Redesign of a customer experience in the theater field S T A G I N G the E X P E R I E N C E

(1)

S T A G I N G

the

E X P E R I E N C E

Redesign of a customer experience in the theater field

(2)

Esmee van Caspel 2 Thesis

Master of Science Business Administration Specialization: Business Development

University of Groningen - Faculty of Economics and Business

Staging the experience:

Redesign of a customer experience in the theater field

Date: 31-08-2012

Author: Esmee Janna van Caspel

Student no.: 2044455

Email: evancaspel@yahoo.com

Academically supervised by:

Supervisor: dr. J.D. (Hans) van der Bij, RuG

Co-assessor: dr. C. (Cees) Reezigt, RuG

Professionally supervised by:

(3)

Esmee van Caspel 3

Preface

Although this piece of work forms the official end of my educational experience, I will always be eager to learn and discover from life .

This master’s thesis deals with the customer experience in the theater field. The idea of this subject originated out of my curiosity for the theater world. Combining personal interest and study turned out to be a valuable combination since the time I spent writing this thesis became an inspiring period. The cooperation with Theater Diligentia was a welcome addition for it provided me with the chance to combine theory and practice.

During the last months, friends and family expressed their interest in my thesis. And, while some may not even realize it, each conversation contributed to the final form in which I present my thesis. To conclude, I would like to thank my parents for all the encouragement, inspiration and motivation they have given me. Not just during this short period in which I have written my thesis, but from elementary school all the way to this day.

(4)

Esmee van Caspel 4

Abstract

An experience is a difficult to capture term, and this is reflected in the numerous articles which have been written about it. Within this research, it is tried to shed some light on why the term experience gives such difficulty and in what forms the multilevel construct is currently used in literature. Special attention is given towards event experiences. To come to a redesign of an event experience in the theater field, the antecedents and components of a theater experience are analyzed. While the antecedents and components of an event experience have gotten attention in literature before, it is not yet clear how certain antecedents influence the experience. Emphasis is therefore put on the separation of the emotional components which shape the customer experience and the antecedents which influence these emotions.

The findings of this study are threefold: first, the visitors involvement with the event before the actual start of the event is important for the eventual experience. Second, trouble encountered during the journey towards the event location influences all aspects of the experience. Third, the negative behavior of the other event visitors hinders people to get into the flow of the event and causes people to experience less fun. This knowledge is used to come to a redesign of a theater experience.

The study concludes with interesting implications of the findings for not only experience literature, but also for consumer motivation literature. Limitations of the study are given after which ideas for future research are suggested. The latter being important since the conclusions of the research indicate that the customer experience literature still has a long way to go in finding the relevant antecedents towards a customer’s experience.

(7)

Esmee van Caspel 7

Introduction

Companies’ offerings are no longer sold as just being a service or a product. The trend of today’s market is to offer your customers an “experience” instead. Increasing efforts of consumer oriented companies are concentrated on delivering an extraordinary experience . Think for instance about the “experience gifts” you can buy in any drugstore in town. Whether it is a bottle of shampoo or a gift card for a high tea in a luxurious restaurant, they all promise to deliver an extraordinary experience. Go into the city center and you will encounter numerous cafés that will deliver you an excellent coffee experience. The topic is now alive in any market you can think of. Against this background, the knowledge of customer experience becomes important.

Academic interest

In the year 1982, Holbrook and Hirschman introduced the topic of “experience” into the academic world. They conveyed that consumers no longer were just interested in the practical value a product could offer, but were pursuing the positive feelings a product could bring them. This suggestion got its hold on the academic world. However, the academic interest in this topic really took flight when Pine and Gilmore (1998) argued that products and services were no longer sufficient to distinct yourself from other companies. Turning offerings into experiences has become the solution to discriminate among the uncountable amount of goods and services available. And while companies are trying to sell compelling experiences to consumers, academics are still trying to get a hold on what an experience exactly is.

They do however agree on certain things: a customer experience is subjective and personal, and the construct is multi-dimensional. Most researchers acknowledge that the experience consists out of multiple components, all describing a certain type of sensation felt by the customer. Literature remains nonetheless wide-spread with ideas about what these sensations are, and they differ from research to research. In the literature study of this research it is therefore argued that experiences are best divided into three separate categories: brand-experiences, product-experiences and event-experiences. After the literature review, the current research will focus solely on event-event-experiences. Examples of event experiences are a restaurant outing, going to the movies or the theater or going on an extreme sporting trip. These events indeed differ greatly. However they are equal in the sense that they are all hedonic and involve the customers. This similarity causes different studies to find similar antecedents towards the experience, as will be concluded from the literature review later in this study.

Until now, the multidimensional nature of the experience lacks academic insight, since it is not known which antecedents influence which dimensions of the experience. The current research will therefore have a focus on exactly what factors result into what kind of sensations felt by the customer. This forms the unique contribution of the study for both academics as well as practitioners. While earlier studies have focused on finding the components of the experience, no attention is yet given to what precisely influences these different components. Furthermore, by knowing what factors influence the sensations felt by the customers, companies can understand the forming of their customers experiences and can strive for the delivery of a better customer experience. Therefore, the research question of this study is formulated as follows:

(8)

Esmee van Caspel 8 “Out of what components exists a customer experience during events and what antecedents do

influence these experience components.”

The research question will be answered in the context of a business problem in the theater field. The theater of interest wants to enhance the experience it currently delivers their visitors. Therefore, a redesign of the theater experience is presented in this study. To come to this redesign, an analysis is conducted amongst the visitors of the theater regarding the antecedents of the experience and its different dimensions. This analysis will provide insight into the above research question.

Practical interest

This study takes place in the Netherlands, where the government is struggling with its budget. The consequence for theatres are there: subsidiaries are cut back (NOS, 2011). Theaters are highly dependent on these subsidiaries. Another characteristic of theaters in the Netherlands is the density of the theaters. With 145 number of theaters (CBS, 2010), consumers have ample choice when wanting to visit a theater. Companies do not stick to one theater, but travel across the country. A theater can show a play of a specific company, while the next night, this company moves on to a theatre in the neighboring town.

The choice of theater for consumers is not limited to their current residence. Convenient roads, connecting cities and an extensive public infrastructure cause people to travel from one city to another almost effortlessly. Especially in the Randstad (a highly dense, urban environment in the west of the Netherlands) this is an issue. It can cause consumers to visit theatres miles from their own home.

The cut-back subsidiaries and the competition between the theaters forces theater management to pay attention to how their visitors experience a theater visit. Improving the theater experience is on the top of their mind. Therefore, this study will aim to improve the experience of the theater visitors through a redesign.

Structure of the study

In this study, the following structure is used: first, a literature review is presented. This review explores the concept customer experience and delivers five antecedents towards the experience and four dimensions of the experience. Second, an introduction into the theater field is given and the business problem with which the theater of interest is struggling is discussed in more detail. Third, the methodology of this study is outlined. For this study own scales were developed. Therefore, special attention is given to the development process of these scales. Fourth, the results of the questionnaire distributed amongst the visitors are discussed. Fifth, a redesign to the experience is given. And sixth, implications of the results towards the literature presented.

It is expected that findings of this study will give academics more clarity in the forming of an event experience. Insights will be given into the important antecedents towards event experiences and the components of an event experience will be identified. At last, this research will demonstrate what antecedents influence which components of the experience.

(9)

Esmee van Caspel 9

Literature study

This literature study will explore the term customer experience more in depth. Several kinds of experiences are discussed, after which the review will pay special attention to the event experience. The literature study will conclude with five antecedents to and four components of the event experience.

The term “customer experience” seems to let academics feel puzzled. No consensus exists about the exact definition of the construct. It probably starts already with the way the word is used in common language. It can be used as either a verb (“to experience”) or a noun (“the experience”). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2006, cited in Palmer (2010)), uses both fashions, since it molds verbs into nouns when defining an experience: “The feeling of emotions and sensations as opposed to thinking” and “…involvement in what is happening rather than abstract reflection on an event”. Disregarding the verb or noun form of the word, the definition reflects a subjective nature of the construct “experience”: people feel and are involved. “Abstract reflection” is not part of an experience and the experience is therefore hard to describe in objective terms.

Because of this difficult to grasp nature of the construct, some deeper insights in how the construct became of academic interest and was formed through the years on an academic level, are given for a better understanding.

History

“Customer experiences has emerged as the next competitive area.” (Pine & Gilmore, 1998) Companies thus can sell experiences. This notion can be hard to grasp, since it is just described that an experience is about feeling emotions and being involved in a happening. To make this more comprehensible, a short description of how the economy evolved might be necessary. Pine & Gilmore (1998) reason that the entire history of economic progress can be recapitulated in the four stages of a birthday cake. Within the first economic stage, mother made a birthday cake from scratch, by mixing farm commodities (flour sugar, butter and eggs). The offerings sold during this agrarian economy were merely commodities. The second stage emerged when goods instead of farm commodities were sold in the industrial economy: premixed ingredients, packaged to easily make a birthday cake. The service economy emerged when parents no longer baked the cake themselves, but spend ten times the amount of money they would on packaged ingredients by paying someone else to make the birthday cake for them. And just as market traders found that their commodities weren’t distinct enough and manufacturers noticed that their products were similar to the ones sold by their rivals, service providers are now discovering that their offerings do not distinct them anymore from their competitors. Services, as goods before them, have become commoditized: they often compete solely on price instead of offering. The next step in the progression of economic value, as argued by Pine and Gilmore (1998), is the staging of experiences. It’s as big a transition as from goods to services. Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from goods. Services are intangible, customized and delivered on demand. Experiences are rather memorable, personal and revealed over a duration. Where services deliver benefits, experiences convey sensations.

(10)

Esmee van Caspel 10

Products and experiences

With the notion of experiences in mind, people started to look differently towards products. Oliver and Mano (1993) explain that a product or service have two major dimensions: Utilitaric and

Hedonic. The first dimension is the more traditional notion of a product: a product or service

performs a useful function. Within the second dimension, products and services are however more valued for their pleasing properties than for their practical or economic value. The two dimensions form the basis of two different perspectives in literature. Seen out of the information processing

perspective consumers’ choices are viewed in terms of the products’ useful function (Morris B

Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). This perspective therefore is mostly aimed at utilitarian products and was in the beginning when the construct “customer experience” gained academic interest very popular, Abbott (1995, cited in Holbrook, 2006). It was believed that people did not just desire products, but rather the experience a product offers. For instance, a fancy, modern and secure lock on the house could give the customer a feeling of safety. Later, the experiential view gained interest. This perspective deals more with hedonic experiences. Here, the consumer bases the choice for a product on the fun that it can deliver, rather than the utilitarian value or feeling he or she can gain from it. A product is no longer just “useful” or “not-useful” but people develop certain pleasurable feelings towards the product or service instead.

Brand experience, product experience, service experience and event experience

With the rise of interest in the experiential view on products, marketers found that they could let people develop pleasurable feelings towards their products. As suggested by Pine & Gilmore (1998), the companies that used to sell tangible products tried not to sell just these products anymore. Think about the beer brewer Heineken with its Heineken Experience, or concept stores like Shirts and Cappuccino, where the emphasis lies on selling shirts, but where customers can try these shirts on while enjoying a cup of quality coffee. With these kinds of experiences, marketers tried to let people develop positive feelings towards their brand. These feelings are called brand-experience and marketing literature has exclaimed profound interest in this subject since the notion was born that it was the key towards loyalty and satisfaction (Ismail, Melewar, Lim, & Woodside, 2011; Nadu & Venkatesakumar, 2011). As a result, all kinds of experiences popped-up. Concepts such as product experience (Raghunathan & Irwin, 2001), service experience (Meyer & Schwager, 2007) and ultimately the term brand experience emerged, aiming at all aspects of a company’s offering.

However, this brand experience stream in literature deviates a great deal from the experience as introduced by Pine and Gilmore. The way people experience a brand differs from the way people experience a certain event. The components to form a brand experience are, according to Gentile, Spiller, & Noci (2007) a sensorial, an emotional, a cognitive, a pragmatic, a lifestyle, and a relational component. The feelings thus associated with a certain brand will relate to one of these areas. However, Pine & Gilmore (1998) suggested that an experience could be entertaining, educative and that it gives a person aestheticism and escape. The two groups of components already illustrate the differences between the two experiences. The first experience is aimed at a certain brand and the feelings a customer carries towards this brand. It can be shaped by direct or indirect contact with a company. For instance, when a representative of a company behaves in a rude manner towards a customer, this customer is likely to develop negative feelings towards the regarding company and experiences the feeling of negative emotions when hearing the companies name. The second type of experience can only be molded during a certain event. The definition of Pine and Gilmore indicates

(11)

Esmee van Caspel 11 this already: experiences are events that engage individuals in a personal way. On the contrary, brand experience can emerge with or without engaging in an event.

The value of keeping the concepts separate

This difference is however not expressed that clear in marketing or other streams of literature. The confusion might be originating out of not knowing in which context the word “experience” is used; in a brand-management context, a service context, a product context or an event-staging context. Admittedly, all areas deal with components of high emotional feelings and sensations. This similarity might be the reason why they are thrown together.

While the concepts might be able to benefit from each other’s contributions and insight in literature, it is better to keep them separate. This might lead to a thorough understanding of all concepts. Furthermore, keeping them separate, the value of for instance staging an event can be seen: during an event, customers can develop certain feelings which will be associated with the regarding company. This can be the antecedent towards the brand-experience and by extension, as debated in literature, towards loyalty and satisfaction towards the company.

It might also be valuable to understand that a brand-experience can change over time, as long as the customer keeps coming into contact with the brand. An event-experience however, has a more clear point of beginning and ending in time.

Now that the difference between the concepts has been cleared, it can be declared that this research will continue with a focus on event-experience. Within this research, the relationship between an event staged by a company and the brand experience by the customer, even as the resulting loyalty and satisfaction will not be of debate here. Instead, this study will focus on the antecedents towards an event experience and what emotions the experience evokes.

Definition

Arnould and Price (1993) argue that an experience is characterized by a high level of emotional intensity. Pine and Gilmore (1998)however define the experience as “events that engage individuals in a personal way”. The former definition describes the experience out of the viewpoint of the customer, while the latter puts the experience in the context of the staging company. Meyer and Schwager (2007) define an experience as “the internal and subjective response that customers have of any direct or indirect contact with a company.” Where direct contact is initiated by usually the customer and indirect contact is formed by unplanned encounters with outings of the company. As might be expected, this last definition is not one that is purely aimed at event experiences.

The three definitions have agreement on the highly personal facet of an experience. And, when reflecting again on the definition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, they have similarities. It seems that having an experience is indeed about feeling emotions (Arnould & Price, 1993) and being engaged or involved in the “happening” (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). Furthermore, the experience should be captured in subjective terms rather than objective descriptions (Meyer & Schwager, 2007). It appears that the academic use of the term “experience” does not deviate much from how it is defined in American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.

(12)

Esmee van Caspel 12

Components

This section will be concerned with presenting literature regarding experiences during events. The emotional states of customers engaged in a certain event will be discussed. Since all experiences are unique from person to person, the kind of emotions felt from experience to experience are different. Nonetheless, academics have tried to generalize the emotions and sensations felt during a company staged experience.

For instance, Hosany and Gilbert (2009) found that tourists emotional experiences towards hedonic holiday destinations were captured in the dimensions joy, love and positive surprise. The restaurant experience can be captured in the concepts of pleasure and conviviality (Warde & Martens, 2000). While these two studies have emphasized emotions which can be felt while attending an event by oneself, other studies have emphasized emotions which are felt when attending an event in the company of others. An extreme outdoor sport experience is formed by the sensation of communion (Arnould & Price, 1993). This sensation is threefold. A person will feel the sensation of having new relationships with oneself, with nature, and with other participants.

The feelings which a customer feels during an experience, are very diverse. Still, the generalization might be accurate, since a consensus can be found in literature regarding hedonic event experiences. These components seem to be flow, sense of communitas, joy and personal growth. The next four paragraphs will be concerned with the discussion of these four components.

Flow

The previously cited dictionary definition of experience made a notion of involvement. However, in academic literature, the more formal term for this state of total absorption is Flow (Morgan, 2007). It is intuitively easy to grasp. When one recalls one of their own hedonic experiences (visiting a theater, going on holiday or eating out), how many times has not been said “I totally lost track of time” or “I got so involved, I forgot everything else around me”. Csikszentmihalyi (1991) even argues that it is the key to an optimal experience, as it forms the base for offering absorption, personal control, values, spontaneity and a newness of perception and process. McGinnis, Gentry, & Gao (2008) had similar conclusions. Flow establishes enduring involvement, which means that flow is needed to get people engaged into a certain performance or with a certain service. However, they also found that when the participation frequency of the customer increases, it is not solely flow that establishes this involvement. A sense of communitas begins to play an important role as well.

Sense of communitas

Arnould & Price (1993) suggested that the forming of new or strengthened relationships formed the basis for an extreme outdoor sports experience. This does not just account for extreme outdoor sports. For instance, when going to a restaurant, customers spend time and money in search for pleasure, but also for conviviality and interactions. (Warde & Martens, 2000). When a product or service encourages its consumption together with other people, it may eventually lead to an affirmation of a social identity or a sense of belonging to a specific social group. (Gentile et al., 2007). Company staged events create a feeling of separation from the everyday life (the feeling of flow) and offer the serenity and time necessary to form these special comradeship (McGinnis et al., 2008). It is not a coincidence that most hedonic experiences are usually shared with other people (Raghunathan & Corfman, 2006). Sharing those experiences gives people the feeling to belong to a certain group and gives them a “Sense of communitas” (Arnould & Price, 1993).

(13)

Esmee van Caspel 13

Personal growth

Next to the forming of new or strengthened relationships with others, it is said that forming new relationships with oneself happens as well during a hedonic experience. (Arnould & Price, 1993; Bouchet, Lebrun, & Auvergne, 2004). Although the concept has been given different names in scientific literature: “personal growth” (Arnould & Price, 1993), “personal progression” (Klaus & Maklan, 2011) and “learning” (Poulsson & Kale, 2004), they concur that an experience often leads to discovering something new about oneself, whether it is having learned a new skill, or getting to know one’s own strength and weaknesses.

Joy

Looking into the Oxford definition of “hedonic” (Relating to, characterized by, or considered in terms

of pleasant sensations) it is not surprising that the most frequently cited experience component in

literature regarding (hedonic) experiences is the “feeling of having fun” (Arnould & Price, 1993; Bigné, Andreu, & Gnoth, 2005; Chang & Horng, 2010; Haytko & Baker, 2004; Nadu & Venkatesakumar, 2011; Raghunathan & Corfman, 2006). Some authors even define the whole experience as positive emotions being felt by the one attending the event. Such as Hosany & Gilbert (2009), who measured tourists emotional experiences toward hedonic holiday destinations. They found that joy, love and positive surprise are the dimensions constructing the vacation experience. However, sense of communitas, personal growth and flow are here all regarded as vital parts of an experience. While feeling joy is indeed a part of the experience, it falls short when wanting to describe the feeling of transformation or the feeling of belonging one (can) sense during an event. Next to that, joy does also not describe the feeling of engagement or involvement which can only be captured in the aspect flow.

Antecedents

Customer experience thus is a multidimensional construct. It exists out of several components. With hedonic experiences consisting out of an event, these components are influenced by factors people encounter during the event. Certain factors or happenings during this event lead to a certain response felt by the customer. In literature, a great consistency exists about what these factors generally are. Of course, from activity to activity, some factors should be added, but overall, there are four antecedents towards an experience.

Let’s take a look at what happens during a hedonic event like a holiday vacation, a restaurant outing, a theater visit or some other event. People socially interact with their friends or family, they encounter or even mingle with other participants, they interact with the personnel employed by the company staging the event and they are surrounded by the environment, often decorated, or deliberately chosen by the company. They see its sights and hear its music or sounds. This all influences the way the event is experienced. These four antecedents to the experience will be discussed separately.

Employees

Employees are said to have a significant influence on the way a customer experiences a service (Arnould & Price, 1993; Ismail et al., 2011; Jones, 1999; Miller & Johnson, 2008). They are seen by customers, they interact with customers, and when they have the ability to provide an extraordinary experience, their influence becomes even higher. It’s not just the behavior of the employee that matters. As found by (Miller & Johnson, 2008), the whole orientation of the employee towards the

(14)

Esmee van Caspel 14 company affects the way a customer experiences a service. And within hedonic experiences, a high connection between the customer and the personal becomes possible, even resulting in personal growth on the part of the customer (Arnould & Price, 1993).

Sensorial

It is argued that a sensorial antecedent should always be included in the customer experience. This antecedent refers to the way the senses of customers are influenced. Sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste apparently influence the way customers experience. (Gentile et al., 2007) found that the senses had a substantially high influence on the experience. However, (Pullman & Gross, 2004) found that the physical design of a service environment is a somewhat difficult antecedent. It does influence the loyalty of a customer, according to their research, but it does not influence the emotions of a customer. Studies to the influence of the atmosphere on the customers experience have been plethoral (Bigné et al., 2005; Bitner, 1992; Haytko & Baker, 2004; Machleit & Eroglu, 2000; Nadu &

Venkatesakumar, 2011; Turley & Bolton, 1999; Verhoef et al., 2009).

Bitner (1992) argued that customers have an internal response to the physical surroundings of an environment. It can determine whether a customer wants to come in, stays and spends money. Machleit & Eroglu (2000) found that when the physical surroundings of a shopping mall deviated from the expectations of a customer, the customer felt less pleasure, joy and interest but more sadness and disgust.

Social interaction

Haytko & Baker (2004) found that social interaction forms a great part of the hedonic mall experience. People enjoy their trip to the mall better when they have someone to talk to. (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982) argued that the responses to products were affected by the shared values by members of a given social class. Raghunathan & Corfman (2006) build on this research by saying that the exposure to others opinions affects the enjoyment of shared experiences. They suggest that promoting interactions among participants whose reaction to the experience are similar will increase the enjoyment of the experience. Arnould & Price (1993) argued that an extraordinary experience emerges from the dynamic interaction of participants.

Other customers

At places where people are socially interactive, often more people are present. Think about a restaurant, shopping at a mall and so forth. The experience of a customer can be influenced by the behavior of these other people, as suggested by Chang & Horng (2010). As a common rule, negative public behavior negatively influences how the activity is experienced. However, what behavior is regarded as negative, differs from context to context (Martin, 1996). It was found that some behaviors were satisfying in certain environments, but dissatisfying in others. Unfortunately, not just the behavior of other customers can influence how the activity is experienced, also just having too many other people in the vicinity can influence the experience.

Other antecedent: Expectation

Next to these four antecedents, Arnould and Price (1993) found that the expectations participants had up front were determinants on how customers experience an event. Just as the dictionary definitions of experience said, these expectations are hard to put into words. However, these vague expectations are believed to be of high importance on the experience. As some researchers believe that the physical surroundings influence the experience of the customer, others believe that it is

(15)

Esmee van Caspel 15 more the perception of these surroundings that influence the experience (Lemke, Clark, & Wilson, 2010). In line with this reasoning, Machleit & Eroglu (2000) found that when the physical surroundings of a shopping mall deviated from the expectations of a customer, the customer felt less pleasure, joy and interest but more sadness and disgust. This is also illustrated by the research of Nowlis, Mandel, & Mccabe (2012). They found that it is really important for consumers to have an imagination regarding the product/service to be consumed. When the imagination was more vivid, the product/service was more enjoyed at point of consummation.

Indeed, expectations might be hard to manage for companies, but it is possible to influence these expectations by means of advertising (Ismail et al., 2011). Advertising does not just draw attention to a company’s services, it also forms the expectations of the customer and by extension how the event is experienced.

To conclude, an event experience generates sensations which can be roughly divided into four categories: a sensation of flow, a sensation of communitas, a sensation of personal growth and a sensation of joy. The literature reviewed on the subject presented five antecedents towards the event experience. These are the employees in the experience setting, the atmosphere in the physical environment (sensorial), the social interaction amongst the event visitors, the behavior of the other visitors and the expectation the visitor has for the event.

These five antecedents and four components found in literature will be used in the redesign of a theaters customer journey to enhance the experience of its visitors. In the next section, some more insights into the theater setting will be given. The information derived from the above literature study will form the input of a survey conducted amongst the visitors of a theater in the Netherlands. Based on the results of this survey, a redesign of the theaters current customer journey will be proposed.

(16)

Esmee van Caspel 16

The Theater Setting

Within this section, an analysis regarding the experience of the visitors of a theater in the Netherlands is described. This analysis will indicate on the one hand which antecedents are important to the visitors experience and on the other hand determine the components out of which an event experience exists. The antecedents and components found in the previous literature review will be used as input for the analysis amongst the theater visitors. They will be complemented with other antecedents specifically for the theater setting. This section will therefore firstly describe the theater setting, secondly give the Theater Experience definition, thirdly discuss the components of a theater experience and fourthly, present the theater antecedents.

Theater

A theater is a classical example of an event stager, since its core business is not to sell a physical product, nor even a service. It stages plays which have the goal to engage people for a few hours to get them out of the real world or maybe to put the real world in another perspective.

For this study, the theater of interest in is situated in The Hague, at one of the most beautiful avenues of the Netherlands. It is a theater of average size, seating 500 visitors when a show would be sold out. It has a focus on stand up comedy, staging the big names in the Netherlands as well as upcoming performers. The typical visitor is a highly educated young adult.

The theater experience definition

Before starting with the current research, interviews were conducted with management and visitors of the theater to come to a more profound understanding of what the visitors of a theater encountered during a theater visit. Management indicated that they did not had put much thought into the experience and the different components out of which the experience consisted. It was clear that they understood the memorable aspect of the term experience and that they were concerned with delivering a “complete evening out” to their guests. But what could define this event was more laid out in terms of delivering extra’s to the evening like “going to a restaurant before the show starts” rather than in terms of what the resulting feelings of their guests were by means of the evening out staged by the theater. This is however not surprising when taking the definition of experience into consideration. It is also apparent from the literature review that a giving a definition to the construct of customer experience is difficult since there are so many types of experiences which can be researched. Nonetheless, a definition of the construct will be given to give more hold on the concept during the case study. A definition resulting out of the literature review of Ismail et al. (2011) of experience is: “Emotions provoked, sensations felt, knowledge gained and skills acquired through active involvement with the firm pre, during and post consumption.” This definition is aimed at consumption firms and is in its current form not applicable to a theater. The last part of the definition should be rewritten. The resulting definition is:

“Emotions provoked, sensations felt, knowledge gained and skills acquired through the engagement with theater play and the factors contributing to the theater.”

Components of a theater experience

These sensations felt, knowledge gained and skills acquired are reflected in the components found in literature. As indicated, theater management had no explicit idea of what feelings or sensations constituted a theater experience. Therefore, the components found in literature regarding hedonic,

(17)

Esmee van Caspel 17 activity experiences (Flow, Fun, Sense of Communitas and Personal Growth) are chosen to form the theater experience in the current case study.

Theater antecedents

The interviews showed that the antecedents found in literature were valid factors within the theater world. Management indeed indicated to be worried about how the visitors were treated by the theater-employees and what the foyer looked like when guests were entering the building before the show. They even acknowledged to put effort into what music played when guests were drinking a cup of coffee before the show started. However, next to those factors already found in literature, seven other antecedents not found in literature resulted out of the interviews as well. Four were concerned with the journey visitors had to make before arriving at the theater. The other three were concerned with the drinks visitors could buy or were offered during the break of the show or after the show had ended. Next, these antecedents will be shortly discussed.

Journey to the theater

Management indicated to be worried about the journey visitors had to make before arriving at the theater. One admitted to frequently hear complaints about the POS machine where visitors could buy a parking ticket to legally park their car at one of the parking spaces in the centre of The Hague. It was not possible to pay with PINcard (a common payment method in the Netherlands) or Euro bills. Only coins were accepted. Furthermore, it was indicated that visitors often had trouble finding a parking spot or encountered difficulties when traveling by public transport. Sometimes, these occurrences were the cause of being too late for the show and the result was frustrated and stressed visitors. When visiting the theater, several direction signs to the theater were encountered, placed by the municipality. However, not from all directions were they visible and most were only visible for bikers or pedestrians and were less visible car drivers. This was the cause for the notion that maybe not all visitors could find the theater easily.

Drinks in the foyer

Furthermore, management was concerned with the time people had to wait in line when getting a drink at the bar during the break of the show or afterwards when they were lingering in the foyer. Out of interviews with customers resulted the notion that they liked to be offered a drink before, during the break or after the show.

The seven theater specific components are thus as follows:

- Trouble with the POS machine at the parkinglot.

- Trouble with finding a parking spot.

- The journey by public transport.

- The walk to the theater. - The free offering of a beverage.

- The time visitors had to stand in line for a drink during the break of the show. - The time visitors had to stand in line for a drink after the show.

They were added to the antecedents found in literature. Next, the method of this study will be outlined.

(18)

Esmee van Caspel 18

Method

Within this section, the method used to come to a profound analysis of the customer experience in a theater setting is explained. Own scales were developed for this analysis. Therefore, the process followed to come to those scales will first be outlined. Second, the manner the data was collected is discussed. Third, the factor analysis which has grouped the scales is discussed.

Scale generation

The initial items for the independent variables employees, other customers, sensorial, two items out of the category preparation and all dependent variables were adopted from literature (Chang & Horng, 2010; Dagger, Sweeney, & Johnson, 2007; David, 1990; Debenedetti, 2003; Haytko & Baker, 2004; Hosany & Gilbert, 2009; Martin, 1996; McGinnis et al., 2008; Nurkka, Kujala, & Kemppainen, 2009). No scales could be found specifically aimed at visitors in a theater, but items regarding other events were available. With a little adjustment, these items were also suitable to use in the current study. One study had for instance developed items regarding golf playing. Where the scales mentioned for instance “my fellow golf-players”, the scale was copied with replacement of “my fellow golfplayers” for “my fellow theater visitors”.

The remaining seven items were based on information gained from interviews with theater management and theater visitors. Four items concerned the journey visitors had to make before arriving at the theater: the journey by public transport the visitor had to make, if they were able to find a parking space without effort, whether the visitor encountered problems with the POS machine when parking their car and whether visitors had difficulty finding the theater. Other added items were the amount of time people had to stand in line for a drink during the break of the show or afterwards the show and whether they were offered a drink from the theater. The initial items for the dependent variables were all scales adopted from already existing literature.

After that, the questionnaire had to be translated to the Dutch language to make it possible for the theater visitors to fill out the questionnaire. A literal translation of the items from English to Dutch was avoided. This often causes confusion for the reader on conceptual level and since the questionnaire was aimed at the personal experience of the visitor, this confusion would have been highly undesirable. Visitors should be able to read the statements without effort and hesitation and should immediately understand what is asked of them. The translation process was therefore done with the supervision of a Master of Arts in Theory and Practice of Translation. The process was aimed at presenting a survey in proper Dutch with retention of the essence of the English items.

Because of the diversity of literature and interviews items were drawn from, all items were pretested. The first pretest showed several items which were unclear. A few were eliminated. The second pretest caused a few items to be rephrased. A third pretest showed that all items were now clear and ready for distribution.

This process eventually delivered a questionnaire with thirty-one items representing the independent variables and twenty-one items representing the dependent variables. A seven-point scale ranging from ‘strongly agree (7)’, ‘agree (6)’, ‘slightly agree (5)’, ‘neither agree nor disagree (4)’, ‘slightly disagree (3)’, ‘disagree (2)’, to ‘strongly disagree (1)’ accompanied each statement

(19)

Esmee van Caspel 19

Data collection

The questionnaire was accompanied by a cover letter which illustrated the research purpose and instructions on how to fill out the questionnaire. To encourage completion, visitors had a chance to win free tickets to two popular shows which the theater staged in the next month.

Visitors of the theater were asked to fill out the paper questionnaire in the theater when the show was over. Since there were questions incorporated about how the respondent felt after the show, this was the best moment to question the respondents. At 6 different nights, visitors were approached. It yielded 152 qualified responses (4 questionnaires were regarded as unqualified because of non-completion). 72% of the respondents were women, most respondents were aged between 20 and 50 (37% between 20 and 29 and 36% between 30 and 49). Almost half of the respondents were residents of the city The Hague, a third came from a neighboring town and the rest of the respondents lived further away.

In table 1, the descriptive statistics of the study can be found. They will be discussed in a later section.

Descriptive Statistics Independent Variable

Mean

Std.

Deviation Dependent Variable Mean

Std. Deviation

Employees 5,28 0,94 Personal Growth 3,63 1,37

Other Customers 1,93 0,91 Personal Fun 5,76 1,06

Sensorial 5,05 1,32 Sense of Communitas 3,97 1,12

Preperation 3,23 1,66 Flow 5,45 0,92

Social Interaction 3,47 1,64 Customer Experience 3,34 0,63

Easy Parking 4,62 1,42

Trouble with POS 3,22 1,33

Easy Journey PT 4,86 1,48

Waiting for drink - Break 3,34 1,28

Waiting for drink - After 2,99 1,82

Table 1. Descriptive statisctics of the independent and dependent variables.

Scale purification

Independent variables

Factor analysis summarized the data of the independent variables. The number of factors was fixed at six. The purified scale resulted into the 6 dimensions derived from literature and contained 13 items. 5 items which did not fit the factor analysis, but were regarded as important by management of the theater, were nevertheless incorporated in the analysis as lose independent variables. The variable “social interaction” (derived from literature) gave some trouble, for the regarding items would not load groupwise. It was decided to choose one of the items of social interaction to act as the independent variable social interaction. In the table 2, an overview of which items belong to which independent variables. The descriptives of the factor analysis are displayed, as well as the Cronbach alpha’s which represent the cohesion between the different items.

(20)

Esmee van Caspel 20 Factor

Employees

Other

Customers Sensorial Preperation

Social Interaction

Alpha .783 .752 .812 .641 -

Item

Employees clothing befitted the atmosphere of the

show. ,841

Employees behavior befitted the subject of the show. ,804

I was treated as an important visitor by the

personnel of the theater. ,760

The personnel of the theater was friendly. ,454

Some of the other visitors behaved rudely.

,858

Some of the other visitors were inappropriately clothed.

,829

Some of the other visitors made too much noise.

,755

It was too crowded in the theater.

,513

The setting of the foyer helped me to get into the mood of the show.

,868

The ambiance in the foyer got me into the atmosphere of the show.

,849

I read background information regarding the show.

,911

I encountered a lot of ads regarding the show.

,783

Before the show, my fellow visitors and I conversated a lot about the show.

,976 Table 2. Result of the factor analysis for the independent variables.

Dependent variables

The scales of the dependent variables were all constructed out of literature. All items but three loaded on one of the four dimensions. The three items that did not load on one of the dimensions were disregarded. For an overview which items belongs to which variable, see the table below. Next to the grouping of the items, the alpha’s which represent the cohesion between the grouped items are presented. Factor Personal Growth Personal Joy Sense of Communitas Flow Alpha .866 .941 .706 .832 Item

(21)

Esmee van Caspel 21

I got to know myself better during the theater visit. ,824

After the theater visit I experiences personal growth. ,816

After the theater visit I felt inspired. ,719

After the theater visit I felt happy. ,940

After the theater visit I felt cheerful. ,921

After the theater visit I felt joyful. ,883

After the theater visit I felt comfortable. ,874

After the theater visit I felt enthusiastic. ,852

That afternoon/evening, I got to know the other

theater visitors better.

,794

That afternoon/evening, I got to know my fellow

theater visitors better.

,762

I developed a sense of camaraderie towards my

fellow theater visitors.

,617

I felt a sense of belonging with my fellow theater

visitors.

,503

I found the theater visit a very liberating experience. ,756

I became totally involved with the show. ,729

The theater visit was an enjoyable release from the

everyday grind.

,720

The theater visit seemed to rush by quickly. ,671

The show activated my imagination. ,661 Table 3. Result of the factor analysis for the dependent variables.

(22)

Esmee van Caspel 22

Results

Before the results of the regression analysis are given, the scores per variable are discussed. This score indicates the situation as is at the theatre. Table 4 shows the scores for all independent and dependent variables. Visitors could give their impression of the theatre according to a seven point Likert scale. Therefore, a score of 7 for the variable indicates a high degree of satisfaction about the regarding topic. After these scores are discussed, a section is devoted to the results of the regression analysis. Significant and insignificant relationships between the independent and dependent variables will be separated and the beta’s of these relationships will be presented.

Plain results – scores

Independent variable Score Dependent variable Score

Employees 5,28 PersGrowth 3,63

OtherCustomers 6,07 PersFun 5,76

Sensorial 5,05 Sense Comm 3,97

Preperation 3,23 Flow 5,45

SocialInteraction 3,47 CustExp 4,70

Easy Parking 4,62

Troublewith POS 4,78

Easy journey PT 4,86

Waitingfor drink - Break 4,66

Watingfor drink - After 5,01

Table 4. The current scores of the different variables

A seven point Likert scale was used to determine the impression of the visitors. Employees were positively viewed in the sense that the visitors think that they are friendly, well behaved, treating visitors as important persons and were dressed appropriately. The score regarding the behavior of Other Customers is above 6, so there are few visitors who have been exposed to negative behavior of other visitors. The surroundings in the foyer are regarded as fitting the show and bring people in an appropriate mood. However, before the show starts, only few people have been prepared for the show. They have not seen that many ads and they have not read background information about the artist or the show they are planning to visit. Furthermore, the social interaction about the show between the groups visiting the show, has been negligible. People driving up by car indicated that it was possible to find a parking space, but it was not that easy. The POS did not seem that troublesome to the visitors but the trip by public transport is regarded as only slightly positive. On the plus side, it was indicated that visitors did not have to wait long when wanting to have a drink during the break of the show, and after the show, the visitors experienced the waiting time for a drink even shorter.

(23)

Esmee van Caspel 23 When looking at the constructs of customer experience, the visitors experience only little Personal Growth and Sense of Communitas. However, they experienced Personal Fun and Flow to a great extent. The customer experience as a total construct is therefore only mildly positive.

Regression Analysis

5 regression analysis were ran. The regression analysis on “Personal Growth” did not yield any significant results, for the F value was 1,169 (alpha = 0,316) and the R² 0,077. Therefore, this dependent variable was disregarded for the rest of the analysis. All other regression analysis were significant (see Table 5).

Personal Fun is explained out of four different independent variables: the behavior of other customers, the social interaction, the finding of a good parking space when traveling by car, and the flawless trip when traveling by public transport. Other customers have a negative influence on Personal Fun, while all other independent variables have a positive influence.

Two independent variables explain the Sense of Communitas visitors feel when attending a show. These are the preparation and again the flawless trip when traveling by public transport. This last variable is however only mildly significant.

The Flow people experience when visiting the theatre is explained out of four different independent variables. Other customers have a highly significant negative influence on flow (alpha = 0,000). Other variables influencing flow are: preparation, social interaction and having no trouble with finding parking space when traveling by car.

The Customer Experience as a whole (all four constructs combined, including personal growth) yields five different independent variables as explanation. These are the behavior of the other customers, preparation of the visitors, the social interaction, having no trouble with finding parking space when traveling by car and the flawless trip when traveling by public transport.

Employees, sensorial, having trouble with the POS at the parking space and waiting in line for a drink in the break or after the show, does not seem to have any significant influence on any part of the customer experience. Dependent variables Personal Fun Sense of Communitas Flow Customer Experience β β β β Independent variables Employees 0,037 0,161 0,076 0,101 OtherCustomers -0,323** 0,142 -0,287** -0,153** Sensorial 0,058 0,114 -0,013 0,043

(24)

Esmee van Caspel 24

Table 5. Regression Analysis Statistics

+ indicates a significance level of 10%, * indicates a significance level of 5% and ** indicates a significance level of 1%. Preperation 0,078 0,130* 0,092* 0,089* SocialInteraction 0,106* 0,039 0,077ˣ 0,072* Easy Parking 0,200** 0,017 0,193** 0,113* Troublewith POS 0,083 -0,122 0,000 0,011 Easy journey PT 0,111ˣ 0,120ˣ 0,039 0,079ˣ

Waitingfor drink - Break -0,004 -0,032 -0,050 -0,017

Watingfor drink - After 0,047 -0,008 -0,041 -0,036

R² 0,201 0,143 0,242 0,201

Adjusted R² 0,144 0,083 0,188 0,144

(25)

Esmee van Caspel 25

Redesign

The previous presented results give insight in the way visitors experience a theater visit. According to the results, there are five antecedents towards the experience. Within this section, the influence of these five antecedents is discussed. The results also demonstrate the current situation at the theater. The information of both paragraphs will form the input to the redesign. The customer journey of the theaters visitors will be presented and the points where enhancements can be achieved will be located. This will be followed by a section concerned with the implications of these enhancements. At last, a short section is dedicated to a step-by-step guide explaining how a simple measure with great impact can be introduced into the theater.

The redesign has been discussed with the theater. The viewpoint of theater management on the redesign will be presented at the end of this section.

The influence of the significant antecedents on the experience

Five antecedents influence the total experience. The impact with which the antecedents can influence the experience (and its components) is defined by the Beta’s which resulted out of the regression analysis presented in the previous section.

Of these antecedents, the negative behavior other customers might display has the biggest impact on the experience. This influence is in a negative way, thus when visitors perceive the public behavior as more displeasing, their positive feelings about the show are going down. Second place in terms of impact on experience is easily finding a parking space, followed by being engaged or occupied with the show before it starts. This occupation can be either by means of encountering ads or by actively seeking for information. The two antecedents with the least, but still significant influence on the experience are the ease with which a journey by public transport can be made and the possible conversations visitors can have with their joining company about the show before it starts.

The impact of the antecedents on the experience can be divided into the impact they have on the different components of the experience. This way, the manner of the experience formation becomes clear.

Fun

The feeling of having fun by a visitor is for a big part influenced by the perceived negative public behavior of other customers. Finding an parking space easily is the second antecedent inline to influence the fun. Not encountering any trouble when traveling by Public Transport deserves a third place in terms of impact on fun and conversing about the show upfront with joining company is of somewhat lesser influence. The encountering of ads or other information about the show has no influence on Fun.

(26)

Esmee van Caspel 26

Sense of communitas

Sense of communitas has only two antecedents. They are, in order of impact, the encountering of ads or looking actively for information about the show and having an easy journey when traveling by public transport.

Flow

The extent to which the visitor comes into the flow of the show is firstly determined by the perceived negative behavior of other customers. Of lesser impact are the finding of a parking spot with ease and the encountering of ads or looking up information about the show. The antecedents with the least significant impact on flow is the interaction held up front between the visitors and his or her joining company.

The current situation at the theatre

Now it is known how the antecedents influence the experience, it is also useful to know what the current situation is at the theater of these antecedents. In the table 6, the current scores of the different antecedents are displayed. A lower score indicates more room for improvement. A score of 7 is best, a score of 1 is worst. Therefore, a score of 4 forms the line of demarcation between bad and good.

Variable Score Other Customers 6,07 Easy journey PT 4,86 Easy Parking 4,62 Social Interaction 3,47 Preparation 3,23

Table 6. Significant independent variables and their score in the current situation at the theater.

As can be seen, visitors are not often annoyed by other customers. Finding a parking spot and having an easy journey when travelling by public transport both have room for improvement. The two troublesome variables are the social interaction of the visitors before the show starts and the preparation of the customers for the show.

Enhancing the customer journey

Visitors of the theater all go through a similar path before they attend a show. This is called the “customer journey”. It involves the activities and events related to the delivery of a service, seen out of the perspective of the customer (Zomerdijk & Voss, 2009). This is not to be confused with the actual traveling towards the theater. Below the visitors customer journey of the theater is graphically displayed.

(27)

Esmee van Caspel 27 First encounter with show Expectation for show is raised

Buy ticket Present in

foyer Expectation for show is raised Attend show Break – present in foyer Attend show Present in foyer Leave theater Journey to theater

Figure 1. Customer journey of theatre visit.

First encounter with show

This is the first time the visitor hears about the show. This can be via a friend or family member, an online source, a program, an ad in a magazine or an outdoor add.

Expectation for show is raised

In this part, people have already heard of the show and now go about their daily routine. They have not yet bought a ticket. They may communicate with friends about the show or encounter/look up info about it.

Buy ticket

This is done online, by phone or at the register in the theatre. The first point of improvement is here, but shall be explained further in the text in more detail. The confirmation mail when the tickets are ordered online can include information about the “show-page” of the regarding show, pointing the visitor to the existence of it. Furthermore, the representative of the theater can, by ordering tickets by phone or at the register when the tickets are bought in advance, point the visitor to the existence of the show-page.

Expectation for show is raised

In this part, the Preparation variable and the social interaction variable do play a big role. The key is to start conversation between visitors who will attend the show together and to engage people more with the upcoming show. A suggestion to achieve this is to make more background information regarding the show. This can

be done by placing information about the artist and show on the website, but just doing this will not attract more visitors to actually read it. Make a mailing list with visitors who will attend the show and send them background information. Start a blog about this show (or online show-page) where interviews with the artist can be held or seek for visitors of other theatres where the show already has been played and interview them. Make people aware of this blog by promoting it when the ticket is bought. Next to blogging, Twitter can be used to update visitors with short messages about the upcoming show. In a later section, a step-by-step guideline is dedicated to how the these measures can be introduced into the theater.

(28)

Esmee van Caspel 28

Journey to theater

The theatre has only little control about this part. However, effort can be taken to eliminate the stress in this part as much as possible. Monitoring constructions which influence the route visitors take, can be done at the website of the regarding transport agency. The residence of most visitors is known in the e-mail database. Sending a personalized mail, with a warning of the construction and a suggestion for alternate route is therefore possible. This should not solely be aimed at the tram lines of The Hague, but also the broader orientated railway construction can be included in this, for not all visitors will come out of The Hague. On the website, a clear section with construction work in the immediate vicinity of the theatre can be displayed. Finding a parking space can be made easier by placing the information about where to park, how much it costs and the walking distance to the theatre on the website. When buying a ticket, this information can be communicated as well. Since The Netherlands is a country of bike riders, people can also be encouraged to come by bike, in case they live in the city itself.

Another measure can be to eliminate the necessity to travel during the immediate hours before the show starts. A way to achieve this can be to encourage visitors to come to the neighborhood of the theater earlier. For instance with an offer to combine show with dinner. All shows start at 8.15 PM, which gives the visitor a perfectly acceptable window of time to have a meal in a diner or restaurant.

Present in foyer

In the previous section, It is hinted to create separate areas in the foyer. It is not meant that whole separate rooms should be created, but merely placing more plants, low room dividers and the like in the foyer. This causes people to be shielded of conversations other people have but they are still present in the theatre. This way, people can have an undisturbed conversation.

Giving more background information about the show is also possible in the foyer. The theatre has access to a digital screen, situated above the foyer-bar. Short facts and interesting details about the show or artist can be shown here.

Attend show

Visitors will enter the theatre and enjoy the show.

Break – present in foyer

Some, not all, shows have breaks. Visitors will leave the theater and will enter the foyer. Some will purchase a drink while others will just make conversation. For further information about the behavior of the customer and suggestions for

enhancements during this part of the customer journey, see the previous paragraph “Present in Foyer”.

Attend show

Visitors will enter the theatre again and enjoy the show.

Present in foyer

After the show is over, visitors will linger in the foyer and will (again) buy some drinks, make conversation or both. They can fetch their coats at the wardrobe.

Redesign of a customer experience in the theater field S T A G I N G the E X P E R I E N C E

S T A G I N G

the

E X P E R I E N C E

Redesign of a customer experience in the theater field

Staging the experience:

Redesign of a customer experience in the theater field

Preface

Table of contents

Abstract

Introduction

Academic interest

Practical interest

Structure of the study

Literature study

History

Products and experiences

Brand experience, product experience, service experience and event experience

The value of keeping the concepts separate

Definition

Components

Flow

Sense of communitas

Personal growth

Joy

Antecedents

Employees

Sensorial

Social interaction

Other customers

Other antecedent: Expectation

The Theater Setting

Theater

The theater experience definition

Components of a theater experience

Theater antecedents

Method

Scale generation

Data collection

Scale purification

Independent variables

Dependent variables

Results

Regression Analysis

Redesign

The influence of the significant antecedents on the experience

Fun

Sense of communitas

Flow

The current situation at the theatre

Enhancing the customer journey