Essentials of Services Marketing

Fourth Edition

Chapter 10

Crafting the Service Environment

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Overview of Chapter 10

• What is the Purpose of Service

Environments?

• Understanding Consumer Responses to

Service Environments

• Dimensions of the Service Environment

• Putting It All Together

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What is the Purpose of
Service Environments?

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Purpose of Service
Environments

• Shape customers’ experience and their behaviors

• Support image, positioning, and differentiation

• Part of the value proposition

• Facilitate service encounter and enhance

productivity

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Shape customers’ experience
and their behaviors

• Message-creating medium
– symbolic cues to communicate the distinctive nature and
quality of the service experience

• Attention-creating medium
– make servicescape stand out from competition and attract
customers from target segments

• Effect-creating medium
– use colors, textures, sounds, scents,and spatial design to
enhance desired service experience

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Unique Hotels Designs

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Support Image, Position, and
Differentiation

Orbit Hotel and Hostel, Los Angeles Four Seasons Hotel, New York

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Servicescape as Part of Value
Proposition

• Physical surroundings help shape appropriate feelings

and reactions in customers and employees
– e.g.,Disneyland, Denmark’s Legoland
– send to customers sense of fun and excitement

• Servicescapes form a core part of the value

proposition

• The power of servicescapes is being discovered

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Facilitate the Service Encounter
and enhance Productivity

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Understanding Consumer
Reponses to
Service Environments

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The Mehrabian-Russell
Stimulus-Response
Model
Feelings Are a Key Driver of Customer Responses to
Service Environments

Dimensions Response/
Environmental of Affect: Behaviors:
Stimuli and
Pleasure and Approach
Cognitive Processes
Arousal Avoidance &
Cognitive
Processes

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Insights from Mehrabian-Russell
Stimulus-Response Model

It is a simple yet fundamental model of how people

respond to environments that illustrates:
• Peoples’ conscious and unconscious perceptions and
interpretation of the environment influence how they feel in that
environment

• Feelings, rather than perceptions/thoughts drive behavior

• Typical outcome variable is ‘approach’ or ‘avoidance’ of an

environment, but other possible outcomes can be added to
model

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The Russell Model of
Affect

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The Russell Model of Affect

Arousing

Distressing
Exciting

Unpleasant Pleasant

Boring Relaxing

Sleepy

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Insights from Russell’s
Model of Affect

• Given that affect or feelings are central to how people respond

to an environment, we need to understand those feelings better

• Emotional responses to environments can be described along

two main dimensions:
– Pleasure: subjective, depending on how much individual likes
or dislikes environment
– Arousal: how stimulated individual feels, depends largely on
information rate or load of an environment

• Advantage: simple, direct approach to customers’ feelings

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Exciting

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Relaxing

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 Dimensions of the
Service Environment

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Main Dimensions in
Servicescape Model

• Service environments are complex and have many design

elements. The main dimensions in the servicescape model
includes:

1. Ambient Conditions
– Characteristics of environment pertaining to our five senses

2. Spatial Layout and Functionality

– Spatial layout:
 - floorplan
 - size and shape of furnishings
– Functionality: ability of those items to facilitate performance

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Main Dimensions in
Servicescape Model

3. Signs, Symbols, and Artifacts

– Explicit or implicit signals to:
 - help consumers find their way

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Ambient Conditions

• Ambient conditions:
– Lighting and color schemes
– Sounds such as noise and music
– Temperature
– Scents

• Clever design of these conditions can trigger desired

behavioral responses among consumers

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Music

• In service settings, music can have powerful effect on

perceptions and behaviors

• Structural characteristics of music―such as tempo,

volume, and harmony―are perceived holistically
– Fast tempo music and high volume music increase arousal
levels
– For example: Restaurant, shops and hospitals
– Careful selection of music can deter wrong type of
customers
– Classic music can be used to deter vandals
And loiterers.

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Scent

• An ambient smell is one that pervades an environment

– Scent (strong impact on mood, affect and evaluative
responses, purchase intention and in-store behavior

• Scents have distinct characteristics and can be used

to encourage emotional, physiological, and behavioral
responses

• In service settings, research has shown that scents

can have significant effect on customer perceptions,
attitudes, and behaviors

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Color

• People are generally drawn to warm color

environments
– Warm colors encourage fast decision making and are good
for low-involvement decisions or impulse buys
– e.g., warm colors associated with elated mood states and
arousal but also increase anxiety, cool colors reduce arousal
but can elicit peacefulness and calm)
– Cool colors are preferred for high-involvement decisions

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Spatial Layout and Functionality

• Spatial Layout and Functionality

– Layout refers to size and shape of furnishings and the
ways it is arranged
– Functionality is the ability of those items to facilitate
performance

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Signs, Symbols, and Artifacts

• Communicates the firm’s image and helpscustomers find

their way
– First time customers will automatically try to draw meaning from
the signs, symbols, and artifacts

• Challenge is to guide customer through the delivery

process
– Unclear signals from a servicescape can result in anxiety and
uncertainty about how to proceed and obtain the desired service

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People as part of Service
Environment, too

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Putting It All Together

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Tools to Guide in Servicescape
Design

• Keen Observation of Customers’ Behavior and

Responses to the service environment by
management, supervisors, branch managers, and
frontline staff

• Feedback and Ideas from Frontline Staff and

Customers using a broad array of research tools
ranging from suggestion boxes to focus groups and
surveys.

• Field Experiments can be used to manipulate specific

dimensions in an environment and the effects
observed.
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• Blueprinting or Service Mapping - extended to include
Tools to Guide in Servicescape
Design

• Photo audit

• Method of asking customers (or mystery shopper) to

take photographs of their experience

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Summary

• Service environment:
– Shapes customers’ experiences and behavior
– Facilitates service encounters and enhances productivity

• Mehrabian-Russell stimulus-response model and Russell’s

model of affect help us understand customer responses to
service environments

• Main dimensions of servicescape model:

– Ambient conditions – music, scent, color, etc.
– Spatial layout and functionality
– Signs, symbols, and artifacts

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Summary

• When putting it all together, firms should

– Design with a holistic view
– Use tools to guide servicescape design

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