604 The Marketing Book
Other people who simultaneously consume a
mass-produced service can affect the benefits
which an individual receives from the service
in a number of ways. First, the characteristics
of other users of a service can affect the image
of the service, in much the same way as
owners of certain brands of goods can lend
them some degree of ‘snob’ appeal. In this way,
a nightclub can build up an exclusive image on
account of the high-spending, high-profile users
who patronize it. Second, the presence of
other consumers in the service
production–delivery process means that the
final quality of the service which any customer
receives is dependent on the performance of
other consumers. In effect, they become
co-producers of the service offering. Often,
fellow consumers have an important role to
play in enhancing the quality of the service
offering, such as a full house in a theatre that
creates an ambience for all customers to enjoy.
On other occasions, fellow consumers can
contribute negatively to the service production
process, like where rowdy behaviour in a pub
or smoking in a restaurant detracts from the
enjoyment of an event for other customers.
Processes
Production processes are usually of little con-
cern to consumers of manufactured goods, but
can be of critical concern to consumers of ‘high
contact’ services, where the consumer can be
seen as a co-producer of the service. A customer
of a restaurant is deeply affected by the manner
in which staff serve them and the amount of
waiting which is involved during the produc-
tion process. Issues arise as to the boundary
between the producer and consumer in terms
of the allocation of production functions – for
example, a restaurant might require a customer
to collect their meal from a counter, or to
deposit their own rubbish. With services, a
clear distinction cannot be made between mar-
keting and operations management.
Much attention has gone into the study of
‘service encounters’, defined by Shostack (1985)
as ‘a period of time during which a consumer
directly interacts with a service’. Among the
multiplicity of service encounters, some will be
crucial to successful completion of the service
delivery process. These are often referred to as
critical incidents and have been defined by
Bitneret al. (1990) as ‘... specific interactions
between customers and service firm employees
that are especially satisfying or especially dis-
satisfying’. While their definition focuses on the
role of personnel in critical incidents, they can
also arise as a result of interaction with the
service provider’s equipment.
Where service production processes are
complex and involve multiple service encoun-
ters, it is important for an organization to gain
a holistic view of how the elements of the
service relate to each other. ‘Blueprinting’ is a
graphical approach proposed by Shostack
(1984), designed to overcome problems which
occur where a new service is launched without
adequate identification of the necessary sup-
port functions. A customer blueprint has three
main elements: All of the principal functions required to make
and distribute a service are identified, along
with the responsible company unit or
personnel.
Timing and sequencing relationships among the
functions are depicted graphically.
For each function, acceptable tolerances are
identified in terms of the variation from
standard which can be tolerated without
adversely affecting customers’ perception of
quality.Services are, in general, very labour intensive
and have not witnessed the major productivity
increases seen in many manufacturing indus-
tries. Sometimes, mechanization can be used to
improve the efficiency of the service production
process, but for many personal services this
remains a difficult possibility. An alternative
way to increase the service provider’s pro-
ductivity is to involve the consumer more fully
in the production process.