Service Thlinking is a blog of Associate Professor Janet Sayers, School of Management, Massey University, New Zealand. Key concepts and terms used in classes are explained in words, videos, and images. The blog is co-created with students. I also post about my research and publications to encourage integration between research and teaching in courses I teach.
The servicescape concept refers to the way that the 'place of business' is created to support the service concept. Services send messages through its environment to communicate to consumers how to use its service, and the meanings the service has.
Booms and Bitner (1981) are credited with the original research that coined the term servicescape. The service-scape concept includes the ways that place-based factors moderate both customer and employee behaviour. The framework illustrates that ambient conditions, space factors and signs and symbols in an environment will create in users (both employees and customers) an experience facilitated through the environment. This environmental experience should support the service concept. There will be individual factors that moderate this experience, and this experience will then lead to certain responses in both employees and customers. A range of responses will eventuate around three main categories of response: cognitive (what people think), emotional (what they feel), and physiological (what their bodies experience). This, in turn, will lead to behaviours of approach and/or avoidance from both customers and employees and will lead also to social interactions between customers and employees.
By BronHiggs - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54853114
Bitner wrote in 2012: "Clearly the design and presentation of the servicescape can serve to attract customers into the service facility. Signage, colors, attractive design, music, or scents can be used to draw customers into a place. Once inside, the servicescape will help to shape the customer's experience and influence his or her satisfaction with the service delivery. In some cases, the servicescape may even be a determining factor in whether the customer returns or gives more of his or her business to the firm".
The focus of designing servicescape is on the five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing.
Other people have developed the service-scape concept since Bitner's original 1992 article. One more recent use of the idea has been by Rosenbaum and Massiah (2011) who argue that the:
"servicescape comprises not only objective, measureable, and managerially controllable stimuli but also subjective, immeasurable, and often managerially uncontrollable social, symbolic, and natural stimuli, which all influence customer approach/avoidance decisions and social interaction behaviors. Furthermore, customer responses to social, symbolic, and natural stimuli are often the drivers of profound person-place attachments". (p. 471)
In brief, this means that servicescapes provide the material by which customers (and employees) co-create value in the servicescape. This is not a new idea as it was the focus of Sherry's important edited collection of research about servicescapes, published in 1998. Sherry wrote about Niketown Chicago in a chapter in this book.
Rosenbaum and Massiah do introduce further embellishments to the idea, and reading their article suggest the following further observations (amongst others):
not everything about the place is manageable;
people have profound place attachments and these are not necessarily shared through the same cultural codes (e.g. in a tourist experience);
creating service-scapes with 'restorative' potential (e.g. in hospitals) is one implication of their study.
Rosenbaum and Massiah's framework is given below:
This image is from Rosenbaum and Massiah (2011). The article and diagram can be found here.
Niketown
A place like Niketown Chicago is not actually designed specifically to sell a product, but to showcase what Nike means. Nike let its designers loose to create a place for the worship of athletes, especially the basketball icon Michael Jordan (Sherry Jnr, J., 1998).
Nike's mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. The asterix (*) in the missions statement isn't a grammar mistake, but refers to an additional statement as part of Nike's mission - if you have a body, you are an athlete. In a further refinement of their mission statement, they also say, their 'Consumer Affairs Mission' is to represent the highest service standard within and beyond our industry, building loyal consumer relationships around the world http://nikeinc.com/pages/consumer-affairs.
Nike's environments are designed so that the sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touch sense evoke the Nike brand. For instance,
"Nike once did a test on consumer responses to identical pairs of gym shoes. One test was conducted in a room that was completely odour-free. The other was artificially imbued with a floral scent. The floral scent increased the desirability of the shoes by 84 per cent of respondents." http://strategiccreative.com.au/2012/04/25/designing-servicescapes/
The following video from Youtube is of various customers and employees saying things about the service-scape at Niketown London. Watch this and also read the short vignette on pages 248-249 of Gronroos 'A service-scape example: Nike Town Chicago', then you will get an initial feel for how Nike has designed their facility to evoke a sense of place that supports their service concept.
References
Bitner, M.J. (1992). Servicescapes: the impact of physical surroundings on customers and employees, Journal of Marketing, 56 (2): 57-71.
Bitner, M. (2012). The servicescape. Handbook of services marketing and management. In Swartz, T. & Iacobucci, D. (eds.) Handbook of service marketing and management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Booms, B.H. & Bitner, MJ (1981). Marketing strategies and organisation structures for service firms. In J Donnelly, J & W.R. George (eds.). Marketing of services. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association.
Penaloza, L. (1999). Just doing it: A visual ethnographic study of spectacular consumption behavior at Nike Town. Consumption, Markets, and Culture, 2: 337 — 465.
Pine, J. & Gilmore, J., H. (1998). Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review.
Rosenbaum, M. & Massiah, C. (2011). An expanded servicescape perspective. Journal of Service Management, 22: 471—490.
Sherry, J. F. Jnr. 1998. Nike Town Chicago and the emplaced brandscape. In J.F.J. Sherry (Ed.) Servicescapes: The concept of place in contemporary markets. Chicago: NTC Business Books.
Sherry, J. F., Kozinets, R. V., Storm, D., Duhachek, A., Nuttavuthisit, K. & Deberry-Spence, B. (2001). Being in the zone: Staging retail theater at ESPN zone Chicago. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 30: 465-510.
“Waiting is frustrating, demoralizing, agonizing, aggravating, annoying, time consuming, and incredibly expensive” (Federal Express)
The Origins of Queuing Theory
The beginning of Queue Theory is often traced back to a study of telephone systems in 1909 by an engineer with Copenhagen Telephone Company. He asked the simple question: "How many trunk or main telephone lines are needed to adequately service a town?" A nice explanation of this study is given in the YouTube video below by the 'Engineer Guy'.
In the next video the problem you can see that the problem of passenger loading onto an airplane can also be solved mathematically, but that the psychological and social aspects of human behaviour need to be taken into account to appreciate a queuing problem.
Queuing and Waiting: Characteristics and Definitions
A queue is commonly understood to be a line of waiting customers that require service from one or more servers.
A queue can also consist of a bottleneck of things or information that is unable to be processed in a timely fashion, and is forced to wait idly. For instance see pictures of queues on my Pinterest collection at Queue Obsession.
A queue forms whenever current demand exceeds the existing capacity to serve.
A queue is a major problem in service delivery because it signifies that waste is occurring - waste of time and resources.
Of course, as can be seen from the pictures on Queue Obsession, it may also signify that supply cannot meet demand for any number of reasons including rationing (during the war - i.e. lack of supply) and sometimes queues are deliberately encouraged (e.g. at Harry Potter and Ipad releases) to signify the desirability of a product or service.
Waiting, believe it or not, is a common news story. The frustrations of queuing are shared, and sometimes people can get so angry whilst queuing that violence breaks out. I have storified some newspaper stories about queuing so you can see how common this phenomena is. You can see this story on storify here.
Types of Queues Configurations
Below three major types of physical queue configurations are shown: multiple queue, single queue and take-a-number queue. Queue configuration tells us what a queue looks like.
Some basic queue configurations
A single queue system is sometimes called a snake queue. You often see these at airports.
A multiple queue system is often used at supermarkets and retail outlets.The following 3 minute presentation describes these two common queue configurations:
This queue at the rugby sevens is a multiple queue.
Rugby Sevens queue at Westpac stadium in Wellington New Zealand
A 'take-a-number' queue is often seen at restaurants/bars, fast food places like Fish and Chip shops, and sometimes also at banks. A take-a-number type queue operates at 'Just Cuts', a franchised hairdressing salon. No appointments are taken, but your name is put into a 'line' on their computer (using the FCFS First-Come-First-Served rule - see below) and they tell you the approximate wait time so you can go off and do other things while you wait.
Often a combination of queuing configurations can be seen. The above queue at the Rugby Sevens, although a multiple queue, is also like a snake queue.
Queue Discipline Techniques
Queue discipline techniques are the rules placed over the behaviour of a group that tells the queue components how to behave. These components can be people, attributes of people (e.g. how loyal they are; how sick they are), material things, or information. The figure below illustrates discipline techniques by dividing them into two types; static (FCFS) and dynamic.
Queue Discipline techniques
The above diagram shows several techniques used to manage the behaviour of queues. On the right we have a static rule FCFS. This is the 'First come, first served' rule. In this rule, which many service providers abide by, and can be seen in many other systems as well (like hiring and redundancy practices), the organisation simply serves whoever arrives first, and in order of arrival. This is a static queue because the organisation does not actively intercede in queue formation properties.
Other queue discipline techniques are considered dynamic because organisations do actively intercede in the way that the queue is formed. So, two dynamic options are given for action in the above diagram: selection based on individual customer attributes; and selection based on the status of the queue. In the 'Selection based on on individual customer attributes' we have three main queue discipline techniques; priority (highest priority served first - e.g. cutting in line, or VIP), preemptive (status is assigned based on how long a task takes and how long a component is queued), and SPT (or standard processing time).
Organisations dealing with a variety of customer tasks can have long and frustrating queues - post offices are notorious for this - they have multiple customers with different tasks (e.g. registering a car; a complex banking transaction; buying some stamps etc..) that take different amounts of time. This makes managing queues more challenging. Many post offices use preemptive system - e.g. they may have a bank customer only queue, and often now a cashier will intercede in the line to help train customers in how to skip the queue by using self-help facilities (like express deposit boxes for simple transactions).
These rules lend themselves to the use of mathematical systems which have made computing modelling systems for queuing very popular. Managing queuing is also part of many games like Zoo Tycoon, Theme Hospital and so on (see Note 1 below). Service simulations are explained in another post (to be added to this blog shortly) and managing queues is an essential part of the game-play because it lends itself so well to computer simulation.
As inferred in the first YouTube video about the origins of queuing, queues are not only physical lines of waiting people, but can also be queues on the phone. The following report by The NZ Herald shows the average response times from common NZ institutions (included times in automated response system). Like physical queues, waiting on the phone angers and frustrates people. Actually, poor phone communication practices (like not being responsive to customer inquiries) can lead to more expressed anger and frustration because rich interactive communication is missing (you are far less likely to express anger at someone in person that you are on the phone).
Phone call-time waits at common NZ enterprises - from the NZ Herald
I have not provided an in-depth discussion of solving queue problems in this post. Wikibooks provides a good introductction to solving queuing problems and also some simple problems. You can find this resource here. Some simple problems are given, with their solutions.
Managing Waiting Lines
There are basically two general ways of dealing with queues: queue management techniques and influencing the experience of queuing.
1. Queue management techniques include such management interventions as:
understanding how bottlenecks form and solving them as mathematical problems.
adding servers
altering queue discipline (the order in which customers are served)
speeding up serving times
2. The experience of queuing can also be influenced by intervening to make waits seem shorter and help people become less anxious.
In order to understand the experience of queuing we need to go deeper into the psychology of how and why people wait. The first thing to remember is that TIME IS ELASTIC.
In organisational systems time is almost always treated as uniformly standardised by production and timetables. However time is actually subjectively felt and experienced by living and feeling people.
Waiting is also an outcome of how power operates. Think for a moment about how you feel when you are waiting and you don’t think it is necessary. The distribution of waiting time in a system coincides with the distribution of power – this point is explained further on in this post.
Waiting times limit productive uses of time and in so doing generates distinct social and personal costs. Research shows unequivocally that:
1. Dissatisfaction increases with wait time
2. Perceived waiting time is greater than actual waiting time
But also that
1. There is Inevitable waiting in service/process systems: Waiting results from variations in arrival rates and service rates
2. Also there is an economics of waiting. With high utilization and low cost systems then the purchase includes the price of customer waiting. e.g. low cost airlines
So, as with PERCEIVED quality, we are managing PERCEIVED waiting time
Example of managing PERCEPTION of waiting times:
… a well known hotel group received complaints from guests about excessive waiting times for elevators. After an analysis of how the service might be improved, it was suggested mirrors be installed near where guests waited for elevators. The natural tendency for people to check their personal appearance substantially reduced complaints, although the actually time of waiting was unchanged.
Example of managing EXPECTATIONS:
… some restaurants follow the practice of promising guests a waiting time in excess of the “expected time”. If people are willing to agree to wait this length of time, they are quite pleased to be seated earlier, thus starting the meal with a more positive feeling.
Why does it help to over-estimate waiting time? Because it is very hard to repair initial dis-satisfaction. From a waiter’s perspective, “If they sit down in a good mood, it’s easy to keep them happy” but “If they sit down disgruntled, it’s almost impossible to turn them around. They’re looking to find fault, to criticize.”
A halo effect is created by early stages of encounter. So, if money, time and attention is to be spent, do it on the early stages.
There are several rules that apply when considering how to manipulate the experience of waiting. These are often quoted as below:
1. That Old Empty Feeling: Unoccupied time goes slowly
2. A Foot in the Door: Pre-service waits seem longer that in-service waits
3. The Light at the End of the Tunnel: Reduce anxiety with attention
4. Excuse Me, But I Was First: Social justice with FCFS queue discipline
5. They Also Serve, Who Sit and Wait: Avoids idle service capacity
Disneyland uses the following approaches to controlling customer waiting.
1. Animate: Disneyland distractions, elevator mirror, recorded music
2. Discriminate: Avis frequent renter treatment (out of sight)
3. Automate: Use computer scripts to address 75% of questions
4. Obfuscate: Disneyland staged waits (e.g. House of Horrors)
A further list of guidelines about managing waiting has been generated through Maister’s classic research on waiting and queuing - ‘Ten principles of
1. Unoccupied time feels longer than occupied time
“ Boredom results from being attentive to the passage of time itself”
Restaurant examples: giving out menus before being seated (added bonus of decreasing wait time); turn waiting area into a bar (adds revenue also); posters, reading material, toys, memorabilia.
Telephone examples: muzak (can have opposite effects as unrelated to service activity); menus and bars integrates service into waiting experience; example of sports team playing last week’s game!
Other devices? Windy lines; different queuing systems and movement; medical waiting rooms (take the persons mind off the service - dentist!).
2. Pre-process waits feel longer than in-process waits
A person’s anxiety level is higher waiting to be served, than while being served. Fear of being forgotten. Make first contact human.
Example - triage waiting system. Assessment by a nurse while waiting to see a doctor.
3. Anxiety makes the waits seem longer
People have a fear of being forgotten
The other line always moves faster or, worry that their won’t be enough room (say on a plane)
4. Uncertain waits are longer than known, finite waits
Example: if patient told doctor delayed 30 minutes, will wait happily, but once that time is met, becomes increasingly annoyed.
Important point to note: appointment defines an expectation that must be met.
5. Unexplained waits are longer than explained waits
Any explanation is better than none
eg. plane `technical difficulties’
eg. the sight of a serving person taking a break is a source of irritation
6. Unfair waits are longer than equitable waits
e.g. the situation where someone is felt to be `cutting in front’
FIFO rule - first in, first out - exceptions: emergency cases, table size (frequently resented), express checkout lanes (accepted).
Need to be aware of patrons sense of equity, feelings about status
7. The more valuable the service, the longer the customer will wait
The supermarket example moderated by this point (value of full cart higher than value of lower and so people will wait longer)
Waiting for something of little value is intolerable. Post-process waits the most intolerable (eg. willingness to queue before flight but impatience at baggage handling)
8. Solo waits feel longer than group waits
Promotion of group waiting experiences is beneficial - queuing for music tickets, camaraderie that develops on plane delay, getting to know someone in a queue at Disneyworld.
9. Uncomfortable waits feel longer than comfortable waits
Uncomfortable waits sensitise people to time and poor service
10. New or infrequent users feel they wait longer than frequent users
Know who they are and provide reassurance
Topics for Discussion
Suggest some strategies for controlling variability in service times.
Suggest diversions that could make waiting less painful.
Select a bad and good waiting experience, and contrast the situations with respect to the aesthetics of the surroundings, diversions, people waiting, and attitude of servers.
Suggest ways that management can influence the arrival times of customers.
What are the benefits of a fast-food employee taking your order while waiting in line?
Useful Tools to Resolve Bottleneck Problems and Innovate
Bottlenecks are places in a service delivery system where queues form. The term bottlenecks includes customers queuing but has a wider meaning incorporating process blockages back-stage as well. When solving bottleneck problems general rules are:
• ensure that only essential work passes through the bottleneck;
• be ruthless in taking away non-essential activates;
• ensure no sub-standard work passes through the bottleneck.
Once you have established where the bottleneck is, devote proportionally more management attention to it to ensure maximum throughput and therefore maximum effectiveness for the process.
A number of useful tools have been developed to help managers understand processes and where bottle-necks occur. Any wait point is a potential fail point in a process because customers can baulk and renege from queues if they don't want to wait. Within a system bottlenecks signal inefficiency and waste in a process. One useful tool to resolve bottlenecks is the use of service blueprinting. There is an excellent article of service blueprinting by Mary Jo Bitner et al here, and this tool is also discussed in this blog here. Service blueprinting is now often promoted as the first point for service innovation, because it helps service managers visualise a process and then identify where service improvements can be made.
Simple Class Exercise on Queuing
On Saturday night I went to see Oblivion at Event Cinema in
Albany. The movie was scheduled to start at 6.25 pm. We arrived at a bottleneck
on the entranceway to the theatres (up the escalators) at 6.20pm. There was
already a large number of people milling about, standing, in the entrance area,
a large floor area with no seats or signage.
No-one seemed to know why there was a delay in the screening.
One couple were quite anxious as their movie started at 6.15pm and they were
already late. Another couple also asked us what was happening as they arrived
and we could not tell them as we did not know. The area looked like the diagram
below:
The reason given for the delay (I asked the one attendant) was
that the previous screening had not yet finished and theaters were not yet
ready for use. Identify some techniques Event Cinemas could use to manage managing
the waiting experience in this bottleneck.
Extension Reading - Queues as a Social and Cultural Phenomenon
In many cultures and languages, there is no phenomenon or word for 'queue', signalling immediately that queuing is a cultural and social phenomenon.
Within operations management a plethora of information exists on queuing: there is a science devoted specifically to the mathematics of waiting (for example, see Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons 2000; Hall 1991; Dshalalow1995). This literature takes as its unquestioned premise the assumption that efficient queuing is necessary for constructive service interaction between providers and consumers. There is also a literature on the psychology of waiting and how to manipulate the subjective experience of waiting so that time seems shorter than it actually is, or that the time is used by the organization more efficiently to communicate with the customer the organizational commodity (Maister 1985). But very little has been written about the embedded nature of queuing in organizational power relations with the notable exception of Schwartz (1985). He argues that when we wait we are being organized by the organization: the experience of waiting in a queue is the experience of being managed physically (sometimes even violently) and psychologically manipulated in a number of ways.
A critical perspective emphasizes that queuing and waiting are organized and experienced in the contexts of power. Service experiences occur across a delineated space —there is a social boundary between production and consumption—although this boundary is sometimes blurred. Queuing occurs while one waits for the consumption experience to begin. Consequently while we wait we are in a dissonant condition: we are not doing anything productive, or consuming, and can be in a state of internal conflict. A subject is forced to be in this in-between state, even though it is desire that has led to this state of affairs, and the consumer agrees to it. Desire is at its height when one waits, and it is forced to be in abeyance. At the same time, the cultural heritage of queuing as it is experienced in the American (and other similar cultures) locale needs to be acknowledged as queuing and its antecedent, the organization of time, are experienced differently in different cultures. How queuing can be used to signal the heightened desire for a product or service can be seen below in a picture below showing queues outside a Chinese Apple store. This picture also demonstrates that the phenomenon of the queue is now fully translated into cultures that are not Western and is not solely relevant there.
Queuing is experienced more by those with less power in society: queuing and consumption more generally, like production, is a class issue (Bauman, 1998) as waiting is not a habit of all social classes in Western societies. The higher up the social ladder one climbs the more likely it is that the worker will wait on the consumer (picture the waiter in the high-class restaurant waiting near-by). Who makes who wait is a point where power in its operation in the everyday can be seen to operate. Making others wait is even an aggressive act: waiting can be used consciously to disempower others. The forcing of others to be immobile and passive is a powerful, manipulative act of a person, or regime, over another. To make someone come to you is also, in inter-personal social relations, an example of how ultimate power can be demonstrated. Refusing to serve someone or making them wait for service or communication is also a use of power. “To render oneself motionless for the sake of another has always been one of the most humiliating radical forms of subordination” (Schwartz: 171), and further “The underlying technique for the aggressive use of delay involves the withdrawal or withholding of one’s presence with the intention of forcing another into an interactionally precarious state wherein he might confront, recognize and flounder in his own vulnerability or unworthiness” (38). Deferential self-suspension, that is voluntary passivity, finds its ultimate expression in the apology, a ritual of deference to ameliorate unbalanced social relations.
This picture below is of food queues in Oslo during World War 2; the scarcity of commodities leads to queues, especially necessary commodities like food. Poor people have to queue longer than rich people.
Schwartz also ventures into the terrain of psychoanalysis to explain the ‘regressive possibilities’ of the client service waiting relationship:
… a sense of inferiority may be amplified because it reanimates sentiments associated with subordinate positions the individual may have occupied in the past … infancy itself, for during this time a child is utterly dependent upon the disposition of a server (parent) for the satisfaction of many of his physical and social needs … his wailing demands for food — is perhaps paradigmatic (though by no means determinative) of the irritation and exasperation of the adult who must wait for the meeting of his needs. (173)
Psychoanalysts also find anal parallels, as:
… awareness of the flow of time, especially the ability to measure time, unconsciously is deeply rooted in how often defecation has to take place, at which intervals it has to be done, and how long the process itself should take, how long it may be successfully postponed, and so on. (Fenichel 1945 cited in Schwartz: 174)
It may seem provocative to complete this brief introduction to the social relations of queuing by raising the issue of anal repression. However, queuing leads to a state of dissonance which places “an attendant strain and a consequent tendency to restructure cognition and activity in such a way as to gain relief from it” (ibid: 168). Theories of repression are often turned to in an attempt to explain how comedy works (for example, see Stewart (1976) about the comedy of Charlie Chaplin) and how people in societies alleviate the tensions inherent in social power structures (Bakhtin, cited in Morson and Emerson 1990).
References
Bauman, Z. 1998. Work, consumerism and the new poor, Buckingham, Open University Press.
Dawes, J. & Rowley, J. 1996. The waiting experience: Towards service quality in the leisure industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 8, 16—21.
Durrande-Moreau, A. 1999. Waiting for service: Ten years of empirical research. International Journal of Service Management, 10, 171—189.
Fitzsimmons, J. & Fitzsimmons, M. 2006. Service management: Operations, strategy, information technology, Sydney, McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Gray, K. undated. The legal order of the queue (Draft). Available: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/projects/techniquesofownership/tech-gray.pdf [Accessed 4 June 2010].
Heung, V. C. S., Tsang, N. & Cheng, M. 2009. Queuing behavior in theme parks: A comparison between Chinese and Western tourists. Journal of China Tourism Research, 5, 41 —51.
Larson, R. C. 1987. Perspectives on queues: Social justice and the psychology of queuing Operations Research, 35, 895—905.
Leclerc, F., Schmitt, B. H. & Dubé, L. 1995. Waiting time and decision making: Is time like money? The Journal of Consumer Research, 22, 110—119.
Maister, D. H. 1985. The psychology of waiting lines. In: CZEPIEL, J. A., SOLOMON, M. & SURPRENANT, C. (eds.) The service encounter: Managing employee/customer interaction in service businesses London: Lexington Books.
Mann, L. 1969. Queue culture: The waiting line as a social system. American Journal of Sociology, 75, 340—354.
Schwartz, B. 1975. Queuing and waiting: Studies in the social organization of access and delay, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Schweizer, H. 2008. On waiting, London, Routledge.
Weber, M. 1930/1950. The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism London, George Allen and Unwin Ltd. .
Notes
Regarding computer simulations to help with learning about queuing. There are a number of clones and open-source variations of popular games on-line, or you can buy the originals. I have attempted to use these is class, but found students' orientation to games of this type variable so I tend now to just encourage students to try them out in their own time, or use them for a special project. Other service simulations have been developed for educational use in advanced service management courses, and sometimes come with textbooks (e.g. Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2008).
Developing a service culture, maintaining one, or changing an organization into a company with a service culture is crucial to the functioning of service organizations. The first step to understanding how to develop a service culture is to understand what we mean by culture in the first place and some of the pitfalls involved in understanding any organization as a culture.
Organizational culture is generally studied using methods drawn from anthropology which is the study of cultures. Originally many anthropological studies were conducted on 'Other' cultures (non-European) but this is no longer the case. Now anthropologists and ethnographers look at a wide variety of organizations as social systems, using the lens of culture. For instance, a favorite of mine is a study about heavy metal music by a young anthropologist and heavy metal fan and made into a film - the trailer is below.
One way to understand culture is to understand some basic characteristics of culture; the things or the words used to describe cultures. Shein's is a commonly cited model; it describes three levels of culture from the most basic ideas people have about time, space, the environment, ideas about God and so on. These underlying assumptions lead to espoused (spoken) values including ritual and origin stories which tell us more about these underlying and often unspoken value systems. At the third level is the level of behaviors and artifacts, that is, the ways people behave towards each other, things and others, and the artifacts that can be seen and touched that symbolize their culture.
The image below shows these levels diagrammatically and then, as it may be easier to understand these characteristics with an example we look at the difference between 'surfing' culture and 'surf lifesaving' culture.
In organizations the focus is often on change - how to change an organization from a manufacturing to a service-focused firm for instance (see Gronroos Chapter 14 on this topic). Change models like Lewin's change model (unfreezing and then refreezing) are often cited. The role of leadership is incorporated into this model in the diagram below. That is, service leadership is crucial in the process of bringing about change in a service-focused firm. Organizational structure A (present service) is changed to organizational structure B (service vision) through the operation of service visionary leadership and the influence this has on the operational aspects of processes, people and culture. The service leader's role is to communicate and enthuse people and systems with this vision.
Another way to understand organizational culture and the impact it has on behavior is to look at very strong cultures. A good example is prisons and their cultures. Using Schein's levels of culture above and the cultural web model below we can easily identify aspects of prisons that make up their cultures (in a typical stereotypical prison).
Use the following set of images to help you imagine what prison might be like ...
But are strong cultures a problem or are they the solution? Strong cultures can be a problem if their leadership is a problem (not ethical or no vision) or if they cannot change. Generally speaking a strong culture today would be seen as flexible, not rigid, and organic warm and living, not static and rigid (like an iceberg!).
How do companies maintain and develop a shared culture? Corporate culture is a pattern of shared values and beliefs that give members of an organization meaning and provide them with rules of behavior.
Tony Hseih is an archetypal American serial internet entrepreneur who has turned Zappos, ostensibly a shoe retail company into a customer service leader. In his book 'Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose,' he describes his career roots from an American-Chinese background, through secondary school and Harvard, detailing his successes and failures in creating businesses to the point he is at now - leading a successful internet retail company.
Zappos provides a very interesting and relevant learning case on how to develop a service culture in an internet-based service organization. Hseih has developed a service culture at Zappos and a customer service ethos. He has a consistent image and vision which is people-centered.
On the Zappos website, customer service is at the top of the page, not buried at the bottom and talking several clicks to find out how to resolve a problem.
The Youtube videos below show Tony talking about his company and its values. 'Happiness', and the spreading of it, is a key part of his value proposition.
Zappos has a unique culture and some very interesting human resource practices including an 'unscripted' call center approach (actually even though it is called unscripted there are definite protocols that employees still use), and the company also pays people to leave after a trial period of employment. A number of other interesting approaches are discussed in the book including ways to make the work environment 'fun'.
Service logic as explained by Grönroos (2010). He says, “The essence of the service logic for the customer and the provider, respectively, is:
When using resources provided by a firm together with other resources and applying skills held by them, customers create value for themselves in their everyday practices (customer service logic).
When creating interactive contacts with customers during their use of goods and services, the firm develops opportunities to co-create value with them and for them (provider service logic).” (2010, p. 299)
Gronroos (2008, pp. 223-224) argues service logic involves five major factors.
Understanding the value that emerges for customers by consuming or using offerings of an organisation and knowing how services alone or together with information, physical goods or other kinds of tangibles contribute to this value.
Understand how total quality is perceived in customer relationships to facilitate such value and how it changes over time
Understanding how an organization (people, technology and physical resources, systems and customers) will be able to produce and deliver this perceived quality and support customers' value creation.
Understanding how an organization should b developed and managed so that the intended quality and value are achieved
Making an organization function so that this perceived quality and value are achieved and the objectives of the parties involved (the organization, the customers, other parties, etc.) are met.
This means the firm has to understand the following:
The perceived quality and value in their everyday activities and processes customers are looking for.
how to create that value support for the customer
how to manage the resources available to the organization to achieve such service-based value creation.
The example of Delta Force Paintball shows how this service logic involves understanding the broader social, cultural and technological trends for people seeking novel experiences.
Delta Force Paintball
Paintball is a sport or a war game in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by tagging them with paintballs.
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Illustration 1: The cast of 'The Big Bang Theory' play paintball
Equipment is very important in paintball. The paintballs themselves are capsules containing water-soluble dye with gelatine outside shell which is propelled from a paintball gun.
Protective clothing is also important, including a compulsory face-guard. Players are required to wear masks when in the field of play, and there are strict protocols around safe practice to ensure no one is really harmed.
Games can be played on outdoor or indoor fields. There are many examples on the Internet of maps of fields of play, one of which is reproduced below of Paintball facility in Australia. A game field can be created with natural or artificial terrain. In New Zealand, one initial terrain included an abandoned freezing works facility. Players use cover to launch sallies against the enemy or to defend their position.
Many different games and scenarios can be run by organizers. Generally, games involve: Speedball, played on a small flat area with artificial barricades; Woodball, played in the woods; and Milsim, which is short for military realism – scenarios are based on real-world combat situations. Scenarios include capture the flag, invade an area, or find a thing, zombie apocalypse, elimination rounds, and so on. Games can last from seconds or be played over several days. There are also 'freedom' paintballers, who 'go bush' and play amongst themselves in free play. Luckily paintballs are biodegradable.
In the USA and Britain, the game is played regularly as a competitive organized sport. There are even professional teams. Paintball facilities and technologies are also used in training for military forces, law enforcement, paramilitary services and security organizations, riot response, and for training people in the "non-lethal suppression of dangerous suspects”.
Delta Force Paintball was established in the United Kingdom in 1989. Delta Force made a big impact because they made the sport more professional, and oriented paintball to families and social activity more generally, rather than focusing on competitive fighting. Success factors for Delta Force's have been their focus on professional customer service, safety, and family-oriented fun and enjoyment.
Since their entry into paintball, player numbers have significantly grown, as has player satisfaction, according to their website. After starting in England they expanded into Wales and Scotland, and are now located in 7 countries on 3 continents. Their Woodhill facility is the first Delta Force paintball facility in NZ, and they intend to expand and develop facilities in and around all major cities in NZ.
The inspiration for Delta Force terrain is film and terrain is clearly designed with specific scenarios in mind. Delta Force Paintball at Woodhill in Auckland featured an Egyptian themed area (‘Raiders of the Lost Arc’), and also found inspiration in the films 'Tomb Raider', 'Tropic Thunder', 'Resident Evil' and 'Fuel Dump'.
'State-of-the-art' equipment revolutionised the sport. Although basic equipment (guns, face helmets and overalls) are made available, upgrades available and people can bring their own equipment. Although rapid action guns (machine guns) are not allowed in NZ, guns can be upgraded, and own equipment may be worn by committed and regular players.
Delta Force Paintball focus on the social nature of the game, suggesting a paintball session could be used as an event like Buck or Hen parties, Birthdays, Corporate functions, or just groups of friends or family to have a good fun day out. On their Facebook page you can see a large number of family groups, groups of children, and many women, indicating the spreading popularity of the sport into sectors it did not previously attract.
Delta Force Paintball says it wants to have paintball centres in every major city in New Zealand, and with the continued growth of the activity, this seems reasonably likely. They say "It is our corporate goal to promise you the very best paintballing experience imaginable – in terms of quality, safety, value and enjoyment". They now have 20 years experience in the business, and employ more than 1000 people worldwide.
Managing quality is an issue for an organisation like Delta Force Paintball like it is for any service organisation. Professional Standards can be recognised by belonging to professional associations, like the UKPA (United Kingdom Paintball Association). Paintball can also have their facilities rated by independent authorities.
A day out paintballing is not cheap, especially for a family. Other than price, another barrier to involvement is the travel - a car-hike into the outskirts of North Auckland. Despite the cost and the effort to get there many dedicated paintballers engage in Paintballing regularly at Woodhill and other facilities. In terms of overcoming the cost barrier, Delta Force have several tactics. They promote through booths and stalls at University Orientation Days and in Shopping Malls, offering low cost or free entry to the facility, with the first 100 paintballs free. Facebook deals are available, they have a price match promise, and other special deals to encourage first-taster use and return custom. Once at the facility paintballs must be bought and this is where Delta Force makes much of its money. Costs are available on their site. 100 paintballs do not last long, especially if you are new to the game and excitable. Some new players can use 100 balls in 10 minutes of play.
An interesting aspect of Delta Force Paintball is the way it co-creates value with the customer through levering excitement about the game through interactive gaming culture, social media, and film. The experience of playing Paintball directly draws on gaming experiences such as Halo, classic ‘shoot-em-up’ games, and films like Tropic Thunder and Zombie Apocalypse.
References
Grönroos, C. (2010). Service management and marketing: Customer management in service competition. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
A service guarantee is a promise and so it drives the process and outcome. A guarantee helps everyone understand what the organisation delivers in terms of an experience process and outcome, and it also drives continuous operational improvement and the service recovery programme.
Activity: Answer the following questions:
What is a service guarantee?
Name some excellent service guarantees you are aware of. How do they work to create confidence in the service and increase perception of quality of the service?
Consider ‘The Warehouse’ guarantee below. If you make a purchase at the Warehouse how does the guarantee make you behave and feel? What would the challenges be for a manager at the Warehouse to manage their guarantee?
What are the four acid tests of a service guarantee? (see below)
What are the downsides of guarantees? Design a guarantee for a service of your choice based on the principles outlined in the text (including that it is meaningful; easy to understand; explicit; unconditional; and the payout).
What are the benefits of having a guarantee like this and what could go wrong?
Two examples of guarantees are given below.
Countdown Online Grocery Shopping Guarantees:
The Warehouse returns policy is available here. Below are their procedures for people who would like to return a product:
Further Reading
Hart, Christopher (1988). ‘The power of unconditional service guarantees’, Harvard Business Review, July-
August, pp. 54-62.
Firnstahl, Timothy (1989). ‘My employees are my service guarantee’, Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp. 4-8.
Fitzsimmons, J., & Fitzsimmons, M. (2006). Service management: Operations, strategy, information technology. (5th ed.). Sydney: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Kashyap, Rajiv (2001). ‘The effects of service guarantees on external and internal markets’, Academy of
Marketing Science Review, No. 10.
Sometimes service managers refer to service packages. The service package is a way of understanding what a service offering is made up of. A service package can be made up of both tangible elements and intangible elements. Sometimes these are divided into five elements:
Supporting Facility: The physical resources that must be in place before a service can be sold. Examples are a golf course, ski lift, hospital, airplane.
Facilitating Goods: The material purchased or consumed by the buyer or items provided by the consumer. Examples are food items, auto parts, legal documents, golf clubs.
Explicit Services: Benefits readily observable by the senses. The essential or intrinsic features. Examples are quality of meal, attitude of the waiter, on-time departure.
Implicit Services: Psychological benefits or extrinsic features which the consumer may sense only vaguely. Examples are the privacy of loan office, the security of a well-lighted parking lot.
Information.
The service package concept can help managers focus on managing quality. Managers can go through each of the elements of the package concept and decide how to ensure quality service provision across all the elements involved. Then a simple checklist can be created so that quality can be managed.
An example of a checklist for a hotel is below. You can see a mixture of the five elements above made describable in the checklist so they can be assured.
The basic productivity challenge for service businesses is explained by Professor Grönroos in the video below.
Essentially Grönroos is saying that if services implement manufacturing models to service process delivery performance is negatively impacted (see Grönroos Figures 9.1 to 9.3).
Cost-cutting approaches are normal in manufacturing processes but if taken in service businesses then eventually profit will go down. Why? In manufacturing or product logic cost-cutting shouldn't decrease profitability (say if linked to the uptake of technology or getting rid of excess bureaucracy). But, if using service logic, if processes are constantly cut then perceptions of quality will eventually go down. People will notice that there is less help available, there are longer waiting times, etc. and so revenue will go down. Costs do go down of course but profitability also goes down. The consequence for a service business is that they should know where their breaking point is. But this breaking point is difficult to discern so managers have to be very careful to watch out for when profits start to go down as this is a strong signal service logic is not operating.
As an alternative to using a product logic, Grönroos argues for service logic in increasing productivity. This is explained in more detail in Figure 9.4 below. One needs to understand the actual process of creating value in order to understand where costs can and can't be cut, and where investment should be made to increase productivity. So for example, understanding what is a back-office process that can be automated. Or understanding what front of office self-help activities might be able to be pushed toward the customer that they could get value from (e.g. online banking and the ability to manipulate money between accounts).
Grönroos Figure 9.4
For service businesses, the focus is always on the relationship with the customer. If cost-cutting impacts negatively on this relationship then the service logic which should underpin the relationship is at risk. Of course, cost-cutting is sometimes desirable and advisable, but Grönroos argues that the relationship should underpin all decision-making and this is shown in Figure 9.6 below. Productivity is improved in this model by investing in the relationship's continuity by gaining mutual value out of the relationship. He links this to learning as these relationships are always dynamic and growing.
Grönroos Figure 9.6
Reference
Grönroos, C. (2010). Service management and marketing: Customer management in service competition. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
