Service-Scape in Marketing - Coursework Example

Service-scape in marketing-literature review Name Course Tutor Date Literature Review Introduction The modern corporate world experience intense competition where many firms now operate in the same industries and offer almost the same services or similar products to the customers. The intense competitive pressures exerted to the managements compel them to scale up their games so that they can remain relevant in business. Managements always spend sleepless nights in finding better ways they can manage their operations so that they can capture large shares of the market (Chua, Othman, Boo, Abkarim & Ramachandran, 2010, pp 184). One interesting fact is that while there exist so many firms in the same industry providing similar goods and services, some firms do not perform well as their competitors (Alba, Hutchinson, 1987, pp 417). The performance of different firms tends to vary in terms of sales and profit. It is until in the recent years when the service providers came to realize that creating and maintaining loyal customers is a very important practice for their survival (Masoud &Hmeidan, 2013, pp 130). The biggest challenge to these service providers who have realized this is how to attract and make the customers loyal. Attracting and maintaining customers are two different things which the management should be very cautious about them (Chua, Othman, Boo, Abkarim & Ramachandran, 2010, pp 184). A firm can easily attract the customers to buy their commodities or services for the first time. However, it becomes difficult for these firms to maintain these customers. One underlying fact which the service providers ought to keep in mind is that the service-scape of the workplace is one main factor that can either make customers come back or go for good. Service-scape in its definition is the environment in which the seller and the buyer interact (Bitner, 1992, pp 57). This environment is composed of both the physical commodities around the place and the social aspects in the surroundings. As mentioned earlier, two or more businesses could be offering the same services, but the customers may prefer to be served by one particular firm other than the other. It is because of the differences in the environmental conditions which these firms offer their services. Bitner (1992, pp 58) points out that the physical surroundings are very much important in service setting since both the customers and the employees providing these services always experience the firm’s facility. Bitner (1992) asserts that the both the physical and the social environment at the service delivery place should be suited to satisfy both the customers and the employees giving these services (Bitner, 1992, 59). He further noted that most firms have come to realize that the prevailing environment is important in attracting and retaining customers. However, some firms only concentrate in creating an environment that only suits the customers but not the service providers (Bitner, 1992, 59). Creating a conducive environment at the service delivery place, the managements should also put into consideration the environment in which the service providers are exposed to (Chua, Othman, Boo, Abkarim & Ramachandran, 2010, pp 184). It means that effectively attract and make loyal customers; the welfare of the sellers must also be taken care of well. It is because the sellers are the people who are in a direct conduct with the cusrt5omers on the market (Bitner, 1992, 59). Therefore, when they are not provided with the right environment to serve the customers, they may disgrace the customers, and the customers may decide not to come back. Bitner identifies two marketing service-scapes; we have the interpersonal and self-service service-scapes. The interpersonal service-scape is where the service providers interact face to face with customers so that the sellers can sell directly to the customers (Bitner 1992, pp60) When customers interact with the seller, they should find these sellers more social and welcoming to encourage these customers to come again (Bitner, 1992, 59). While with self-service, more emphasis must be put on the creation of the best physical environment where the customers would be free and safe to walk around as they check the stock displayed for them to choose their preferences. In other words, Bitner (1992) is implying that in choosing the environment to create in a particular firm depends on how that particular firm offers its services (Reimer & Kuehn, 2005, pp 791) Bitners arguments are based on the psychological concepts that states that people tend to react to places with two forms of behaviors. These behaviors are approach and avoidance behaviors. When customers go in premises to make the purchases for the first time, they either exhibit approach or avoidance behaviors (Binter, 1992, pp 63).While the avoidance behaviors are the opposite, they are the desire not to socialize, stay or work. Bitner showed that both the approach and avoidance behaviors are triggered by the perception of the environment at the service delivery point. Therefore, those customers who would find the environment not good for them, they would develop avoidance behaviors, and they would likely not top come back again to do their purchases in these premises (Reimer & Kuehn, 2005, pp 796). However, those that found the environment at this place appealing, they would develop approach behaviors that hence they would have a desire to come another day again. This is how customers become either loyal or disloyal to business firms (Bitner, 1992, 59). Therefore, managements should work hard to win the spirits of the customers. This should be done especially those who are coming to make their purchases for the first time to develop approach behaviors so that they can have the urge of coming back. Ezeh & Harris, (2007) “service-scape research: a review and a research agenda” is another article that discussed this concept of service-scape. In this article, the authors agreed with Bitners views in his article that the environment around the place of service delivery determines if the customers would come back or not (Ezeh & Harris, 2007, pp67). They placed an emphasis of the physical environment saying that the physical environment is often assessed by the customers before and after the purchase. This assessment enables the customers to reach a judgment of the firm’s capability and quality of the goods or services (Ezeh & Harris, 2007, pp61). The physical environment present at place of customer's service delivery has the artifacts that are made of material and non-materials objects. Through their virtue of the presence in this surrounding, these materials and nonmaterial objects can convey a message to the customers about the firm’s beliefs, technological levels, assumptions and values. In other words, Ezeh and Harris in the article are trying to show that the service-scape of particular business firm is determined, by their culture (Ezeh & Harris, 2007, pp71). They postulate that the materials objects are the extrinsic cues while the non-material objects are intrinsic cues. Therefore, the first impression a particular firm exhibit to new customers is determined by the extrinsic cues (Reimer & Kuehn, 2005, pp 795). They include the layout of the premises, the display of the stock, and the paintings of the premises and the safety of the entire premise (Ezeh & Harris, 2007, pp61). After using the extrinsic factors to gauge the organization, they would now use the intrinsic cues to justify what they have seen through extrinsic factors. Both the extrinsic and intrinsic factors are very much important and, should be balanced by the management of the organization in order to capture a large share of the market. Ezeh and Harris (2007) explain that most customers are carried away by the physical appearance of the place of service delivery. However, they note that it is important for an organization to put in place both the extrinsic and intrinsic factors because customers tend to vary in their judgments. Massoud &Hmeidan, (2013) “the effects of perceived work environment on frontline employees’ service recovery performance” is another article that touches on the issue of service-scape concept. They have pointed out that in the modern days; the service providers are now developing service products and strategies that suit their customers (Massoud &Hmeidan, 2013, 134). Most of these services are preferred to be delivered through face to face between the sellers and the customers during interpersonal service scenes as suggested by Bitner (1992). These authors claim that for customers to have good experiences that they can have a desire of coming back, they should be served face to face by the sellers for the first or initial times (Morash, 2001,37 ). This face to face contact develops a rapport between the two parties and in fact; they can exchange their contacts and would communicate later. This can easily make the consumers have the desire of coming back (Massoud &Hmeidan, 2013, pp130). Therefore, these two authors advocates for interpersonal service-scape rather than self-service. This implies that for customers to be retained or be loyal to a particular firm, they gauge the service quality which they were provided by the frontline employees (Massoud &Hmeidan,, 2013, pp 138). In other words, Massoud and Hmeidan (2013) insist that the managements should train well the frontline employees. It is because they are the ones who deal with customers various skills of customer service because they are the ones that would determine if the customers would be loyal to the products and services provided by the organization (Morash, 2001, pp 37). Another article that discusses this issue of service-scape is “customer evaluations of service complaints experiences” written by Tax, Bown and Chanrashekaran (1998). In this article, these scholars emphasized the issue of employee’s safety at their place of work (Alba &Hutchinson, 1987, pp 415). They pointed out that when the place of work is safe and when the employee feels safe both physically and emotionally, customer satisfaction will increase.In other terms, these writers showed that customer satisfaction goes hand in hand with employee’s safety at their working place. They ended up concluding that a satisfied customer is a loyal customer (Tax, Bown and Chanrashekaran 1998, pp72). Conclusion Customer attraction and retention are two tasks that are very challenging to the current corporate managements. These challenges are brought about by the tough competition that is experienced in the markets where firms compete for the scarce market available. To ensure that customers are retained, scholars have shown that the solution lies in the state of the environment at the place of service delivery. Scholars have emphasized mainly on physical appearance of the premises. Others have insisted on the safety of the employees at their place of work. All these arguments are right. However, the main thing is that the managements should ensure their frontline employees should be well trained; the service delivery point should be safe and appealing to the visiting customers. When creating good service-scape in an organization, the managements should consider the requirements of both the customers and the employees that serve these customers. customers would always come again, and they would be loyal to the brands of the firm. References Alba, Hutchinson, W. (1987). Dimension of consumer expertise, Journal of consumer research. 13(4), pp 411-454. Bitner, M. (1992). Service-scapes: The impact of physical surroundings on customers and employees. The journal of marketing; 56(2), pp57-71 Chua, B., Othman, M, Boo, H., Abkarim, M, & Ramachandran, S. (2010). “Service-scape Failure and Recovery Strategy in the Food Service Industry Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 11, 3, pp. 179-198, Cranage, D, & Mattila, A. (2005). 'Service Recovery and Pre-Emptive Strategies for Service Failure:Journal Of Hospitality & Leisure Marketing, 13, 3/4, pp. 161-181. Ezeh, C& Harris, L. (2007). Service-scape research: a review and research agenda. The marketing review, 7(1). Pp 59-78. Hilliard, T, & Baloglu, S 2008, 'Safety and Security as Part of the Hotel Service-scape for Meeting Planners', Journal Of Convention & Event Tourism, 9, 1, pp. 15-34, Accessed 10 October 2014. Ismail, A. (2011). “Experience Marketing: An Empirical Investigation', Journal of Relationship Marketing, 10, 3, pp. 167-201, Accessed 10 October 2014. Massoud, E & Hmeidan, T. (2013).The case of four and five star hotels in Jordan. European scientific journal; 9(11). Pp 129-147. Morash, E. (2001). “Supply Chain Strategies, Capabilities, and Performance”, Transportation Journal (American Society of Transportation & Logistics Inc), 41, 1, p. 37, Accessed 10 October 2014. Reimer, A & Kuehn, R. (2005). The impact of service-scape on quality perception” The European journal of marketing; 39(7&8), pp 785-808. Tax, S.S., Brown, S.W. and Chandrashekaran, M. (1998). 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