). In case of the letting agency, use of above props resulted in reduced waiting time and thus, higher number of customers could be attended. The web property of the owner ensured reliability of the data. The website helped in providing an animated view of the accommodation and types of properties provided by the agency, whereas leaflets provide information for future contacts. Majority of the customers visiting the letting agency are students. Also, Sulets is the only agency, which helps in finding accommodation for university students. Hence, these students expect this agency to provide more offers than other outside agencies. In addition, Sulets does not charge any fee from the students. Other expectations from the agency include providing supportive facilities for better living conditions and accommodations that are nearest to the university (Cote, 2005). Various evaluations can be made from the above dramaturgical approach to service marketing in relation to the company under study. Relationship between actor and audience: The relationship between audience and actors depended on the situation, type of audience as well as type of actors (Broderick, 1998). In the current case study, various participants presented themselves as audiences and actors. It was found that service providers often become a key influencer in customer’s reuse of the service. The second staff had provided a better service, which led the old lady to solely seek his service. Feasibility and desirability of scripts: The above observation revealed importance of good scripts during the service encounter process. While it is necessary to prepare a well-understood, strategic and persuasive script, it is also important to ensure likability or desirability of the scripts. In addition, it is critical to ensure that purpose of the scripts is not lost while engaging in conversation. Hence, front-line executives as well as customer care executives should be given appropriate training for developing their overall oral and communication skills. Influence of culture: With increasing popularity of economies that are service oriented, higher number of culturally diverse employees is coming in contact with customers (Zeithaml, 2000). So, marketers started to realize the influence of service culture in determining growth and development of firm. Conclusion The objective of the study was to understand importance of service encounter in the service sector. For this, the dramaturgical approach was used as an analytical framework. Different prospective of actors, audiences, setting and performance were identified and evaluated. It was observed that perception regarding service quality as well as value was different among students, real customers and service providers from the letting agency. Though a sophisticated and pleasant physical surrounding helped in establishing a general positive view regarding the letting agency, it has to be continuously supported with excellent services so that the entire service encounter is successful. Different surroundings also influence the manner in which customers interact and behave in the service business. Overall, the dramaturgical approach helped in successful conceptualisation of various service encounters that occurred within the firm. Reference List Bitner, M.J., 1990. Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surrounding on Employee Responses. Journal of Marketing. 54(2), pp. 69-82. Brissett, D. and Edgley, C., 1990. Life as Theatre: A Dramaturgical Sourcebook. New York: Aldine Publishing. Broderick, A.J., 1998. Role theory, role management and service performance. Journal of Services Marketing, 12(5), pp.348 – 361. Cote, S., 2005. A social interaction model of the effects of emotion regulation on work strain. 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