UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

SERVICES MARKETING
Individual Assignment
28th MARCH, 2011

We certify that this assignment is the result of

our own work and does not exceed the word
count noted below.

Number of words: 1993

(Excluding references, title page tables and topics)
MODULE LEADER: Dr. Mei-Na Liao
MODULE: MAN4150M
UB NUMBER: 10035663

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Fierce competition pushes company to more differentiation
regarding both product and delivering channels with the aim to build
strong and sustainable relationships with a strategic targeted
segment of customers. Services are characterized by five main
elements by the marketing literature: intangibility, inseparability,
heterogeneity and perishability (Regan 1963, Rathmell 1966,
Shostack 1977 and Zeithaml et al 1985). Each of these
characteristics has to be carefully taken into account when services
are created, evaluated and performed by the company.

This essay will discuss how company can improve and deliver
satisfactory services using as a framework four elements of the
marketing mix (Process, People, Physical evidence and quality) and
will illustrate a way to ensure a state of the art service delivery
through the analysis of the successful story of Apple’s store
experience.

As Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994) have noted, “From the customer’s
point of view, the most immediate evidence of service occurs in the
service encounter or the “moment of truth” when the customer
interacts with the firm”. Therefore, companies have to define what is
the best process to use during this moment of truth to ensure
customers’ expectations are met. Knowledge and control that
customers can have upon services have been showed as factors
increasing customer’s satisfaction. The term perceived control is
used to depict situation in which customers are able to foreseen and
control events within the service (Bateson 1985). Therefore
predictability was showed as a factor increasing the satisfaction of
customer related to peace of mind and patience. This concept of
perceived control has to be carefully taken into account regarding
how employees inform their customers during the delivery process
(Scheinder and Bowen 1985). The process engaged in the service
delivery has to be clear and transparent from the customer point of
view by keeping them cautiously informed.

Another key element of the process using during the delivery of

services is how the companies manage critical incidents. According
to Bitner, Booms and Tetreault (1990) the Critical Incident Technique
(CIT) allows company to classify incidents in order to create
standardized responses or actions. As a result, employees can
receive training giving them knowledge of how to react to fix the
problem in an effective way. Such a framework enables managers to
transform general concept as “friendly, efficient, professional” into
an actual procedure that can be apply within the service delivery.
Hence, standardize procedures may decrease the heterogeneity
aspect of services by bringing consistency and homogeneity in the

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process used to satisfy customer and facilitate their learning of the
service.

After designing the process that can manage anxiety and stress
generated by the interaction between the customers and the
company, efforts now have to be focus on the people who will be
actually perform the service. The main aspect regarding people is
the interaction or rapport that occurs between employees and
customers.

Tickle Degnen and Rosenthal (1990) state that people experience

rapport “when they ‘click’ with each other or [feel] the good
interaction [is] due to ‘chemistry’”(p.286). Gwinner, Grembler (2000)
determined that only two of the components of rapport are critical
regarding services. The first dimension is the customer’s perception
of experiencing an enjoyable interaction. Tickle-Degnen and
Rosenthal (1990) describe enjoyable interaction in term of
“positivity”, a mix of friendliness and feeling of care as on outcome
of a cognitive evaluation of the exchange between the customer and
the company. Nevertheless enjoyableness is not related to the final
outcome of the service: whereas the customer can have a
satisfactory relationship regarding the service, he can be not
satisfied regarding the product that was delivered. Because
customers are likely not able to distinguish the service from the
actual product (because of the inseparability character of services)
the evaluation of the delivery process is complicated to elaborate
and achieve. Lovelock (1983) underlines the fact that the best way
for companies to collect feedback from their customer is to ask their
employees who shared the experience with customers. Employees
are the most accurate database only if they receive an affective
formation to learn how to evaluate customer’s behaviour.

The second dimension of rapport is characterized by a personal

connection. Weitz, Castleberry, and Tanner (1992) define rapport as
“a close, harmonious relationship founded on mutual trust” (p.228).
Or Dell (1991) defines rapport as “how good customers feel in
general about their interactions with the vendor” (p.101). These
definitions emphasize the role played by the trust and feeling of
being understood in the creation of a personal connection when
services occurred. Sheaves and Barnes (1996) went deeper in this
analysis declaring personal connection dimension of rapport may
contribute to the one’s sense of self-definition. This aspect is very
important because it interacts directly with the targeted customer
segment of the company and therefore with the segmentation
defined by marketing mix. Then, when managers design their
services they have to keep in mind not only how they want

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customers to perceive the company but also how customers
perceive them-selves. Along with this idea Ashforth and Kreiner
(1999, p. 417) wrote “Through social interaction and the
internalization of collective values, meanings, and standards,
individuals come to see themselves somewhat through the eyes of
others and construct more or less stable self-definitions and sense of
self-esteem”. Psychological similarities between customers and
employees can be use to bridge the gap existing between two
people who really know each other and somehow create the
sensation of bounding with somebody which in the case of a service
can be the goal to reach. Therefore by having the best-trained
employees, not too much narrowed in a single task to avoid high
level of complexity for the customer (too many different person
involved in the service delivery), company will provide the best
satisfactory experience for the customer.

Another key element of a service that has to be deeply control by

companies is the environment in which customers and employees
evolve. First of all, according to Berry and Clark (1986) even before
any intention of purchase, customers evaluate a company through
the overall feeling given by the physical infrastructure. The
environment can be very influential to the customer’s perception
about the quality of the company (Rapoport 1982) and all the senses
have a role to appraise ambient conditions such as temperature, air
quality, music, furniture layout and even signs and symbols
(Religious, trend etc.). To understand and gather all aspects of the
influence that environment can have on customer, Bitner M.J. (1992)
has developed an integrated framework named ServiceScape (see
figure below) in which not only customer are take into account but
also employees.

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 Framework for Understand Environment-User Relationships in
Service Organizations

Through their research Russell and Snodgrass (1987) agreed that

emotion-eliciting qualities of the environment could be describe
along two dimensions: pleasure and arousal. They proved that
experience lived in a natural or manmade surrounding-environment
can be evaluate according these two dimension and even more can
be linked with the customer’s behaviour: in environments creating
pleasure, people are more likely to spend money whereas
unpleasant areas are avoided. Furthermore, in a study, Obermiller
and Bitner (1984) showed that the environment directly impacts
evaluations of a product by a customer. On the same product,
positive ratings were made in a pleasant place while in a disturbed
area, consumers dislike it.
Therefore three dimensions have to be carefully evaluated when
space is designed: Complexity, Coherence and Mystery (Kaplan
1987). Complexity (ornamentation, visual richness) increase
emotional arousal while coherence (clarity, unity) enhances positive
evaluation. In addition, Mystery (lack of information, direction etc.)
can be use to increase curiosity but in a mean time can create
confusion. The structure itself of a store can thus be use to increase
customer’s satisfaction and therefore increase purchase intention,
but also cultivate the loyalty of their customers by offering them of
full experience.

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Intensifying competition has led many companies to target a high
quality service to differentiate their offer from competitors. Thus
tools are developed to ensure an assessment of quality related to
services. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) describe the
framework of SERVQUAL based on a twenty-two item instruments for
assessing customer perception related to the service quality.
Holbrook and Corfman (1985) observed the difference between
perceived quality and objective quality. Whereas conceptual
meaning of objective quality can be synthesising in term of zero-
default product, perceive quality “involves the subjective response
of people to objects and is therefore a highly relativistic
phenomenon that differs between judges” (Holbrook and Corfman
1985, p.33). In the light of these observations, ten potential
overlapping dimensions were picked to evaluate the customer’s
assessment service qualities that are: tangible, reliable,
responsiveness, communication, credibility, security, competence,
courtesy, understanding/knowing (the customer) and access. Most of
these dimensions are already take into account into the appraisal of
the physical evidence, people and process during the marketing mix
and it shows how all the aspect of services are deeply linked.
A critical issue related to service quality is its perception from the
company. As Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman proved it, “the link
between service quality and profits is neither straightforward nor
simple” (1996, p.31). Therefore to achieve a high-level quality
service, company has to carefully integrate this quality dimension
from the very beginning of their strategy in order to fully control
whether costs will worth any investment. Also related with the
company strategy, Zahorik and Rust (1992) distinguish to aspect
impact by quality: offensive effect (basically capturing new
customers) and the defensive effect base on retaining customers.
Therefore depending of the life cycle of a product, company has to
balance between these two aspects to allocate efficiently and wisely
their resources.

Based on the study of Garrett (2004) of the Apple store experience,

an illustration of how to wisely implement concepts that have been
describe previously can be conduct. Five main points can be extract
from the Apple store experience.

First of all, a company has to create an experience, not an artifact.

While most retailors failed to attract visitors to the second floor of
their stores, Apple takes up the challenge by designing the
centrepiece around a magnificent solid glass staircase. The whole
space is used to ensure that customers cannot resist to set foot on
that stairs and switched to the next level where none of the cash
machine are visible. From the beginning, the customer’s line of sight

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is carried out only on products.

Secondly, Apple Store honours the context. Instead of being

organized by type of products, the first floor is set up by context. For
instance digital cameras, photo-software and printers are gathered
in such way that customers can dream about possibilities. This
context concept is even carries over the purchase act. Cashiers put
time and care during the transaction making clear that the purchase
is not an end by the very beginning of a journey.

Thirdly Apple prioritizes its message. To avoid high level of arousal,

Apple store proposes basically three products placed one a simple
wood table. Only few ads are showed particular areas. Customers
are just invited to try the product a make his own opinion.

Fourthly Apple institutes consistency. Every store is based on the

same recipe with brushed metallic surfaces and designed ceilings
giving to the customer the impression that he is walking inside a
product made by the same assembly line that an IPod. Graphic and
typographic styles match also Apple’s software interfaces or
advertisings.

Finally, Apple does not forget the human element. All employees
have business cards and not name tag, have an IPod attached to
their belt looking as living the Apple experience themselves.
Employees are brand emissaries well training able to inform
customers with the particular

Creating a satisfactory experience for customers is a tricky

challenge. To successfully achieve a high quality service all
departments have to think in term of customer satisfaction and
adapt their strategy along the customer point of view answering the
questions how do we want to be seen? What do we want to deliver?
And not neglect the most important resource: people.

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