Servicescapes: Why are fast-food

restaurants renovating their interiors?

By Ardy Roberto, Dr. Ned Roberto
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Q: Were a group of graduating marketing students. We took two extra marketing courses this summer and
one of them was in marketing research. For our marketing research term project, our group of four took up
this topic: Why are fast-food restaurants renovating their interiors?

We picked Kenny Rogers in Katipunan as the fast-food restaurants to study. We did a fairly extensive
research including counting daily customers by day parts, observing how mostly student customers came
either as solo or with companions, how long they stayed, and what food and beverage menu items they
ordered. We also interviewed a sample of customers to find out how they compared their current frequenting
and eating behavior at Kenny Rogers versus those before its extensive renovation. After writing and
presenting our report, we were all confident of a very high if not the highest grade. We got only a high
grade, not very high and certainly not the highest.

We asked our professor for a feedback so we can understand what happened. He just said we didnt answer
the question. We disagreed and told him we did. We showed how the renovation increased three revenue
components: the amount of order per customer as well as their frequency of visit and the number of
customers. Our professor said these were not answering the question but begging it. The true answer lies
in explaining why the renovation increased what we claimed it increased. He refused to elaborate. Will your
column please help us understand?

A: We believe we have a fairly good idea what your so-called professor had in mind. We said so-called
because not to close a case but just to leave it hanging does not speak well of a responsible professor. A true
leader and manager of the students learning process behaves otherwise. So heres our version of the answer
that your so-called professor wont count as begging the question.

Its helpful to start with the decision to invest in the renovation and ask: Whats an alternative to this
investing that would serve just as well in attaining the revenue objective? One option that immediately
comes to mind is new product innovations. For a fast-food resto, those can be new breakthrough menu
items, improved or redeveloped menu items or relaunched old deleted menu items thats been re-invented.

Service marketing

Taking this analysis approach brings you squarely to the basic question of: What in the first place are you
marketing in a fast-food restaurants service business? Your basic services marketing textbook will tell you
that there are four: (1) the tangible product base or in a restaurant, the menu items, (2) the service staff, (3)
the service venue, and (4) the service processing. The acid test for a service is right there in the costs
equivalents of these four elements. You can be certain that you are in a resto service marketing if the price
charged for a menu item consists of 20-30 percent food cost and the rest are the costs of the remaining three
service components.

Marketing a performance
On the part of the marketer, in resto service marketing you are marketing a performance. From the
perspective of your customer, however, you are marketing an experience. In a restaurant, thats the eating
experience and the experience of eating in the resto venue, now referred to as the servicescapes. It was
professor Mary Jo Bitner who in 1992 coined this term and defined it as: The style and appearance of the
service outlets physical surroundings where customers and service providers interact. In other words, thats
where the experiencing of the eating experience happens. So there are two customer experiences taking
place at the same time: the experiencing of eating of the ordered menu items and the experiencing of that
eating experience. The latter experience is the servicescapes experience.

The Kenny Rogers renovation was directed at enhancing the customer satisfaction with the servicescapes
experience. The observed chain of customer behavior after satisfaction is repeat store visit with likely
increase in the amount ordered and in visit frequency and therefore revenue rise overall. However, the
explanation should not end here. You must also answer the accompanying question: How exactly does
renovation enhance customer satisfaction of the servicescapes experience?

Servicescapes

This depends on what were the objects of the renovation. For example, inside that Katipunan Kenny Rogers
resto, you will see murals of product shots and murals of roasting party or celebration scenes. Which of
these two servicescapes renderings of its physical surroundings is more experience enhancing for the
customers? One way of gauging this is by observing customer behavior. For example, behind which mural
do they like taking pictures? In almost all cases, its with the background of the celebration scenes and not
the mural of product shots. But arent they there for the eating experience? Thats correct but that is why its
important to distinguish those two experiences: the eating experience and the experiencing of that eating
experience in the servicescapes.

The eating experience is satisfied by the actual eating of the ordered menu item and not so much by the
murals of the product shots.

Satisfaction of the servicescapes experience is enhanced by the style and appearance of the service outlets
physical surroundings. In the Kenny Rogers resto, thats the murals of the roasting party or celebration
scenes. As you can see, its important not to confuse the customer satisfying role that each of the two
experiences play.
Keep your questions coming. Send them to us at MarketingRx@pldtDSL.net or
drnedmarketingrx@gmail.com. Advanced Happy Fathers Day! God bless!