SERVICE SETTING 1

• "The show"


  Everyone and everything that interfaces with guests
• "Show" or service environment

  The physical aspects of the service setting are equally important
• Companies use a theme


  • To create a feeling that guests are somehow immersed in another place and time to provide guests with extraordinary experiences
• Theming


  Using the physical environment and other visual cues to create a show as part of its service experience, to transport guests into a fantasy world
• Theming used for


  • Amusement park
  • Restaurant
  • Hotel
  • Cruise ship
  • Any place where the hospitality experience would be enhanced by adding some fantasy
• Themed hospitality organizations


  • Medieval Times restaurant
  • Unusual Hotels of the World
• Themed hotels


  • Igloo
  • Cave dwellings
  • 200 meters underground
  • Train car
  • Each room themed after a philosopher
• Colonial Williamsburg


  • Employees dressed in authentic eighteenth century attire
  • Working craftsmen use methods appropriate to that time period

  
• Theming


  Effectively ties all the elements of the service experience together, but may limit the appeal of the service offering to some people and limit new ventures of service products
• Theming


  • Contributes to maintenance of the fantasy
  • Enhances visual stimulation
  • Helps to find one's way around with the visual cues it provides
• Control and focus


  To maintain the illusion of fantasy in a themed service setting, the experience must be controlled and focused, so guests see what the storyteller wants them to see
• Control and focus in theme parks

  • Positioning of cars on rides, use of light and dark, smells, pace of the ride, and other elements of the environment create the experience that the storyteller envisioned
• Architectural theming


  The architectural theming of the hospitality organization must reinforce the experience or a story
• Klaus K hotel in Finland


  • Themed based on the Finnish national epic Kalevala, with design reflecting strong contrasts: life and death, light and dark, pride and humility
• Sound


  An important service-setting element, with music being a particularly potent environmental factor
• Music tempo and subject matter


  Affects guest behavior, with faster and louder music encouraging faster eating and drinking, and slower music encouraging leisurely dining
• Lighting


  An important feature of most service settings, with careful attention needed to avoid glare and lights at eye level, and to focus the eye toward visual cues that emphasize the theme
• Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom


  • Careful attention paid to meshing of visual and auditory effects to enhance the guest's experience

  
• Importance of environment


  • Influences guest expectations, creates and maintains the mood, and has positive effects on employees
• Guest expectations


  The environment influences the guest's expectations, even before the service is delivered
• Cleanliness of restaurant exterior


  Leads guests to make negative assumptions about the quality of the kitchen and food preparation
• Guest mood


  The environment sets and maintains the mood after the guest begins the guest experience
• Disney's efforts to set the mood


  • Ensuring park grounds are clean, lawns carefully manicured, and flowers always in bloom, as guests associate clean and orderly with safe and high quality
• Employee satisfaction


  The environment should be supportive of and compatible with the employee's experience, as employees spend more time in the service setting than guests
• Hyatt Hotels


  • Improved employee entryway to look as nice as the one used by guests, to show employees the company's commitment to quality
• Setting as part of service


  The environment may serve merely as a neutral backdrop, or it may be a significant component of the guest experience that the guest is paying for and seeking
• Differences in service setting

  • One group served on plastic plates with boring food names, another group served on linen tablecloths with more appealing food names
• One's environment affects the way the guest experience is perceived, and even valued