Chapter 2

Frameworks for Managing

the Customer’s Experience
 Objectives
1. To examine the key components of the service
experience
2. 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
 Outline
I. Introduction
II. Components of the Service Experience
III. Framing the Service Experience
IV. Comparing Service Experience Frameworks
V. Raising the Curtain on Services Theater
VI. Summary and Conclusion
 Components of the
Service 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 the
Service 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
or events 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.
– Identify issues that should be considered in the
design of the service delivery
– Specify relationships among the four components of
the service experience
 Framing the Service
Experience (cont’d)

• The Services Marketing Mix (Booms and

Bitner 1981)
• The Servuction Framework (Langeard et al.
1981)
• The Services Theater Framework (Grove
and Fisk 1983)
 The Services
Marketing 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.
• It suggests that marketing a service involves more
considerations than marketing a good.
 The Servuction Framework
• The term is hybrid of service and production
• 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) and their interaction.
The Servuction Framework (cont’d)
• The bundle of service benefits a customer
receives as a result of the interaction with the
contact personnel (e.g., their courtesy and
competence),the inanimate service
environment (e.g., its comfort and decor), and
other customers (e.g., their number and
behavior)
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
(frontstage) and is supported (backstage).
• Performance is the dynamic result of the
interaction of the actors, audience, and
setting.
 The Services Theater
Framework (cont’d)

• The frontstage actions that service actors

perform for the customers often relies on
significant support from the backstage
personnel and equipment.
• Much of the planning and execution of the
service experience occurs backstage, away
from the audience’s inspection.
The Services Theater
Framework (cont’d)
 Comparing Service
Experience Frameworks
 Raising the Curtain
on 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
 Web Sites
• Apple
(http://www.apple.com), p. 20
• L.L.Bean
(http://www.llbean.com), p. 22
• Marriott Hotels
(http://www.marriott.com), p. 24
• Hyatt Hotels
(http://www.hyatt.com), p. 24
• Nordstrom’s
(http://www.nordstrom.com), p. 25
 Web Sites (cont’d)
• Ritz-Carlton Hotels
(http://www.ritzcarlton.com), p. 25
• Comfort Express Hotel-Oslo
(www.comforthotelxpress.no), p. 25
• Deutshe Bahn Call-a-Bike
(http://www.callabike.de/i_english.html) p. 27
• Benihana
(http://www.benihana.com), p. 28
• Jiffy Lube
(http://www.jiffylube.com), p. 28 & 32
 Web Sites (cont’d)
• Magic Castle
(http://www.magiccastle.com), p. 29
• Subway
(http://www.subway.com), p. 30
• Enterprise Rent-A-Car
(http://www.enterprise.com), p. 32
• Delta Airlines
(http://www.delta.com), p. 32
• Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)
(http://www.scandinavian.net), p. 32
• JAL Airlines
(http://www.jal.com), p. 32