The role of value in the delivery process of hospitality services

Abstract

In the services marketing literature only scant attention has been paid to the concept of customer value as a basis for evaluative judgment. So far, value has been defined primarily in monetary terms (“value for money”). In this paper the role of customer value in the service delivery process is examined. On the basis of axiology, value is positioned as a three-dimensional concept: (a) emotional, (b) practical and (c) logical. In a restaurant setting it is examined how value evolves during the course of the service delivery process. This service delivery process was broken down into four distinct stages: (a) reception, (b) ordering, (c) meal and (d) check-out. Each of these stages was profiled in terms of the aforementioned value dimensions. In addition, stage satisfaction scores were gathered. It was examined whether and to what extent carry-over effects occurred with respect to the different stages of the restaurant visit. A considerable number of carry-over effects were found. Furthermore, the results of a subgroup analysis of the total sample of restaurant customers on the basis of the purpose of their visit yielded a number of differences concerning the three value dimensions which in turn might provide a basis for segmentation of restaurant customers. PsycINFO classification: 3900