Servuction Model

The Servuction Process and Model

Servicescape

Contact
Other Customers Customer Personnel/Service
Providers

Invisible
Organizations and
Systems
The servuction model consists of three main components:

1.Core service: This is the fundamental service that the business is

offering, such as a haircut at a salon or a car repair at a mechanic's
shop.
2.Supporting activities: These are the activities that support the core
service, such as the waiting area in a salon or the diagnostic tools
used by a mechanic.
3.Physical environment: This is the physical setting in which the service
is delivered, such as the layout and design of a salon or the layout and
equipment of a mechanic's shop.
The Servicescape
• The term servicescape refers to the use of physical evidence to design
service environments.
• Due to the intangibility of services, customers often have trouble
evaluating the quality of service objectively. As a result, consumers rely on
the physical evidence that surrounds the service to help them form their
evaluations.
• The servicescape consists of ambient conditions such as room temperature
and music;
• Inanimate objects that assist the firm in completing its tasks, such as
furnishings and business equipment;
• Other physical evidence such as signs, symbols, and personal artifacts such
as family pictures and personal collections.
• The use of physical evidence varies by the type of service firm.
The Servicescape
• The role of servicescape is important because of its role in:
• Packaging the service
• Facilitating the service delivery process
• Socializing customers and employees
• Differentiating the firm from its competitors
Contact Personnel/Service Providers
• Contact personnel are employees other than the primary service provider
who briefly interact with the customer. Like parking attendants,
receptionists etc
• Service providers are the primary providers of the core service, such as a
waiter or waitress, dentist, physician, or college instructor.
• Consumption of services often takes place where the service is produced
(e.g., dentist’s office, restaurant, and hairstylist) or where the service is
provided at the consumer’s residence or workplace (e.g., lawn care, house
painter, janitorial service).
• Regardless of the service delivery location, interactions between
consumers and contact personnel/service providers are commonplace.
• Contact Personnel and service providers have a dramatic impact on the
service experience
Contact Personnel/Service Providers
• Service personnel are an important source of product differentiation and have a very strong
impact on customers and servuction process. There are primaririy seven common complaints
found with respect to contact personnel and service providers
• Apathy: What comedian George Carlin refers to as DILLIGAD—Do I look like I give a damn?
• Brush-off: Attempts to get rid of the customer by dismissing the customer completely ... the “I
want you to go away” syndrome
• Coldness: Indifferent service providers who could not care less what the customer really wants
• Condescension: The “you are the client/patient, so you must be stupid” approach
• Robotism: When the customers are treated simply as inputs into a system that must be processed
• Rulebook: Providers who live by the rules of the organization even when those rules do not make
good sense
• Runaround: Passing the customer off to another provider, who will simply pass them off to yet
another provider.
Other customers
• The success of many service encounters depends on how effectively the
servicevfirm manages its clientele.
• A wide range of service establishments serve multiple customers
simultaneously, therefore other customers can have a profound impact on
an individual’s service experience.
• The influence of other customers can be active or passive. Examples of
other customers actively detracting from one’s service experience include
unruly customers in a restaurant or students talking during class.
• Some passive examples include customers who show up late for
appointments, thereby delaying each subsequent appointment; an
exceptionally tall individual who sits directly in front of another customer
at a movie theater; or the impact of being part of a crowd, which increases
the waiting time for everyone in the group.
Other customers
• Many customer actions that enhance or detract from the service
experience are difficult to predict.
• It is the job of the to manage the behavior of customers so that they
coexist peacefully.
• For example, firms can manage waiting times so that customers who arrive
earlier than others get first priority,
• Clearly target specific age segments to minimize potential conflicts between
younger and older customers, and provide separate dining facilities for
smokers and customers with children.
Invisible Organization and Systems
• Invisible organization and systems reflect the rules, regulations, and
processes upon which the organization is based. As a result, although
rules, regulations, and processes are invisible to the customer, they
have a very profound effect on the consumer’s service experience.
• The invisible organization and systems determine factors such as
information forms to be completed by customers, the number of
employees working in the firm at any given time, and the policies of
the organization regarding countless decisions that may range from
the substitution of menu items to whether the firm accepts
identification cards for senior citizens’ discounts.