Essay Wow!

1. INTRODUCTIONOver the past decade, customers are becoming harder and harder to be pleased with what were delivered to them in exchange of the customer’s disposable income (Parasuraman et al. 1985) (Reichheld & Sasser 1990). Nowadays, customers are more critical to product / service they purchase. Enterprises are trying to offer something innovative to differentiate them selves among the ever increasing competition.

Prior to any purchasing decision, according to Kotler (1973), one of the four P’s – the place can be more influential than the product itself. Later developed by Mehrabian & Russel (1974) that publish the Mehrabian-Russell Model that draw situational factor such as mood & expectation. Servicescape later popularized by Bitner (1992), the physical environment surrounding customers & employees is termed servicescape. Ever since, this has been the subject of many scholars and practitioners.

As an influential factor for customers to make purchasing decision, it clearly a very important subject for any marketers as an effort to increase revenue and to stay competitive in the marketplace (Hightower et al. 2000).

Marketers from any type of industry can really integrate servicescape into marketing plans. The industry can be sport such as softball (Robinson 1997) (King 2000); hospitality such as nightclubs, hotels, restaurants (Jones et al. 2003) (Clarke et al. 1998) (Skinner et al. 2005); and many more.

This paper tries to describe the importance of the main elements (i.e. ambient condition, spatial layout / functionality, signs / symbols / artefacts) (Bitner 1992). A few additional elements later developed that found can be influential to consumer behaviour are music (Jacob 2006), aesthetic design of virtual servicescape on the companies’ websites (Rafaeli & Vilnal-Yavetz 2006); the sex of service provider (Fischer et al. 1997). In order to give better understanding about the servicescape and its application in real-world companies, three firms from three different service sectors are chosen.

The three different firms in three different services are a luxurious upscale fashion chain store – Louis Vuitton, one of the top consumer banks in Indonesia – BCA Bank, and one of the upscale restaurants in Indonesia – The Angus House. These three firms are chosen because they are creating special servicescape to allow themselves to be stay in the edge of competition. An analysis of each firm shall be supported with literature review from various journals and theories.

2. SERVICESCAPEDEFINITIONServicescape of a company is the tangible asset that represents the company to its clients and has been showing strong influential affect between customer purchasing behaviour, satisfaction and loyalty (Bitner 1992) (Mummalaneni 2005) (Stone & English 1998) (Wirtz and Bateson 1999) (Yun et al. 2001).

MAIN ELEMENTSAccording to Bitner (1992), there are three main elements of servicescape, they are:(1)Ambient ConditionThis refers to a condition surrounding employees and customers that can be sensed through a human’s five senses (i.e. eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin).

Music plays an important role in creating the required atmosphere (Kotler 1973), and it is believed that the music tempo can make the consumers to stay longer (Milliman 1982 1986) and establishing a style (Yalch & Spangeberg 1990) (Areni & Kim 1993).

According to Dube & Morin (1999), music also can help employees to feel more relax and enjoy their working. Also, theOften music as servicescape is chosen by employees’ or managers’ personal preference type of music (Dube & Morin 1999). In most cases, wrong type of music will deliver wrong kind of atmosphere that will have negative effects on customers and other employees.

(2)Spatial Layout / FunctionalitySpatial Layout refers to the seamless layout of furnishing to achieve maximum productivity in the most efficient and effective manners. Functionality refers to the items to provide better service and higher productivity to customers (Barker 1968) (Wicker 1984) (Fox & Bender 1986)McCormick (1976) suggested three principles in spatial layout arrangement: features that frequently used should be strategically placed to where the equipments can be used optimally; equipments that have interrelated activities should be clustered together; and environmental features that might interfere or disturb another activities should be placed in different place.

(3)Signs, Symbols & ArtefactsThis refers to icons or signals that amplify the message from the buyer to the intended customers.

There are a few more elements that found from variety of literatures believe to be additional elements that would eventually affect consumers buying behaviours, they are:(4)Virtual ServicescapeUndoubtedly, the Internet has been experiencing a rapid growth in number of usage and applications for both personal and business use (Browne et al. 2004) (Thompson 2002). The virtual servicescape (Rafaeli & Vilnal-Yavetz 2006) is where the employees or the customers are not in the same physical area, but they are interacting via an electronic media – the Internet.

According to (Rafaeli & Vilnal-Yavetz 2006), virtual Servicescape is about aesthetics and professionalism. Aesthetic is found to influence feelings of comfort, easy, and service interaction. The more aesthetic the company website’s design, the more satisfied is the customer (Hall & Hanna 2004) (Nasar 1998).

(5)Sex of service providerAccording to Fischer et al. (1997), the sex of the service provider is also one of the elements that need to be considered in creating an optimum serviscape for the employees and customers.

Fischer et al. (1997) argued a certain sex of the service provider of a certain type of industry will be dominated by a certain sex. For example: a male employee would be seen more dominant in a hardware store or an auto-repair shop compared to lingerie store (Basow 1992) (Gordon 1991) (Mackie et al. 1996) (Sacks 1989).

Usually, people would tend to interact with the others who are similar / like themselves (Brown & Reingen 1987) (Rogers & Bhowmik 1971).

HOLISTIC COMPOSITIONA person will shape a perceived image in his / her mind towards a product or service holistically (Ittelson et al. 1974) (Bell et al. 1978) (Holahan 1982). Although a person discretely analysed serviscape elements (i.e. ambient conditions, spatial layout and signage), the mind will perceive holistically.

GOAL OF SERVICESCAPEThe basic goal of the servicescape is to create a good, nice and positive feeling of a product / service that can lead a customer to conduct transaction for the first time patron and hope to re-patron (refers to Approach). However, wrong doing in servicescape can lead to negative feeling that make customer distressed and make them no longer wish to do business with that company (refers to Avoidance) (Bitner 1992) (Donovan & Rossiter 1982).

There are two outcomes of emotional responses in servicescape – Pleasure and Arousal (Mehrabian & Russell 1974) (Russell & Pratt 1980) (Russell & Lanius 1984) (Russell and Snodgrass (1987). Respectively, pleasure is when someone has nice feelings towards to a situation, whereas Arousal is the degree when someone feels excited in a certain situation (Donovan & Rossiter 1982)PROGRESSAccording to Lin (2004) the progress of servicescape is argued whether cognition precedes or vice versa. The Gestalt approach should be used as a guide to better understand about a perceptual image is created in someone’s mind from the physical surrounding (Schiffman 2001). According to Kotler (1973), servicescape provides immediate perceptual image in customers’ mind. Levitt (1981) believed that in service sector where customers more often received intangible product, customers will be use more tangible products to make judgement and evaluations.

BRANDINGThe third element of Bitner (1992) - Signs, Symbols & Artefacts involving branding. A brand of a product or service is a bond (positive or negative) between the buyer and seller (Lassar et al. 1995). Brand is also seen by customers as to perceive risk, value, and signal the quality of the product / service (Janiszewski & van Osselaer 2000). Branding and servicescape are inseparable. Branding is something that let the product / service stayed in customers’ minds.

3. THE THREE FIRMSThe chosen three firms as mentioned earlier are Louis Vuitton, BCA Bank – Priority account, and Angus House. Each of the three firms shares few similarities and differences in applying servicescapes at their premises. Each has its own way to stands out among the crowds.

This section will explain the similarities and the differences in general while the in-depth explanation will be given in the next section of analysis and justification of its servicescape.

IDENTIFIED SIMILARITIESBased on Bitner’s physical environmental dimensions (1992), the three firms have similarities as below:-Ambient ConditionsFrom the five senses of a human being (i.e. eyes, ears, skin, nose, and mouth), consumers will be able to sense that the premises are luxurious and offering premium quality of product and service in super-premium prices. These firms are positioning themselves at a level where consumers consider prices come second after quality of product or service.

Colour of both exterior and interior setting is recognized as one of the most appealing visual cues in a servicescape (Eiseman 1998). Research has proven that different colours stimulate different sense in individual level including their moods and emotions. Bitner (1992) believe that well placed colours that blend to the place will create a vibrating sense to whoever patronizing the place. These three firms are using warm and dark colours to give luxurious and warm feelings to customers. Only those who can afford to pay premium price can enter such places. This gives a sense of prestigious to those who consume the product or service provided by these three firms.

Baker (1987) recognizes that people or “human component” to be part of the physical environment that will affect one’s perception of a firm. These three firms must their employees to look nicely dressed with uniforms, clean, smell nicely, friendly smile, and welcoming gesture. Kubacki et al. (2007) believes that security is also one of the elements for high-class people who prefer to have a sense of security when entering premises. These three firms place male security guards in front of main entrances. The security guards act as simple welcoming committee who welcome and greet customers. This gives feeling of security in doing transaction within the guarded area.

According to Lin (2004), auditory cues can be categorized into two parts – music and non-musical sound. Hui et al. (1997) believes that music is an effective tool to enhance positive feeling toward the premise and when waiting in any service operation. These three firms are playing slow tempo instrumental music that many researchers found to help shaping the mood and emotion of the patrons (Hui et al. 1997). Also, this type of music is seen by most people as high-class and prestigious.

All three firms are fully air conditioned-Spatial Layout and FunctionalitySpatial layout is a matter of placing the items (i.e. machineries, equipment, and furnishings) at the right place to ensure smooth flow from the time customer enters a premise (Bitner 1992).

The main entrance of the premises of these three firms made from clear tampered glass to provide spaciousness and a sense of welcome to any who want to enter. A professional reception desk is located near to the main entrance so that customers who seeking service can immediately approach the table to find out how and where to get their specific problems solved (Darley & Gilbert 1985) (Russell & Snodgraass 1987).

Each reception desk has a thin wall to prevent people passing by to see the people inside. Believed by many Chinese ethnics, this wall in front of the entrance will prevent luck to leave the place so quickly. Behind this wall, all the three premises prioritize in spacious area with modern furnishings that prioritize minimum usage of space yet still comfortable.

These three firms offer exclusive and limited people who can enjoy what the firms have to offer. Thus, there will be no customers shall feel crowded that will create feelings of stress Harrell & Hutt (1976). Seider (1983) warned about the consequence of poor layout that could lead to feelings of being neglected, embarrassment, and avoidance among customers. These three firms will give a tailored and a personalized attention to a customer. This gives a strong feeling being taken care of and the problems are addressed seriously (Ang & Leong 1989).

-Signs, Symbols and ArtefactsThis dimension is believed to be the most complex one compared to the other. The signs can be used to signal the service setting to the customer (Davis 1984) (Wener 1985). The three premises are using simple yet elegant signs that promise warm, welcome, luxurious service and premium quality of what the firms have to offer to their customers.

The message conveyed to the customers is clear and simple by showing the logo of their companies (i.e. Louis Vuitton – LV, Bank Central Asia – BCA, Angus House - idem).

Based on the additional elements, the three firms have no similarity on an of the element.

IDENTIFIED DIFFERENCESBased on Bitner’s physical environmental dimensions (1992), the three firms have differences as below:-Ambient ConditionsScents are believed to have strong influence in consumer’s mood, purchasing decision, and consumer desire to purchase (Bone & Ellen 1999) (Hirsch 1991). These three firms are not operating in different sector where scents are used differently. A Louis Vuitton store use light and neutral fragrance that gives aroma therapy to feel relax and stay longer. Many believe the longer a customer stay the more he / she will make a purchase. BCA bank uses a fragrance to neutralize the smell of money so that the customers don’t smell the money. As for Angus House, this is an upper class restaurant that primarily sells steaks, so the scent used is the wine fragrance to intrigue consumers to purchase wines in addition to the steaks.

Lightning influences directly the individual perception towards a firm. The perception of the physical emotional, psychological, spiritual aspects, forms, colours, textures and enclosures (Kurtich & Eakin 1993) (Ching 1996). The three firms use different kind of lightning where the BCA Bank uses a very bright lamp to brighten the room. Louis Vuitton store use a soft and yellowish colour lamp that gives aesthetic feel and presence of their super-premium products. Angus House’s lightning is rather dim and dark to create a romantic and luxurious dinner experience with candle light on every table.

-Spatial Layout and FunctionalityAccording to Ching (1996), the ceilings also play an important role in servicescape where high ceilings create senses of spaciousness and low ceilings are conveyed as coziness and intimacy. Louis Vuitton use high ceiling to give a feeling to the customers of a spacious room where they can take their time without having the feeling of suppressed due to tight room. BCA Bank also uses a high ceiling to create openness in the premise as many believes people are more nervous when they deal with money. Angus House use low ceiling with dimmed light to create a feeling of romantic and coziness.

Based on the additional elements, the three firms have similarities as below:-Virtual ServicescapeEach firm has its own website in exception for Angus House where they haven’t launched the website as yet. Virtual Servicescape on company’s official website gives perceived value and image of a firm’s product and service. Nowadays, the Internet users have been growing exponentially in number of users thanks to the rapid development in technology.

Louis Vuitton use modern design and warm colours to give sense and feeling of luxurious, premium and exclusive. The website is made to be user-friendly with easy and clear interface yet still very elegant with the usage of lines and colours. The models in the website is all beautiful and handsome to give feeling of looking good when use LV products.

BCA bank is more on simple yet functional. The firm to simulate the easiness to work with BCA compared to other bank with only a few clicks away from doing a specific task. The website also filled with picture of a beautiful woman that acts as an operator that will help us when needed. There is no real-time operator, but this gives the feeling that all of the operators or the employees are all customers friendly and nicely look.

-Sex of Service ProviderFischer et al. (1997) argued that there’s a clear connection between the expectation of service from the provider and the sex of the providers. In other words, the service setting and perceived service outcomes are determined from the sex of the service provider.

The three firms have different portion of sex of employees. Louis Vuitton has equal numbers of male and female staffs to address the people who come to the store. The male staff will immediately approach the female customer and vice versa. Should the customer prefer to communicate with the same gender, then the store can provide it accordingly.

BCA bank employs more female staff as women are seen to be more careful and friendlier compared to male staff. There is only about 30% out of the total employees of BCA Bank who are male in front line service. The managerial levels are equally distributed between female and male staffs.

3.1. LOUIS VUITTONThis super-premium fashion store is targeting the high-income customers who perceived quality of service and product above the prices.

-Ambient ConditionFrom all of the five senses of a human being, Louis Vuitton tries to give the best premium shopping experience to the customer. Visually, the store is designed aesthetic and professional with high ceiling to create a sense of openness and spaciousness. Tampered glass walls also to give sense of welcoming and to show the products available inside.

The scent sprayed in the store is soft and giving aroma therapy effect to make customers to stay longer and hope to buy more. Aroma therapy also can make people feel happy and relax so the experience in buying is not just buying the product but also during the transaction.

The products are allowed to be tried to make sure that the customers get what they want. This will reduce the perceived risk for purchasing something that hasn’t been felt yet.

The staffs are wearing uniforms, well dressed, well mannered, professional, look smart, wearing tie, and tidy hair (tied for female staffs and short hair for male staffs).

The security in front of the entrance gives a sense of security so the customers can shop and browse the products without any worry of any thievery (i.e. pickpocket, robbery, etc).

-Spatial Layout and FunctionalityComfortable sofas are provided for the customers to rest. The stronger shoppers have been known for many years are the female compared to the male. Sofas are located in the middle for easy access. Should the customer has an infant(s), she / he can monitor the children easily from the place where he standing checking the products.

The products are placed nicely without any boxes or scrap papers in eyesight to give pleasant and luxurious view of the store and products. Small products such as wallets, small bags, or scarfs are put inside a glass display shelves to give sense that the product are keep clean from dust. This also give sense of the product is luxurious. Each display rack are given lights to enhance the product appeal – the skin quality,The layout of the shelves is encircling the room and display of a certain product is clustered in one area and separated from the shoes and bags. This to ease the customer to make a comparison between products to another.

Mannequins are well placed so that the customers can imagine themselves wearing the products. These mannequins also placed by the window glasses to attract customers and to show new product lines being offered.

The ceilings are made high to promote well air circulation within the room and also to promote openness.

Should the store is in peak hour, the customers will not feel being overcrowded that could lead to stress and early leave to avoid the crowd.

-Signs, Symbols and ArtefactsLouis Vuitton or more known with overlapping two of first letters of the brand “LV” has been worldwide known as products that comes best quality, excellence service, and super premium pricing.

LV symbols on its products also give prestigious and self esteem in social life when worn. Thus, every single of the product is labelled with this signs.

-Virtual ServicescapeThe company website provides the running and upcoming clothing lines in store. The design of the website is made in such a way that when a customer visit its website will immediately feel that LV provides high quality product, excellence service and super premium pricing.

-Sex of Service ProviderThe staffs are equally distributed among male and female staffs to accommodate the variety of patrons. The customers of LV are not limited to female only (although admitted that more than half of the buyers are female. Some consumers will have better feeling to consult with the same gender compared to the opposite sex and vice versa.

3.2. BCA (BANK CENTRAL ASIA) – Priority AccountThis bank is one of the oldest banks in Indonesia. To stand out among the crowds, this bank launched a product for the premium customers who have bigger incomes with bigger administration fee and compensated with prioritized service.

Many people are growing tired waiting in queue just to do a small bank transaction. By opening a Priority Account, the account holders have special privilege on special que that is often much shorter (if not empty) compared to the normal account holders.

-Ambient ConditionPriority account holders have a special dedicated level to provide the best and quickest service compared to the normal account holders. This level only has few comfortable chairs and dedicated customer officers that ready to serve the customers as they come without have to que standing.

To overcome the smell of money, that often despised by many people, the bank install automatic spray to neutralize any unpleasant odour, especially from money.

In the entrance to the special level there’s an extra security guard to give higher sense of security when waiting or when doing transaction. Priority accounts must have minimum money in the accounts more than USD 10,000.- thus better sense of security is needed by the customers.

The staffs have gone through special training including English courses so they can communicate better with foreign people. The staffs wearing uniforms that are clean, tidy, and look professional. The hair also tidy to give more professional perception.

-Spatial Layout and FunctionalityThe receptionist is right in front of the main entrance door to address the newly come customers. After being addressed by the receptionist, the customers can immediately go to the specific desk to get their specific problem solved.

Special booths are provided to address the need of the priority account holders, so it it is a tailored service that can be adjusted and customized to meet the variety needs of the patrons.

There is a special machine that provides numbers, later this number will be called by the customer service. With this, the customers don’t have to stand and wait in the agonizing queue.

Sofas are placed adjacent to the special booths, there are magazines and product info near the sofas for the customers to kill the waiting time. Plants are nicely located to give green and fresh feeling around the room.

The ceiling is made high to give spacious feeling and also to have better air circulation.

-Signs, Symbols and ArtefactsBCA logo is a very well known logo in Indonesia as this is one of the oldest banks in Indonesia. This logo is simple with dominating colour blue that gives cool and inviting sense.

-Virtual ServicescapeThe company’s website is emphasizing on lightness, security and easiness of operating. This is to represent the level service – quick, secured, and easy can be expected when coming to the actual bank.

The website is dominated with colour blue that also sync with the company logo. There are pictures that show an operator that is beautiful and smiling to give feeling that the employees of the actual bank are as nice and as beautiful as the woman in the website.

-Sex of Service ProviderMost of the staffs are dominated by women, where it is locally believed that women are more careful in doing their works and also provide nice and more patient service compared to men.

3.3. ANGUS HOUSE RestaurantThis restaurant is one of the most expensive steak restaurants in Jakarta – Indonesia that provides different ambience as it is located in one of the tallest building in Jakarta.

This restaurant is heavily influenced by Japanese management because the original owner is Japanese and they sell some Japanese mini-cow steaks with premium price that cannot be found anywhere else in Jakarta.

-Ambient ConditionThe restaurant is decorated accordingly to give romantic and luxurious ambience. The lightning is dim and each table is brightened with a candle light supporting the romantic atmosphere.

Steaks have been known to be well partner with wines, thus the restaurant install an automatic sprayer that emits wine fragrance. This is to intrigue customers to purchase more wines during the event.

The staffs are properly dressed as a butler with formal wear, and butterfly tie. They all well mannered and looked to be professional to what they are doing. The chef is wearing white formal chef wear with high hat. This give different impression to customers where not often seen in other places.

-Spatial Layout and FunctionalityThe restaurant offers a private room should the patrons prefer to be left alone with his / her partner during the event. The butler and servant will come from time to time to check. Should the customer don’t prefer this special private room, they can use the normal table and chairs for couples or family.

Furnishings are comfortable with classic look to boost the luxurious look of the restaurant. The floors are carpeted also to give more elegant impression.

The restroom is special as is big and private with big glasses, and with expensive soaps and clean towel. This gives special impression to customer as they don’t feel sharing the toilet with others.

-Signs, Symbols and ArtefactsAngus House has been in the market for many years, but due to the premium pricing, only a handful of people know this place. However, the sign doesn’t really represent that it is luxurious place, only those who has experienced dining in this place would know.

Otherwise, the sign is only a cartoon-like cow face with wording around it “Angus house”. This sign should be modified in order to give better sense of luxury and prestigious for experiencing dining in this fine restaurant.

-Virtual ServicescapeThis company doesn’t have the company website as yet, they should have one to better promote their product in this ever increasing competition from other luxurious restaurants. However, Angus house should modify and carefully plan the more proper signs / symbols / artefacts that represent more of their luxurious.

-Sex of Service ProviderThe staffs are dominated by men, and only a handful of women that work as the servants. The male are working as the butlers that cater the need of the customers. Males servants or can be referred as butlers are seen as more experienced and more professional then female butler. This impression might be coming from British influence that the head of servants must be men.

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