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WHAT IS SERVICESCAPE?

The concept of a servicescape was developed by Booms and Bitner to emphasize the impact of the

physical environment in which a service process takes place. Booms and Bitner defined a servicescape

as: "The environment in which the service is assembled and in which the seller and customer interact,

combined with tangible commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service"

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SERVICESCAPES

Servicescapes can be classified on two dimensions:

Servicescape usage

Complexity of the servicescapes

I. The usage takes into account as to how organisations differs in terms of who the servicescape willactually have an effect on when they come in contact with the service facility-customers, employees, or

both groups which gives rise to three situations:

Self-service (customers only)

Interpersonal services (both, customer and employee)

Remote services (employee only)

2 II. The complexity of the servicescape has two environments:

Lean (simple, few elements, few spaces, and few pieces of equipments)

Elaborate (very complicated, many elements, and many forms)

For lean servicescapes, design decisions are relatively straightforward, especially in self-service or

remote service situations in which there is no interaction among employees and customers.

For elaborate servicescapes, the full range of marketing and organisational objectives can be

approached through careful management of the servicescape.

TYPOLOGY IMPLICATIONS

By locating itself in the appropriate cell of the typology as above, the organisation should answer the

following:

I. Who should be consulted in making servicescapes and other evidence decisions? (Accordingly, focus

customer needs, employees, or group needs)

II. What organisational goals might be

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targeted through servicescape designs?

(for self service, the marketing goals; for

remote, the work-group needs; for

interpersonal, both marketing and

organisational goals)

How complex is the set of decisions

regarding the servicescape? (for elaborate,

complex design, more resources of time and

money, and people involvement)

ROLES OF THE SERVICESCAPE

I. Package. wrap the service and convey

an external image. It extends to the

appearance of contact personnel through

their uniforms or dress and other elements

of their out-ward appearances.

II. Facilitator. Aiding the performances of

persons in the environment. Make service a

pleasure to experience from the

customers point of view and a pleasure to

perform from the employees.

III. Socialising. Aid in socialising of both

employees and customers by conveying

the expected roles, behaviours, and

relationships through office assignments,

quality of furnishings and location in

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organisation.

IV. Differentiator. Exclusive positioning as

differentiated from its competitors and

signal the market segment the service it

intends to provide. Use of colours, music.

Price differentiation through variation of

physical luxurious settings and sittings.