Service scape is the total appeal an organization can
make to its customers by offering them better services.
Technology has enabled banks to enhance their servicescape to a
great extent.
Berry and Clarks (1986) identified documentation, physical
representation, visualization and association as the four strategies
of tangibilizing services provided. According to Masood and
Shalini (2008), servicescape can be an enhancer of a firm's
productivity and revenue or it can detract the revenues of a firm. The
enhancement of revenues is attributed to servicescape as it prompts
customers to increase their business dealings with the firm. There are
two soft system methodologies for enhancing servicescape. The
soft system cannot guarantee success in service offering but the
energy and commitment generated for delivering the agreements
would. Bitner (1992) equated servicescape of an organization to the
physical facilities of a service company.
In service organizations, the
same physical environment that communicates with and influences
customers, may affect employees' satisfaction, performance,
productivity, and motivation (Baker, Berry and Parasuraman 1988).
Reimer Anja and Kuehn Richard (1995) concluded that
servicescape played a greater role than was supposed to as mentioned in
the previous studies. Servicescape is not only a cue for the
expected service quality, but also is found to influence customers'
evaluations of other factors determining perceived service quality. Thus,
it has both direct and indirect effect on perceived service quality.
A study by Koushki (1995) revealed that customers distinguish
four dimensions of service quality in the case of retail banking
industry in India. They are: customer-orientation, competence,
tangibles and convenience. |
