Service encounter
CREATING A DRAMA AT TGI’S FRIDAY
Q1. What are the connections between theatre and TGI Friday’s? Is the dramaturgical analogy a good one?
The service encounter at TGI Fridays can be seen as a theatrical drama. Décor has become a key element in the TGI Fridays experience transforming an otherwise bland and boring industrial type building into a theatrical stage, which shows that the servicescape is standard all around the world.
The restaurants of TGI are remarkably similar throughout the world which shows that the blueprint is standard with a large central bar area with dining facilities around it and American decorative memorabilia and standard location of toilets. Similarly theatres also have same standard setting throughout the world.
The service target times are also standard throughout the world which is that starters should be served within 7 minutes of customer’s order which is a part of blueprint and standardized functions.
The stage is the location where the encounter takes place. The employees have their scripted roles such as traditional acts of greeting and serving the customer and getting serving staff to join in a chorus of Happy Birthday and also role expectations are communicated by the company by empowering employees to improve customer experience.
Just like drama the recruitment of employees also takes the form of an audition where the employees are selected on the basis of their personality types and wearing outlandish clothes resembling costumes.
Q2. What is meant by critical incident? How can TGI Fridays identify what constitutes a critical incident and assess whether it has achieved customer satisfaction?
Bitner defines critical incident as specific interactions between customer and service firm employees that are specially satisfying or dissatisfying. It involves the pre and post consumption period.
Pre consumption:
The car parking facilities, the menu permutations and target service times which include that starter should be served
Q1. What are the connections between theatre and TGI Friday’s? Is the dramaturgical analogy a good one?
The service encounter at TGI Fridays can be seen as a theatrical drama. Décor has become a key element in the TGI Fridays experience transforming an otherwise bland and boring industrial type building into a theatrical stage, which shows that the servicescape is standard all around the world.
The restaurants of TGI are remarkably similar throughout the world which shows that the blueprint is standard with a large central bar area with dining facilities around it and American decorative memorabilia and standard location of toilets. Similarly theatres also have same standard setting throughout the world.
The service target times are also standard throughout the world which is that starters should be served within 7 minutes of customer’s order which is a part of blueprint and standardized functions.
The stage is the location where the encounter takes place. The employees have their scripted roles such as traditional acts of greeting and serving the customer and getting serving staff to join in a chorus of Happy Birthday and also role expectations are communicated by the company by empowering employees to improve customer experience.
Just like drama the recruitment of employees also takes the form of an audition where the employees are selected on the basis of their personality types and wearing outlandish clothes resembling costumes.
Q2. What is meant by critical incident? How can TGI Fridays identify what constitutes a critical incident and assess whether it has achieved customer satisfaction?
Bitner defines critical incident as specific interactions between customer and service firm employees that are specially satisfying or dissatisfying. It involves the pre and post consumption period.
Pre consumption:
The car parking facilities, the menu permutations and target service times which include that starter should be served