An Experiential Exercise in Service Environment Design

Abstract

A new experiential exercise affords marketing students the opportunity to learn to design service environments. The exercise is appropriate for a variety of marketing courses and is especially beneficial in teaching services marketing because the proposed activity complements two other exercises widely used in this course. Service journal and blueprinting exercises are commonly assigned to examine the impact of “people” and “process” decisions; the exercise proposed in this article offers an opportunity to examine the influence of “physical evidence” on the customer experience. Thus, these three exercises expose students to hands-on activities related to all three of the additional Ps related to services marketing. In addition to explaining how to carry out the exercise, this article provides evidence of how it actively engages students in all four steps of the experiential learning cycle (concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective observation, and active testing). Finally, the ability of this exercise to close the loop in experiential learning is discussed.

Keywords

physical evidence services marketing experiential learning servicescape

Introduction

Compared with more traditional topics within marketing curricula, such as principles, consumer behavior, personal selling, and marketing research, services marketing is a relatively new course. To develop this topic, academics built on ideas from other fields including consumer psychology, human resources, geography, operations, and environmental design. Within the past two decades, services marketing course material has grown from comprising only Chapter 12 in a general marketing textbook into a standalone course that is complete, stabilized, and clearly targeted. This is evidenced by consistent content across the most widely used services marketing textbooks, including those by Lovelock, Wirtz, and Chew (2009); Zeithaml, Bitner, and Gremler (2009); and Fisk, Grove, and John (2008). Although the experiential exercise proposed in this article is quite relevant to services marketing, the learning process it offers may be usefully applied in other marketing courses.

The common content of services marketing courses typically extends tactical marketing mix decisions (product, promotion, price, place) into additional controllables (people, process, and physical evidence) termed the three new Ps by Booms and Bitner (1981). These managerial decisions represent (a) the importance of human resources to service design and delivery, b) the impact of the service process on the customer experience, and (c) design of the service environment to best meet customer and service provider needs. Teachers in services marketing use a broad range of experiential exercises to bring the subject to life (Gremler, Hoffman, Keaveney, & Wright, 2000); students taking services marketing tend to become excited about the material and their ability to relate it to their own lives. Many of them work in service businesses or service jobs, and all of them purchase services regularly, some without realizing it. They especially seem to enjoy and value experiential exercises that allow them to structure their thinking about service design and delivery.

Experiential activities widely used in services classrooms include journals (e.g., Wright, Bitner, & Zeithaml, 1994) and blueprinting (e.g., Bitner, Ostrom, & Morgan, 2008). Keeping a services journal requires a student to think through service purchases over a period of time (usually a week) and to evaluate what providers did well and not so well. Nearly all students comment about any personal interaction associated with a service when preparing their journals—thus, the journals help students to notice the impact of human resources (“people”) decisions that involve selecting, training, and motivating front-line personnel. Blueprinting highlights how to lay out a service process to minimize errors and maximize specific measures, whether efficiency related or human experience related. Although students’ journals occasionally deal with process issues, and their blueprints might touch on physical evidence requirements, neither of these class activities focuses on service environment design. Therefore, to round out a holistic student experience and complete the course content, there is a need for a class activity that facilitates a physical evidence design experience.

Because the environments in which customers acquire information, evaluate options, make choices, and experience service delivery are so ubiquitous, the design exercise that we propose actually touches on many topic areas in marketing. For instance, consumer behavior courses typically cover the “approach or avoidance” model of Mehrabian and Russell (1974). Personal selling courses stress the importance of quickly picking up on a potential buyer’s social style; the layout and objects that define a personal space can provide salient cues to assist in doing this. Even marketing research courses should consider the physical space in which studies are conducted, as the results can be affected (Bitner, 1992) by environmental cues.

As mentioned, the service environment design activity proposed here nicely complements commonly used journal and blueprinting activities, thus giving students experience in designing and evaluating human resources policies, service process design, and physical evidence decisions. The proposed activity requires students to work in teams to create a new service environment and to evaluate another team’s design for its ability to convey the appropriate information, service experience, and brand value to a specified target market. We also discuss how to “close the loop,” evaluating how well this activity helps students work through abstract conceptualization, concrete experience, observation and reflection, and active testing in new situations, thus completing the experiential learning process as described by Kolb (1984).

Experiential Learning

In a seminal work, Kolb (1984) defines experiential learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (p. 41). Four distinct steps are thought to underlie this grasping and transforming of experience: concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective observation, and active experimentation. The first two steps relate to how information is acquired, whereas the latter two deal with how it is transformed. Perhaps surprisingly, it apparently does not matter in which order these necessary steps occur.

The first, and perhaps most direct, route to information acquisition is through concrete experience involving the five senses. Young, Caudill, and Murphy (2008) suggest that concrete experience can be facilitated in the classroom through activities such as simulations, videos, and discussions of experiences. A second path to acquiring information, abstract conceptualization, does not require direct experience but allows for integration of prior observations into theories or models. To facilitate abstract conceptualization, students could be asked to participate in model/theory critiques or concept mapping (Young et al., 2008).

A student’s area of study is a useful predictor of the preferred method of information acquisition (Marriott, 2004). For instance, accounting students often lack concrete experience and therefore favor abstract conceptualization. Consequently, they benefit more from exercises that require them to develop concrete learning skills. Similar to Young et al. (2008), Marriott (2004) recommends use of a simulation to accomplish concrete learning. Although not directly addressed, Marriott’s (2004) observations suggest that marketing students, who have substantial concrete experience as consumers in reacting to marketing activities, might naturally gravitate toward concrete thinking. Therefore, they should be encouraged to engage in more abstract exercises to best broaden their skills.

Once acquired, information must be transformed for learning to take place (Kolb, 1984). Again, at least two routes are available. The first, reflective observation, requires consideration of experiences from multiple perspectives (Kolb, 1984). Personal journals, directed writings, class discussions, and self-assessment can encourage reflection (Young et al., 2008). This may be a crucial step for marketing students, as they need to learn to think convergently, drawing conclusions deductively based on examples. A second process by which information can be transformed is direct interaction with the environment, or active experimentation. This type of process is more important to encourage in students who must develop their inductive learning skills, such as accounting students (Marriott, 2004).

Students can apply lecture concepts by participating in fieldwork, simulations, labs, or consulting projects (Young et al., 2008). Researchers point out that an exercise must provide students with an opportunity to “learn the skills and abilities necessary to achieve their future professional and academic goals” (Graeff, 2010, pp. 266-267). Students seem particularly receptive to this type of information transformation: for example, Bridges (1999) finds that marketing students prefer activities that incorporate interaction, hands-on experience, and connection to the real world. Other researchers concur: Karns (2005) finds that marketing students prefer hands-on activity; this preference is positively correlated with attitude toward the major area of study (Davis, Misra, & van Auken, 2000).

Researchers in marketing education have examined the need expressed by Kolb (1984) to close the loop in experiential learning, in order to cement new knowledge. A widely cited study by Bobbitt, Inks, Kemp, and Mayo (2000) developed a semester-long exercise integrated across three courses—principles, selling, and sales management—and concluded that experiential learning in marketing leads to greater student involvement and improved decision making, problem solving, and planning skills. Munoz and Huser (2008) required a situational analysis in a packaged goods category; they found that experiential learning fosters student engagement, realism, and involvement, leading to better critical thinking and communication skills. Live case analysis, proposed by Roth and Smith (2009), provides a collaborative, self-paced experiential exercise offering real-life application of knowledge. Lincoln (2006) recommended a hybrid learning activity combining traditional and live case methods. Finally, Raymond, Carlson, and Hopkins (2006) suggested using experiential learning in sales courses, which led to improvements in necessary professional skills according to the outcome assessment. Thus, these successful experiential learning activities have much in common: They generally offer student engagement and realism and lead to improved critical thinking and communication skills.

Services Marketing and Physical Evidence

Unlike planning for goods marketing where producer and consumer are spatially separated, design of services often requires thought regarding face-to-face interaction between customers and service providers. This is especially important in settings where customers are expected to cocreate, or participate in service delivery, such as fitness clubs (Bitner, Faranda, Hubbert, & Zeithaml, 1997). Planning methods that take into account customer behavior in the service setting include critical incident techniques (Bitner, Booms, & Mohr, 1994), blueprinting (Fleiß & Kleinaltenkamp, 2004), and use of metaphors describing service experiences (Goodwin, Grove, & Fisk, 1996). From an instructional perspective, students may also be encouraged to examine interaction through structured discussion and role play (Gremler et al., 2000), readings and guest speakers (Wisenblit, 1994), and keeping of service journals (Wright et al., 1994).

Service process design determines how delivery will occur and is often studied with the aid of service blueprinting (e.g., Bitner et al., 2008; Gremler et al., 2000; Shostack, 1987; Wright et al., 1994). Blueprints “visualize the service processes, points of customer contact, and the physical evidence associated with [the] service from the customers’ perspective” (Bitner et al., 2008, p. 67). Many practitioners embrace this tool, particularly when they wish to improve service processes, taking into consideration both efficiency and the customer experience.

Planning for the environment in which a service takes place includes all tangible cues and physical components of the service setting (Booms & Bitner, 1981). A number of typologies and frameworks can be used to classify dimensions of the physical environment and evaluate its impact (see Baker, 1987; Bitner, 1992; Turley & Milliman, 2000; Westbrook, 1981). However, a review of the marketing education literature finds only two activities recommended to help students become aware of the service environment, video capture and fieldtrips (Gremler et al., 2000), and these do not offer students the experience of developing and evaluating their own physical evidence designs. The experiential learning exercise described in the next section addresses this gap.

Goals for the Activity

Four goals were established for the proposed class activity. First, it is designed to allow the students to develop and demonstrate their knowledge regarding the dimensions that make up the servicescape. Students, working in teams, both conceptualize and critique servicescape plans. They are asked to specifically consider three dimensions of the service environment, as suggested by Bitner’s (1992) servicescape model: (a) ambient conditions, (b) space and function, and (c) signs, symbols, and artifacts. Student teams are expected to correctly categorize components of their service environments into these dimensions using terminology discussed in class. Furthermore, the resulting designs are evaluated in terms of their ability to shape customer experience and behavior by sending a message, capturing attention, and/or creating an effect (Lovelock et al., 2009).

Second, the activity requires students to explore the interplay between the dimensions. By asking each team to conceptualize and critique complete servicescapes, rather than focusing only on a single dimension at a time, each servicescape must be considered holistically. The benefit of this broader perspective is reinforcement that servicescapes are not experienced as a collection of independent decisions but rather in their entirety (Bitner, 1992). For example, each service environment element (e.g., citrus scent, marble flooring, self-service checkout lanes) must be evaluated in light of decisions made with regard to the other elements to determine whether the servicescape design creates the desired effect. The third goal was in place to verify that learning goals were met; this activity can be evaluated using Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Cycle. Specifically, the exercise is constructed in such a way as to ensure that students complete all four steps in the learning cycle. According to experiential learning theory, in order to acquire knowledge one must involve himself/herself fully in new experiences, reflect on and observe the experience from many perspectives, integrate these observations into sound theories, and use the theories to make decisions (Kolb, 1984). The activity, as described more thoroughly in the next section, makes explicit efforts to guide students through each phase.

Finally, the proposed activity directly addresses the need to build students’ meta-skills in the areas of oral and written communications, team building and leadership, and creative problem solving. Schlee and Harich (2010) identify these skills as important requirements for both entry-level and upper-management marketing positions and suggest that professional business schools should actively engage students in building technical skills of this type in addition to building broad marketing knowledge.

Walk-Through of the Activity

The physical evidence exercise is designed to follow a lecture on servicescape design. The initial lecture should introduce relevant theories and frameworks that can be useful in describing servicescapes and evaluating their effectiveness. For example, Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) Stimulus-Organism-Response Model is helpful in discussing how the environment affects individuals. Bitner’s (1992) research is useful in explaining how servicescapes differ based on who performs the service action and the physical complexity of the servicescape (Figure 1 in Bitner’s article) and examining the crucial elements of servicescape design and highlighting the potential for effects on both customers and service providers (Figure 2 in Bitner’s article). Discussion of the models should also include examples of servicescapes familiar to the students. Instructors might like to open this discussion by inviting students to describe the environmental dimensions of their professors’ offices before moving on to discuss other commonly frequented retailers. The discussion of relevant servicescapes bridges the gap between the academic theories being presented and the students’ real-world experiences, thereby fulfilling the concrete experience portion of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (Young et al., 2008). By the lecture’s conclusion, students should be familiar with terminology used to describe a servicescape (e.g., ambient conditions) as well as the effect specific elements will likely have on consumers (e.g., lavender scent is likely to have a calming effect).

Figure 1.

Example of a student team servicescape design

Figure 2.

Reflective observation

To begin the in-class exercise, during the class meeting immediately following the lecture, students are divided into teams and presented with a service category that is to be provided in a bricks and mortar setting. The instructor should make assignments in such a way as to ensure that the resulting designs will cover both elaborate and lean servicescapes and include self-service and interpersonal service provision. Alternatively, known retailers could be selected in each category and teams asked to redesign the servicescape, perhaps from an elaborate to lean servicescape or from self-service to interpersonal service. In services marketing courses, where Bitner’s (1992) research is discussed in depth, differences in design related to the physical complexity (elaborate vs. lean) and service provision (self-service vs. interpersonal) could then be discussed at the conclusion of the exercise.

When designing their servicescapes, students should be instructed to pay attention to all three environmental dimensions covered in Bitner’s servicescape framework when completing their designs. Although we recognize that e-tailers and other forms of remote service operation may also provide some level of physical evidence, we prefer bricks and mortar providers for this exercise, so that all elements of the physical environment can be explored. In addition to the short description of the type of service to be provided (e.g., supermarket), teams should also be given a description of the targeted demographic for the service (e.g., urban singles). Teams are then instructed to consider the needs of the target demographic group and the specific benefits that would be important for the service provider to offer. The instructor might also ask the teams to consider the design first from the primary user perspective, in the example of a supermarket this would be adults. Then, teams might consider how the design could be altered to better meet the needs of others who may be accompanying the primary user; in the grocery store example this would include children.

After receiving their assigned service category (or assigned retailer for those completing a redesign) and target market and discussing benefits that would appeal to this target demographic, teams are instructed to perform two tasks. First, they should create a visual representation of the service environment. To accomplish this task, teams should have on hand large sheets of paper and markers. Additional items that could be used include paint chips, flooring samples, scent samples, and store fixture/display catalogs. (Students could even be asked to bring in old magazines, scissors, and glue sticks, if they wish to use these items.) Students are advised to consider all topics discussed in the servicescape lecture that, at a minimum, should have included color, sound, scent, space, function, signs, symbols, and artifacts but may also have included more advanced topics relating to type of service provision and physical complexity of the servicescape.

For graduate-level courses, the exercise could also be expanded to expose students to the role of moderators. For example, students could be asked to consider how personality traits (e.g., arousal seeking tendencies) or situational factors (e.g., time pressures) moderate the relationship between the perceived servicescape and the internal response. Teams could consider the designs created from the perspectives of various consumer or employee groups and evaluate the ability of their servicescape designs to accommodate differences arising from the moderating variables.

When asked to create a visual representation, student reactions vary. Some will be excited to participate in a marketing activity that allows them to express their creativity. Others will be wary, concerned that the project requires a high level of artistic talent. We have found, however, that most are reassured when we state very clearly that it is the thought behind the design, and not the actual drawing, that will be critiqued. Once any fears have been addressed, the task tends to hold the interest of the students, who often animatedly discuss within their groups how to design the servicescape. The results of this portion of the exercise often exceed expectations, both of the students and the instructors. Figure 1 offers an example showing the interior of a servicescape that students created for this in-class activity. This particular student team was asked to design a service environment for a restaurant targeting families with young children.

The first task of this in-class exercise focuses on putting the theories and concepts discussed in the lecture into practice by developing a servicescape plan. Students’ participation and interaction in this process corresponds to the active experimentation portion of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. The second task, to be accomplished in concurrence with the creation of the visual representation, is to describe the service environment created, using appropriate terminology and covering key topics. A set of structured questions is used to guide the teams and help them better apply their classroom knowledge (see Figure 2). Specifically addressed is the ability of the servicescape design to convey a message, capture attention, and create an effect. Teams are advised to explain the details of their servicescape plans and to provide rationale for their choices. Self-assessment of this type focuses students inward to consider what was learned (Young et al., 2008) and completes the reflective observation stage of the experiential learning cycle.

The team whose work appears in Figure 1 made the following comments regarding their servicescape design. In designing the ambient conditions the team selected bright colors and the scent of candy. In terms of space and function, the team planned for “large open spaces to accommodate anticipated crowds and active play.” Finally, the signs, symbols, and artifacts were designed to help organize the activity taking place within the servicescape. All these choices made were designed with the goal of “being an inviting place where families come to play, kids have fun, and parents are reassured that their children are in a safe environment.”

After the teams have created their servicescape designs and completed assessments of their own work, the final portion of the exercise is undertaken. In this stage, servicescape designs (but not the accompanying assessments/reasoning for the choices made) are passed along to another team. Each team is then asked to consider the servicescape design before them and to identify the service category and the target demographic. Additionally, teams are instructed to describe the servicescape in terms of its ambient conditions, space and function, and signs, symbols, and artifacts and to comment on the effectiveness of these choices given the identified target market. (Specific questions are provided in Figure 3.) This portion of the exercise is designed to facilitate abstract conceptualization or the grasping of experience by introducing order to what is experienced (Kolb, 1984). Students are placed in the role of assessor and challenged to consider an unfamiliar servicescape design and to apply the theories and concepts discussed in the earlier lecture to make judgments about the intention of the service designer and the effectiveness of the design. Furthermore, the initial teams of students are presented with immediate feedback from their peers regarding their ability to design a servicescape to convey intended benefits to a targeted consumer. The feedback prompts immediate reflection on the part of the designing team in terms of how their design might have been improved and thereby feeds into their thinking on future tasks. The process of reflection and forward feeding has been identified as a critical skill set for students to acquire (Quinton & Smallbone, 2010).

Figure 3.

Abstract conceptualization

Returning to our example in Figure 1, evaluation by another student group revealed that the servicescape projected the intended message of being a fun upbeat place for families. The following words were used to describe the servicescape: fun, playful, uncrowded, easy accessibility, and energetic. The students felt the overall atmosphere was effective and invited families to “Come in and play.”

The expected outcome of this in-class experiential exercise is active learning of the physical evidence component of the service marketing mix. Students are expected to assimilate both the theories and concepts associated with servicescape design, and to be able to apply this knowledge, both to create plans for new physical environments and to critique previously designed servicescapes. As Kolb (1984) points out, “learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (p. 41). Discussing experiences with familiar servicescapes (concrete experience), designing servicescapes for a new service business (active experimentation), and reflecting on the students’ own (reflective observation) and others’ designs (abstract conceptualization) facilitates the students’ journey through the process of experiential learning. By addressing each stage of the experiential learning cycle, the exercise also accommodates students with different preferences in learning mode (Kolb, 1984).

Results

This exercise has been implemented in several undergraduate services marketing courses taught by the authors. Servicescape designs produced by undergraduate students have also been used in a graduate services marketing course, wherein graduate students were asked to evaluate the designs in a manner similar to what was described in the abstract conceptualization portion of the exercise (refer to Figure 3). Comments from previous students have been positive, both immediately following the exercise and on course evaluations. In an effort to gather more specific feedback concerning the exercise, two sections of an undergraduate services marketing course were asked to provide a critique of the exercise. Three questions were asked: (a) what did you learn from this activity, (b) how could this activity be improved (please offer specific suggestions), and (c) should this activity be used in future services marketing classes (why or why not)? A total of 55 students, working individually, completed the critique. Answers were examined for common themes and categorized by the authors. For results and typical comments, see Table 1.

Table 1.

Survey Results

	%	Typical Comment
Question 1: What did you learn from this activity? (N = 55)
Consideration of the target market	67	When we first received our drawing sheet, we were ready to start the layout of the store, but we learned that a thorough analysis of the target market is needed before any further action can be taken.
Importance of specific design elements	20	That colors/scents/set-up, etc., all highly influence the customer’s experience. Can influence if they return.
How design elements come together holistically	9	How message has been planned and communicated through to store environments.
Question 2: How could this activity be improved? (N = 55)
More time needed	31	Everything seemed a bit rushed. A little more time would be helpful.
No suggestions offered	29	I think it’s good as it is.
Additional discussion	9	Less time drawing and more discussion of the drawings meanings and thought behind them.
Different materials requested	7	If there was a way to have standardized layouts drawn then you add stuff to it.
More choice in subject	5	Perhaps let the class design/pick the (service business) from a list.
Other	9
Question 3: Should this activity be used in future services marketing classes? (N = 55)
Yes	91
Fun	20	Yes, interesting and fun, helps group understand concepts of store atmosphere and target market.
Helps build team dynamic	5	Yes, helps the groups learn how to brainstorm/work together.
Helps with group project	9	Yes, I think it would be good to use since we have to do something just like this for our own projects.
Useful to apply concepts	16	Yes it was fun and really made you think and put the things we have read and learned into action. Adds visual impact.
No or no answer	9

The results of this survey suggest that teaching objectives were met. When asked what they had learned from the exercise, student answers varied from the personal, “I learned to tie in what I’ve been learning in a real situation,” to the more generic, “the thought process for our upcoming projects.” In addition, several themes could be identified. Approximately two thirds of the student responses indicated that completing the in-class exercise taught them the importance of considering the target market when making servicescape decisions. Twenty percent specifically mentioned an element or elements of the servicescape design, and 9% mentioned the importance of thinking holistically. Nearly all the students (91%) indicated that the exercise should continue to be included in the services marketing class; many stated that the exercise was enjoyable and helpful in applying class concepts to real world applications.

Students were also asked to provide suggestions for how the exercise could be improved. Nearly a third of the students (29%) felt the in-class assignment should continue to be used in its current format. The most common suggestion for improvement was to increase the amount of time devoted to the assignment. For the particular group of students responding to the survey, the exercise was completed in a single class meeting lasting 75 minutes. Perhaps the exercise could be expanded to two class meetings to allow for more time to complete the project. Allowing additional time for the exercise could also address students’ desire for extended discussion of the servicescapes created.

A few students suggested creating templates of generic store types and checklists of store elements that would likely speed the process of creating the store design. The use of templates or existing service designs, however, would likely short-circuit the reflective observation stage, which is necessary for experiential learning to be completed. Furthermore, the template approach is not advised as it actually runs counter to the need to be able to design unique servicescapes delivering desired benefits to specific target markets. In fact, modeling the team’s servicescape after existing businesses should also be discouraged, for the same reason.

There are a number of techniques that could be used to inhibit students’ inclination to copy servicescape designs. One option is to assign teams to service categories that they are unfamiliar with; for example, traditional undergraduate students may not have had reason to visit the office of a lawyer, use the services of a real estate agency, or shop at a medical supply retailer. Students in colder climates may not have had the opportunity to visit a surf shop, whereas students in more tropical climates may not be familiar with ski lodges. Another possibility would be to ask students to redesign a known servicescape. Here it might be especially useful to ask students to consider how the servicescape should change if the service production moved from self-service to interpersonal service (or vice versa).

Conclusions and Recommendations

This article recommends a new experiential exercise for use in services marketing courses. Such courses need to introduce content related to marketing decisions regarding controllables, beyond the four Ps, that are used to complete service positioning efforts. In particular, service design includes decisions pertaining to human resources, process design, and physical evidence. Human resource–related tasks include recruiting, training, motivating, and evaluating personnel, especially front-line providers who have an important impact on the customer experience. These decisions are typically brought into the services marketing course through an exercise such as a service journal, wherein students report their experiences, and often focus on interpersonal interactions. Experience with laying out the process of service delivery can be obtained in class using, for instance, a blueprinting exercise. The third marketing controllable that must be addressed in service design is planning for physical evidence, and especially design of the service environment. The proposed activity fills a need for an experiential exercise that can be used in class and helps students to learn this topic.

The activity begins when student teams receive instructions to design a consumer service in a particular category, addressing the needs of a specific target market. Discussion follows, as students decide on the strategic direction and message, and develop relevant ambient conditions, space/function, and signs, symbols, and artifacts. When the designs are complete, they are passed along to another team, who must interpret the intended meaning; this interpretation stage is crucial in completing the learning process.

This article offers an additional benefit, which is an explanation of how the proposed exercise meets criteria defined by Kolb (1984) to assure experiential learning. The activity includes four stages defined by Kolb as being necessary to complete a learning cycle: concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective observation, and active experimentation. Reflective observation and active experimentation occur during team discussion and design of a servicescape for an assigned service category and target market. These stages are followed by evaluation of another team’s servicescape design, wherein concrete experience and abstract conceptualization are brought into play. Thus, students engage in active learning, improving their abilities to use the techniques going forward.

Students appear to enjoy the activity and teams certainly make an effort to complete the work during the class time. The discussions we observed showed high levels of interest in the topic and good attempts to relate the lecture material to what could be used in an actual marketplace. Furthermore, survey results in two class sections indicated that the large majority of the students enjoy the activity and want to spend more time on it.

Limitations and Future Research

Of course, there are limitations to our study. Although this activity has been used numerous times by both authors, formal student feedback was collected from a relatively small number of students at a single university, so it is based in a particular geographic area and draws from a single population of students. For this reason, it would be a good idea to measure its success in other locations and among other student populations. Additionally, although the exercise directly relates to services marketing, it could be tested in a wider variety of business courses. The most obvious extension would be into courses devoted to the study of retailing. Here the exercise could be incorporated into discussion related to store layout or crafting a store image. In principles of marketing, the exercise could be used when covering the material related to the marketing of services, in consumer behavior courses it could be incorporated into lectures concerning consumer decision making, and in operations management it could be used in discussions of workplace design. Furthermore, our evaluation of the exercise was qualitative in nature. Future research might investigate additional metrics to more concretely assess student learning.

The results we obtained are consistent with those of educators who have previously published articles in the area of experiential activities to enhance in-class learning. In particular, Malhotra, Tashchian, and Jain (1989) recommend the use of team projects to enhance student involvement and classroom activity, and Roach, Johnston, and Hair (1993) especially advocate use of highly interactive exercises to improve learning. Hamer (2000) supports and adds to the latter result, finding that an increase in the number of active experiential exercises significantly improves student learning. Thus, previous research provides additional evidence that the use of multiple experiential activities in services marketing will both better cover the necessary managerial decisions in practical ways and will also enhance student learning. This is consistent with the idea of using one activity to help students learn how human resource decisions are made (e.g., journals), one process design activity (e.g., blueprinting), and finally, the service environment activity proposed in this article.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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