Prior to this he has taught and researched marketing at the University of Strathclyde, Manchester Metropolitan University, Huddersfield University, and Cairo University. This is one of the best written and most lively books on Strategic Marketing. Logical, concise, and to the point; it stretches students to think which is refreshing. This text is accompanied by an Online Resource Centre which provides: For students: Chapter summaries Internet exercises Key themes and further reading Web links For lecturers: Additional case studies Guide to additional case studies Answers to case questions Case analyses and teaching notes PowerPoint slides Test bank Links to video clips on strategic issues.
Request an Inspection Copy. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.
Search Start Search. Look Inside. Degree of interaction and customization, which is acknowledged by Schmenner as a more confusing element as it combines two similar but distinct concepts.
A high level of interaction is present where a customer can actively intervene in the service process. High customization is in evidence when a service is designed to respond to individual needs and preferences. Although customization and interaction go hand in hand for many services, Schmenner does concede instances where one may be high and the other low.
The value of this classification lies in the challenges specified for service management in each quadrant. For example, where the degree of interaction and customization is low standard operating procedures can be adopted whilst at the same time seeking to make the service warm and inviting through design of the service facility.
Haywood-Farmer, in ,7 pointed to the diversity of the service sector, prompting the need for classification to make the management job possible. Using dimensions from earlier authors, he sought to remove any existing confusion over previous classifications by advocating a three-dimensional model Figure 3. The degree of contact asks whether the customer has to be present, as is the case with a haircut; degree of labour-intensity raises the issue of whether it is possible to automate the service, as with automatic teller machines; and the degree of service customization examines how much standardization is possible, e.
Haywood-Farmer illustrates the significance of his classification for service management. For example, where a service is low in all three dimensions cell 1 it is in reality like a factory, with emphasis on quality control and focusing on physical facilities and procedures.
The back office of Design of the service High Degree of contact and interaction 6 51 8 Low High 2 4 Degree of labour intensity 5 Low 1 Low 7 3 High Degree of service customization Some examples of services in each octant: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Utilities, transportation of goods Lecture teaching, postal services Stockbroking, courier services Repair services, wholesaling, retailing Computerized teaching, public transit Fast food, live entertainment Charter services, hospitals Design services, advisory services, healing services Figure 3.
As one moves towards cells 5—8, two factors become prominent. Additionally, care must be taken to make sure equipment is reliable, easy to use and user proof. Secondly, as high contact and interaction services increase in labour intensity, more attention must be paid to making sure staff behave appropriately. As customization increases moving towards cells 3, 4, 7 and 8 the service process and product must be designed to fit the customer.
In services high on all three dimensions, physical facilities, procedures, processes, personal behaviour and professional judgement all become important. Where people are to be processed the question of whether or not they need to be physically present for the service to be rendered will require to be answered. If physical presence is necessary, the design of the service facility, the skills of the employees and the management of the customers need to be addressed.
Where customer possessions is the object of service processing, employee technical skills, quality of equipment and capacity planning are of particular significance. The final category is that of information processing. For particular services, e. As you are already aware from Chapter 1, Levitt10,11 had encouraged service managers to think of their operations as manufacturing processes.
Customers were regarded as Design of the service 53 interfering with the smooth running of service operations see Danet, B, reference 10 in Chapter 1. To address the issue of customer contact and service operational efficiency, Chase proposed that service systems should be viewed as falling along a continuum from high customer contact to low customer contact. In effect, the more physical contact the service had with the customer, the less efficient it would be, and vice versa.
Clearly, the nature, as well as the amount of customer contact merits attention. Customer input to the hotel facility would be defined as rather passive, whereas a relatively low contact organization like a bank branch office may experience a degree of uncertainty in terms of customer requests.
Chase subsequently reviewed his original position of shifting service activities to a remote back office in order to maximize efficiency. This, after all, seemed to work well for manufacturers because it kept outside influences, that is, customers, from disturbing the production process.
Or if a clerk is processing forms, talking to the customer on the phone takes her [sic] away from her job. Contact remained unclear with further reformulation of the original model defining distance contact as direct, indirect and none. Unfortunately this approach simply reaffirms the method of contact over the nature of the contact. The physical contact he professed to be so concerned about is still for many services a matter of significant importance. For certain services the physical presence of the customer is necessary, for example hairdressing, a train journey, a health spa, etc.
For others physical presence is not a prerequisite, for example electronic banking. Physical presence will also vary within a service as well as across services, for example a visit to your local bank branch to finalize a loan application.
The remainder of the processing of that loan application occurs independently of your physical presence. With the development of call or contact centres and information technology, services are looking to minimize physical contact with customers in line with organization goals for efficiency.
But the pursuit of greater and greater efficiency may come with a cost in the form of poorer service quality. Increases in customer complaints, system failures, being cut off etc. Where the method of contact appears important is in determining the division of a service between front and back office: The front office is that part of the system directly experienced and visible to the customer. This is where the service is performed and is thereby open to customer scrutiny, e. The back office is that part of the system from which the customer is physically excluded, e.
It is often referred to as the manufacturing side of the service, not seen by the customer. This means that the technical core of an organization commonly referred to as the production process is sealed off from any uncertainties that may occur in other parts of the organization.
The back office becomes decoupled,16 separated from the front office and is allowed to work without hindrance or interference. A framework has been suggested as to how the front and back office should be organized and coordinated. Input uncertainty will vary with the two environmental variables: customer willingness to participate and diversity of demand. Customer willingness to participate — refers to how far customers wish to play an active part in the service.
Diversity of demands — refers to the uniqueness of customer demands. Are they to be met in a customized or standardized way? The four service design options can be seen in Figure 3. A brief explanation of each follows. It is a standardized service in which the front and back office can be decoupled to allow for efficient delivery of service.
Sequential customized service design: the bulk of the work here is performed by the service employees in a system of strong interdependence between back and front offices.
Customers do not interact extensively with service employees but engage in the sharing of resources that makes mass service possible. Striking the right balance between front and back-office activities and responsibilities can be a difficult exercise. The front office is seen as a complex interactive process where the customer is variable and unpredictable. The back office, on the other hand, is controllable and affords labour cost savings by restricting the number of customer contact personnel.
The thinking behind Figure 3. It recognized the interdependence of three parties to a service exchange, the customer, the front-office employees and the back office. Of particular interest in this model is the specification of a front-office facility wherein physical contact is made with the customer. This is reminiscent of the original position held by Chase. Three questions arise out of the discussion so far: 1 How much contact with the customer is necessary?
This could be measured in time as a percentage of the total service creation time, the original Chase model, and evaluated in terms of activity-based costing of resources deployed in customer contact.
In an ongoing process of addressing these questions, services will be subject to classification and reclassification. Some, by their very nature, will remain dominated by a front-office operation, e. Others will forge ahead in terms of back-office concentration, e. The rest will be characterized by an unending tension between back and front office. The health service is an example of this category. Formerly patients were treated mainly in hospitals. Now only the most major surgery or specialist operations will occur in hospital.
With the advent of new technology in the delivery of medical care patients will be diagnosed and monitored from afar by using telemedicine facilities, e. NHS24 and Design of the service 57 the Internet.
For many situations the front office and direct physical contact with highly skilled medical staff will disappear to be replaced with self-management and lower qualified medical assistance. A further impact on the definition and deployment of front and back office has been the rise of the call centre.
The front office is now only accessible from a distance and often through fully automated phone systems where there is no option to speak to a human being. It is as if the front office is displaying back-office characteristics, namely efficiency, rationality, manufacturing oriented systems.
It is a map in which all the elements or activities, their sequencing and interaction, can be visualized. There are a number of essential steps in blueprinting a service. The service in this case is simple and clear-cut and the map is straightforward.
More complex services may require large, complicated diagrams. In Figure 3. Time is a good example. All rights reserved 58 Services Marketing Management research showed that the customer would tolerate up to 5 minutes before lowering his or her assessment of quality.
Each item represents an encounter point. The shoeshiner estimates the cost of delay; anything greater than 4 minutes execution time and he loses money. Consider the application and value of blueprinting for a car repair service.
The perspective is that of a customer using it for the first time Figure 3. Making assumptions about service quality from the type of evidence mentioned above is understandable but has the potential to mislead.
The seemingly chaotic, untidy garage manned by employees covered in oil and possessing little by way of modern equipment may be perceived as likely to render a poor service. Yet the opposite may be nearer the truth. The diagnosis represents an encounter point where the customer may, for example, describe symptoms to assist in determining the problem. It is critical in the sense that promises made to the customer and the resource implications of the job are determined on the basis of the diagnosis.
If the diagnosis is subsequently found to be incorrect, relationships with the customer may be impaired. After the initial diagnosis the customer will depart, without ever seeing the repair section. Where the organization draws the line of visibility, distinguishing the front office from the back office, is of some significance for service organizations. The nature of the service and how it is delivered offers guidance on where to draw the line, e. Other services, like a restaurant, may feel ambivalent about where to draw the line separating the front and back office.
Will greater involvement lead to more understanding and favourable impressions, i. What effect will there be on efficiency if the customer is allowed greater access to the service process? As already mentioned earlier in the chapter, a delicate balance may have to be struck between the need for efficiency and the desirability of customer involvement. The repair process in Figure 3. On paper this is a good example of the construction of a service blueprint. Undertaking such an exercise provides an opportunity for the service provider to 60 Services Marketing Management take a fresh look at the service and how it works.
Stephen H. Baum, Vice-President of Booz, Allen and Hamilton Inc, New York, believes three factors are critical to making a pay-off a The value delivered: what customers perceive they have actually received.
He cites the example of a fast-food business intent on cost savings in the kitchen which was convinced that automation would result in cost reduction. The issue, according to Baum, was not automation, but labour and time management. Much of the problem was caused by equipment choices, process sequences, and layout — not by employee performance. Blueprinting, then, can be regarded as a valuable and versatile tool in systems design. Its deployment can range from the simple design of a hotel bathroom through to monitoring the process flow of an important and confidential company document.
Improving the capacity, ability and willingness to serve must always be the expressed goal of any service organization. It will not be an easy task as the process moves away from the standardized design of a fast-food restaurant where time is the major design element. Clearly, performance standards, in terms of response time, are easier to set than, for example, degree of care and attention required by employees in other service situations. Of equal importance is the establishment of critical or pressure points and fail points.
From an organizational culture perspective the blueprint allows all the employees to see their role in the process. Such an approach may bring to the surface previously unspoken tensions, but at the same time it can give, particularly to the front-line employees, a voice in how the service should be delivered. It may well be, as a result of a blueprinting exercise, that the way these orders are carried out requires drastic overhauling. Management can be criticized, sometimes, for thinking they know best.
A process cannot be improved until there is a clear understanding of how it works. There may well be different viewpoints as to how a process should be performed and monitored. It is advisable, therefore, that the views of management, employees and even customers should be solicited. People and equipment required to perform the process Documents that direct how the process is to be accomplished. Through the determination of organizing principles, the service logical model proposes how and why a unified service system should work.
It will be evident in what customers expect of the service and how it might compare with other services. It is essentially concerned with the way things are done dictated largely by organization policy, rules and regulations.
Employee logic is the underlying rationale that drives employee behaviour. The service blueprint Figure 3. The initial contact with the garage represents the first step in framing the customer logic. Thereafter additional work and availability of parts will need to be discussed with the customer. The extra cost and further delay will be evaluated by the customer in terms of whether it is reasonable and acceptable. Finally the garage will review with the customer the work that has been done and the customer will depart reflecting on whether the service has offered value for money.
The correctness of the diagnosis, the availability of parts and the quality of work performed on the car will indicate how well the service system is working from a technical logic perspective.
The final logic, that of the employee examines how working conditions and the related matters of morale and motivation impact on job performance. Ideally, for the service logic model to operate a unified system and provide a seamless service, the 3 logics must share a common interest.
This is not inevitably so. So, although service logic appears attractive in principle, it has some way to go to overcome the hurdles in practice. Summary However a service is portrayed, it is a function of design. A range of decisions have to be made from seemingly straightforward issues such as employee uniform design through to the degree and nature of customer contact. Various classifications and options have been suggested, incorporating major variables.
One feature that remains contentious is the balance between front and back office. For many services the front office appears under threat, not only in terms of its retention but also the nature of its operation.
Specifically, the front office may adopt the characteristics of the back office. One tool that is valuable for specifying the precise details of a service is the blueprint.
Appendix 3. Part I: Drawing a service blueprint You will develop a blueprint of the process steps involved in creating and delivering the service you have selected. Keep your blueprint as simple as possible. How well does the service process deliver the key dimensions of service quality, i.
Design of the service 63 Part II: Interpreting the service map After you have drawn the map, the next step is interpreting the service process. The following issues are simply illustrative of those you may wish to address.
How is management planning to address this gap? Customer role: How involved is the customer in the production and delivery of the service? How would you characterize the nature of that involvement? How is management planning to address the gap — e. How would you characterize the quality of the work environment? Consider such issues as training, pay, supervision, physical environment, etc.
Procedures: Are they standardized or customized? Technology: How significant a role does it play in the process? What impact does it have on customers? On employees? London: Pan Books, p. New York: McGraw-Hill. New York: The Free Press, p. Berkeley, CA: University of California, pp. The control by the designer of corporate elements that form interior spaces can impact on the success of that delivery in a variety of ways.
Who and what an organization is and what it believes in ultimately determines whether or not people will believe in it, work for it and buy from it.
Another term used to describe the tangible physical environment is servicescape. This descriptor was first used by Bitner3,4 as a means of differentiating those aspects of the physical environment, e. This chapter is concerned with the former see Chapter 9 for a discussion of the latter.
The environment can portray a strong and consistent character. This in turn helps make the organization coherent to its constituency — its customers, clients, partners, stakeholders and opinion-formers. We are all unconsciously but acutely aware of our surroundings. Like sleepwalkers we make automatic decisions about the objects and environments around us that effect how and where we live, what we buy, where we go and how and on what we spend our money. One way to understand the effect service design has on our lives is to slow down and unpick our everyday decisions.
Think about why you chose to go to the last pub or restaurant you visited and what you like, or dislike, about the environment. Think about your choice of holiday resort or cinema — what do you like or dislike about them and what triggered you to buy them in the first place. Consider why you prefer one brand over another and their respective meanings.
When we step through the vast door of a grand cathedral we automatically feel small and introverted because we are dwarfed by the interior space. We can hear our own footsteps, feel the drop in temperature and smell the stale air.
Together these elements make us aware of our mortality and our solitary existence in a much bigger world. None of these phenomena are accidental, but are techniques honed by designers over thousands of years.
In terms of service strategy it is only relatively recently that serious consideration has been given to how the design of the service setting may affect consumer feelings and responses.
There are no Ten Commandments that determine how a service setting should or should not be designed. Nevertheless, just as companies want to know how and why customers respond to packaging, price, product, advertising, service organizations need to develop an understanding of customer responses to layout, furnishings, colour, light etc.
Research should focus on overall impressions and feelings Table 4. Drawing on developments in decision-making theory in which customers respond to more than simply the tangible product or service, Kotler5 proposed that atmospherics be regarded as an important marketing tool.
The service setting 67 Table 4. The buyer enters the store and sees a few nice pieces and a considerable amount of junk. The nice pieces are randomly scattered in different parts of the store. The buyer therefore browses quite systematically, hoping to spot an undiscovered Old Master hidden among the dusty canvasses of third rate artists. He ends up buying something that he regards as having a value. Little does he know that the whole atmosphere has been arranged to create a sense of hidden treasures.
In this context, services can be classified in terms of two dimensions see Figure 4. In terms of the first dimension, there are some services where the customer is selfserving, e. ATMs, voice messaging services, online shopping services. In these services, the organization should be more concerned with planning the service experience to maximize satisfaction, than with any considerations for the physical environment, since the setting is not seen by the consumer.
Then there are some services where both customer and service employee are present — restaurants, hotels, air travel. Here the designer has to consider the needs of both. There is little point concentrating solely on one, even customers, since this may reduce staff morale and consequently motivation.
How many of us have experienced a pleasant service setting ruined by disenfranchised staff? The current outbreaks of the MRSA superbug in hospitals have been largely attributed to poor standards of cleaning by hospital staff.
Who knows, they might clean more effectively if some consideration had been given to their needs in the design of the service setting. At the other end of the spectrum are services where only employees are present, e. Consequently the focus of those designing the setting should be on such matters as staff motivation and productivity.
Lean environments are those that are simple, with few elements. In such environments design decisions tend to be relatively straightforward. Elaborate environments, on the other hand, tend to be complicated, containing many elements and forms. Hospitals, hotels and schools are some examples of elaborate environments. These are the most complex service settings to design.
Given the intangible nature of many services, the setting gives important clues about the organization. Each is different, but then the user groups and services provided are so very different also. One would expect the setting to reflect this. Note that the setting can often lead consumers to infer a higher quality and therefore higher expectations of price on an item found in an exclusive setting, than where the identical item appears in a lower quality setting.
Think of the difference between the setting of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden from that of a fringe venue at the Edinburgh Festival. Research has shown that there are various cues that customers use to differentiate services within the same industry.
In doing so, a key objective is often to improve productivity or reduce costs. So banks and airlines in their increasing use of self-serve have to design their service environments in a different way to that of ten years ago.
Many hotel chains too are asking customers to become more involved in the production of the service. So breakfast is from a buffet, tea-making and clothesironing is in the room.
These factors impact on the design of the setting. So in many advertising agencies, board members have large, wellfurnished imposing offices, whilst the new graduate trainee is lucky to get a corner of a desk.
The same agencies will often have bars, games rooms or soft play areas where staff can unwind and socialize with one another.
In health clubs and other leisure industries staff are often expected to socialize with customers and some area of the service setting is designed to facilitate this. We will not enter the debate about the order in which cognitive or affective states are experienced. Nor will we discuss whether these states are antecedents to the behavioural outcome, or consequences of them.
There is substantial debate about both these matters in the consumer behaviour literature. The setting can provide vital cues and clues that convey meaning through what is referred to as object language. In some cases industries can be categorized into different types of setting. They help inform them of what is expected: so, on the low-cost airline there are none of the segregated seating or executive lounges of the traditional carrier. In truth the majority of service experiences are fairly routine with little high-order level cognitive processing.
The designer will employ many elements colour lighting etc. It can also assist those tasked with designing the service environment. Instead, they should attempt to incorporate elements to shift the horizontal positioning. Those charged with designing settings for service providers will most probably be tasked with eliciting behavioural responses beyond that of approach.
The setting may be designed to encourage the consumer to linger or browse on the basis that this is likely to increase the value of their shopping basket. The bookseller Waterstones does this to good effect.
It has seating areas, and coffee shops. Or it may be designed to take customers speedily through the service experience on the basis that revenue can be maximized by encouraging speedy customer throughput. The chairs are a little uncomfortable, the tables close together and the lighting is bright. Remember that in many service operations, the environment should be designed to elicit desired behavioural responses not only from the customer, but also from staff.
Hospital staff are expected to work in an efficient, hygienic and calm way. Their environment gives all sorts of clues about this. Soft furnishings are kept to a minimum, and the space is designed to be uncluttered and germ-free. Designer retail outlets have no seats for their sales advisers. Instead they have to stand, making them ever-ready to assist the customer. These are the ambient conditions, space and functionality, and the use of signs, symbols and artefacts see Figure 4.
Elements such as lighting, music, noise, colour, temperature and scent. The service provider should consider these factors in the design of the environment. They can play a significant role in achieving desired behavioural responses. Lighting This is often a key element in the design of the service setting.
The design and specification of lighting schemes is a specialized activity. The direction and strength of daylight affect the perception of colour. The particular activities to be undertaken in the space under consideration must be clearly defined: accuracy, speed, safety, recognition etc. What does the organization really want from the space? Is it to sell visual satisfaction or is it to sell hamburgers? Is it to indicate the conservative solidity of the world of financial services or is it to reassure people about to board an aeroplane?
The level of vision required can depend upon the nature of the task. It can also depend upon the age of the client or customer. If the task requires detailed work from the customer or service provider then strong light is required.
If the background setting is well lit then even greater intensity of light will be required for the detailed work as the eyes become accustomed to the relative lessening of the contrast. In many situations the achievement of the desired mood or ambience of the space is paramount. A church or library would generally exude a peaceful calm whereas a fast-food diner or modern music store would wish to create a youthful, exciting, gregarious atmosphere. On a scientific level, the perception of colour and lighting is governed by a vast array of data such as the depth of penetration of daylight, glare, or the reflectance value of the surface that light is falling on and the psychology of colour contrasts.
Other constraints on the design of lighting systems have to do with variables such as energy conservation, heat gain and ease of maintenance programmes. For the designer there is the additional burden of wanting to create magic.
The creative use of light can bring an interior to life — the interaction of light and shadow can sculpt, expand, scale, highlight, silhouette, sparkle and most importantly can move merchandise. Colour Colour has a language of its own. Much like music, it can evoke moods and emotions — excitement, happiness, serenity, sadness. The symbolic nature of colour has for centuries fulfilled a role in religion, magic, heraldry, communication, and ritual, as well as being a major player in creative processes.
Ancient classical architecture of the Greek and Italian empires used brilliant, bold colours. Value — the lightness or darkness of a colour. Chroma — the intensity of strength or purity of colour. There are numerous theories about the way in which colour works. It is not sufficient, however, to consider colour without an understanding of the effects of light, the discrimination of relative colours — that is, the different appearance of one colour or hue which is in the proximity of another hue — and also the spatial and the emotional effects of colour.
Colour can only be measured in relation to other colours, and while an adult with normal vision can distinguish probably two thousand colours, this experience is, at best, highly subjective.
Colour can never be isolated and the resultant experience modifies the perception. A colour always has to be considered in relation to its neighbour in any successful lighting design. In simplistic terms one can say that colour schemes that are largely monochromatic different values of the same hue are the safest solution. Next best in terms of little risk are schemes that rely on using colours that are adjacent in the spectrum and therefore have one hue in common.
The riskiest and therefore sometimes the most rewarding or interesting schemes are those based on complementary colours or those of high contrast. This almost elementary appeal perhaps stems from experiences and memories we had as children. Nature, of course, employs exotic schemes in the plant world and colours of courtship or warning in animals, fish, birds and insects. A further consideration in managing colour in the service setting is to plan a scheme such that adjacent rooms share some relationship or harmony.
Generally speaking, large spaces are better balanced by using a scheme of soft, low-intensity colour with strong, vibrant hues reserved for accent or highlight value. Also important is an understanding that colours have optical and emotional values.
Warmth and coolness are easily distinguished by colour choice so that red, orange, yellow and their family are warm while green, blue, violet and their family are cool. A finer division can occur at junctions in the spectrum so that red-violet and yellowgreen can occupy both camps or form a bridge between warm-cool. Red indicates danger, excitement, stop etc. Conversely, green indicates peacefulness, safety, go etc. Perceived sizes of areas of colour vary with the selection of hue — warm colours appear to advance towards the viewer, cool colours to retract or recede.
Colour choice can therefore be used to modify the perceived size and shape of areas. Colour is utilized to improve efficiency in the workplace; colour can help people to relax, it can help lower accident rates, aid convalescence, help market merchandise or create an appetite where food is served. Specifics will be discussed below under the five colours selected. In their book based on the television series The Colour Eye, Cumming and Porter16 give some valuable insights into colour psychology.
It is used by interior designers to increase comfort levels in unheated spaces and is also regarded along with pink as good for restaurants, especially the fast-food variety. One study showed that red stimulated diners to eat more quickly and move on for the next person. Orange — although researchers have claimed that an orange environment improves social behaviour, cheers the spirit and lessens hostility and irritability, it is seldom used by professional designers.
Yellow — conflicting evidence here which, on the one hand, suggests its ideal stimulative effect where concentration is required. Green — symbolizes the natural world and is widely believed to be a calming hue. Ideal for areas where relaxation is required and along with blue is found to enhance our appetite; thus good for dining areas. Barcode Shelfmark Loan type Status Statement of responsibility : Richard M. Wilson and Colin Gilligan.
ISBN : , , , Note : Includes bibliographical references and index. Physical Description : xii, p. Subject : Strategic planning. Contents Preface Overview of the book's structure Introduction Where are we now? Strategic and marketing analysis Marketing auditing and the analysis of capability Segmental, productivity and ratio analysis Approaches to environmental analysis Approaches to customer analysis Where do we want to be?
Strategic direction and strategic formulation Missions and objectives Market segmentation, targeting and positioning The formulation of strategy The formulation of strategy The formulation of strategy How might we get there?
0コメント