Enhancing the Grönroos model of service quality

There has been extensive research undertaken in the area of service quality and what encourages customers to keep coming back. Without question in some service settings the servicescape, the physical environment in which a customer and service provider meet, can have a significant effect on what a customer experiences. Anything a customer sees, feels, touches, hears and smells can have an impact on a firm’s success or failure. This paper reports on an empirical study of the potential significance of the inclusion of the servicescape in service settings. A study was undertaken in a sports club to measure the effect on service scape on customer perceptions of satisfaction. The results contribute to marketing theory by showing that the inclusion of the servicescape variable strengthens the model relating service quality with customer satisfaction.