Do High- quality of service and Luxurious physical environment go hand in hand- A Review

Abstract

Value for customer in general means the difference between the perceived benefits and the price that they paid for the service or a product. Understanding this concept of value is core in setting the marketing strategy and other aspects of revenue generation. The companies which are customer centric consistently try to close the gap by changing several attributes and creating superior customer values & aligning value according to customer’s expectations. The marketing team of a company normally create customer values to drive their customer satisfactions and loyalty.

Why a company should create value and match customer expectations? The ‘Value’ has direct relationship with the customer satisfaction. Higher the value perceived by the customer, higher the customer satisfaction. Higher customer satisfaction often leads to, (i) Better retention rates (ii) Higher customer lifetime value (iii) Lower customer acquisition and (iv) Positive word of mouth.

The concept of value goes beyond service attributes, reliability, consistency, speed in a service company. and the costs of the service & quality are greatly affected by service scape or the physical environment which forms the part of service. However, there is a general tendency amongst the customers that the luxurious service often means high quality of service. But it’s not the same at all occasions.

Servicescape is the organization of the physical atmosphere involved in creating and delivering the service. The definition given by Bitner for service scape is “The totality of physical setting and ambient conditions designed and managed by service firms in which the service is assembled, seller and customer interact, and service delivery takes place”.

As given by the definition, everything that is physical which the customer is exposed to and interacts with. A well-designed service scape can help in smoother flow of service delivery from the employee to the customer or at the Moment of Truth.

A unique service scape will help in achieving a point of differentiation amongst the customer and a Luxurious service scape will help in creating a perception of high service quality