Pasadena City College Chapter Two Service and Quality in Programming Book Review

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Programming leisure experiences for or with people
can be done in a variety of ways and requires a holistic
view of both the individual and the community to this
chapter we caine some of the overarching tenets
to providing listire services, as well as how recreation
programs have been planned in the past. In addition
entrepreneurial and empowerment models are offered
as approaches to delivering recreation programs
Sharing the worldview of indigenous peoples
John Muir, the great American naturalist.once stated
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find
it hitched to everything else in the universe” (Sierra
Clob Stafl, 1992, p. 73), and so it is with program
ming leisure experiences. Parks, recreation, and
leisure services programmers must be aware of a vast
array of factors in planning recreation programs
these include demographic, political, economic, and
societal factors. As was stated in Chapter One, one of
the characteristics of successful leisure services org
nizations and professionals is the ability to respond
to changes going on around them. For crample, the
National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) is
a professional membership organization that advocates
for public parks and recreation on a national level.
One of roles of NRPA is to identify critical issues
and trends in society, and create a public parks and
recreation agenda through their strategic planning
process, these issues are articulated through organi
zational goal statements (see Table 2.1 on p. 30). This
information is made available on the NRPA website
and members are asked to provide input at several
steps of the planning process. In this way, members
become aware of, and help with, the NRPA’s efforts
to advance the public parks and recreation agenda
produsentending time
ing bed individuals with program
will also address various philosophie
to the delivery of leisure service and the need for
so take a calentrepeneurial
to developing and implementing program
Understanding the
Leisure Experience
The most change the structure of developed
is over the past 50 years has been the social
transformation from a nacturing economy to a
service.com. In the United States, the per
centage of workers employed in the service sector has
rien from a mere 30% in 1900 to an estimated 75%
in 2002. This trend will contine as the service sector
of the conoy has been projected to grow to almost
30% of the worldoce by 2014 (Berman, 2005).
The service omy is also changing. In
their groundbreaking book cidd, The Experience
Economy. Pine and Gilmore (1999) noted that we
have been moving beyond a service to an
economy based on experiences
Experiences have always been around, but ce
sumers, businesses, and coonists lompol them
together with such uneventful activities as dry
cleaning, auto repair, wholesale distribution, and
telephone access. When a person buys a service, he
[sic] purchases a set of intangible activities carried
out on his behalf. But when he buys an experience
be pays to spend time enjoying a series of memo
rable events that a company stages to engage him
in a personal way… Companies stage an experi
ence when they engage customers in a memo-
rable way. (p. 3)
In examining the list of critical issues and trends
identified by NRPA, one that is especially applicable
to all aspects of leisure services is the need to deliver
quality services. As a result, this chapter will focus ini-
Dially on examining the leisure experience as a service,
considering the role of quality in providing leisure
In this way, consumers may be compared to tour
ists, they are “sensation seckers and collectors of
19. Profors Resor Sena
To be prepared to give individual custo
experience their relationship with this world is
marily there they perceive the world axa fond
experiences they seek, leisure providers must
Ray-matris of possible experiences
understand the nature of deliveries. We
… This movement from.com
der the role we play in co-creat
medies and goods to services and ultimately, experi
thout constituents. To understand the
aces is presied in Table 2.2003
cess of delivering quality experiences, we will be
Table 2.7 organizational goals and objectives (adapted from NRPA, 2009)
NRPA Goals
Selected Objectives
Increase our capacity to implement a broad based
advocacy program that affects funding policy and
regulations at the national level to benefit public
parks, recreation, conservation and environmental
stewardship at the local, state and federal levels
Improve the association’s ability to increase
visibility and mobilize support around emerging
Issues and legislative initiatives of importance to
NRPA
Advocacy
NAFAS government relations and advocacy
Initiatives will result in policy making legislation
and funding that benefits public parks, recreation
and conservation
Increase our internal capacity to conduct research
and our external access to relevant data from
similar national organizations, state affiliates,
universities, and other relevant sources.
Develop and deliver relevant, affordable, and
accessible learning resources and opportunities for
citizen advocates and professionals.
Knowledge
NRPAs portfolio of high quality diversified, and
relevant education and training resources will
provide the knowledge, competency and skil base
that both park and recreation professionals and
Citizen Advocates need to lead the field effectively
Awareness
The general public as well as public official
Jeghetors and the media will be more aware of
the critical role played by public parks recreation
and conservation efforts in encouraging healthy
lifestyles promoting environmental stewardship
and supporting community livability
Citizen Professional Collaboration
Worldng together, parks and recreation profession-
als and citire advocates will be champions for
pubac parks, recreation and conservation initi
tive
Enhance NRPAS overall media relations effective
ness
Establish and expand programs with private and
public sector organizations, both not-for-profit and
for profit whose interests complement those of
NAPA
Organizational Excellence
NAPA will be an effectively governed, well
managed, fiscally sound organization positioned to
deliver maximum value to its members and
stakeholders
Expand the interest of the general public through
creative programs and consistent messages
Strengthen professional members understandings
of the value of engaging citizen board and
commission members, volunteers, and other
supporters in NRPA
Increase the relevance and value of programs,
products, and services to better meet member and
stakeholder needs.
Use innovative technology solutions to enhance
business operations and member services
Chapter Sevenfalls 31
by examining the unique characteristics that differen
services from roods of mured products
The four most commonly identified characteristics
scribed to services are tangibility, buterogeneity.
Inparability of production and consumption and
perisability (see Figure 2.1 on p. 32).
Intangibility
la services what is actually purchased is the experi
ence rather than a tangible thing. As a result, criteria
on which to evaluate the experience can be complex
and difficult to capture. For example, a participant
involved in a tour of a museum takes nothing tangible
home beyond the personal value she or be placed on
the experience. Because it comes from within each
person, measuring the satisfaction of that intangible
experience can be challenging
Inseparability of Production and
Consumption
Services are en delivered and experienced
nowy. This will requires the presence of both the
Cound the wider during the delivery process
and the service will be taken back and exchanged
the comer is not satisfied. The provider can show
was amples of the service, but the customer’s
owned, for example, does not con
be shown
Perishability
It is not possible
to visini
ample, a camping experience is not like
can of soup, which can be produced and former
Consumption Services are comes they develop
These characteristics by no means fully describe the
differences between leire goods and services
products have one or more of these chance
not all services display all of the chances. For
example, in identifying the degree of intangibility of a
service Kotler (1991) distinguished for categories
a continuum ranging from a pure good to a pure service
Heterogeneity
This refers to the potential for variability in service
delivery. This is especially prominent when a large
number of employees is involved. The quality of ser
vices is largely dependent upon the actions of people,
Therefore, the quality of interactions between per
sonnel and customers is likely to vary among staff
members. In addition, for individual staff members
the quality of interactions may differ from day to
day. For example, within dance classes some instrue
tors are more requested than others as a result of how
participants perceive the class experience.
.
a pure tangible good such as sporting equipment
(es..tennis rackets.golf clubs, sports shoes)
where no services accompany the product.
.
a tangible good (eg. waterpark or hotel room)
with accompanying services to enhance its con
sumer appeal
Table 2.2 Economic distinctions (Pine & Gilmore, 1999)
Experiences
Experience
Stage
Characteristic
Economy
Economic function
Nature of offering
Key attribute
Method of supply
Commodities
Agrarian
Extract
Fungible
Natural
Stored in bulk
Economic Offering
Goods
Services
Industrial
Service
Make
Deliver
Tangible
Intangible
Standardized
Customized
Inventoried
Delivered
after production on demand
Manufacturer
Provider
User
Client
Features
Benefits
Memorable
Personal
Revealed over
time
Seller
Buyer
Factors of demand
Trader
Market
Characteristics
Stager
Guest
Sensations
Cart
2.
For et und
take their chi Disney World to make this
experience part of everyday family covers for
mach and even years to come
arrio with accompanying minor good
and nach as a week at camp or an adult
cuchara paling class, Gitness
ember, or childcare
Thiorities us to understand why it is
difficult to define or generaline services. This distinction
becomes is clear hon ver, when we realize that the
imate purpose of both goods and services is to engage
the individual in a personal way to create lasting value
Pre & more, 1999)
In making the leap from services to experiences,
Pine and Gilmore (1999) distinguish the products
of different comes in the following way: “While
commodities are fungible fie, they are what they are).
poods tangible, and services are intangible, experien
es are memorablo” (pp. 11-12). From this progression
customers want and expect to be positively, motionally,
and memorably impacted at every level of their inter
action with recreation programs
Thus, within experiences, recreation programs
should seek to add emotional value to the experience
of customers. In this way, services become the stage and
goods become the props to engage the individual. To
understand this concept consider a family trip to Walt
The Characteristics of Experiences
Examining the early work of Pine and more (1999).
checla to think about ICCES ACTOS
dimensions: customer participation and customers
nection. At one end of the spectrum of the use
ticipation dimension is passive
participation in which
customers have no impact on the event or program
they simply experience it
(eg. watching television
at home). At the other end of the spectrum les active
participation in which participants play key roles in
creating the event that yields the experience (es. flag
football players in a campus recreation league)
The second dimension of experience describes the
connection or relationship that unites customers with
the event or performance. At one end of the connection
spectrum lies absorption at the other end, immersion
People viewing a fling football game from the bleachers
may absorb the event taking place in front of them
the same time, people playing in the game are immersed
on another level
These four broad categories of experiences create
four different realms of experience (Pine & Gilmore,
1998, 1999; see Figure 2.2).
Disney World In addition to the actual event.parents
Same Time
Production Consumption
Therapeutic
Massage
Different Time
Production/Consumption
Fine Dining Experience
Pure
Tangible
Good
Gous
Degree of
INSEPARABILITY
Low Variability
Movie
Tangible Good
Hotel Room
Degree of
INTANGIBILITY
THE
SERVICE
Major Service
Sports roue
Degree of
HETEROGENEITY
Pure Service
Karate
Degree of
PERISHABILITY
High Variability
Dance Class
Perishable
Special Event
Nonperishable
Inventory. Tennis Rockets
Figure 2.1 The four characteristics of a leisure service
Chapter 2 Service and Quality in Programming
Entertainment experiences where somers
Comorely one of action than of
Tension (e. watching a movi, sporting event
or theater production)
Estheti: experiences where customers are in
mered in the event, but have little or no effect on
it les attending a symphony concert or ballet,
reading a book)
+
Escapist: experiences where customers are
actively involved and immersed and where the
involvement of the participant greatly impacts
he outcome of the experience (eg, a camping
trip, travel, creating something in a woodworking
$10 million a year delicatessen in Ann Arbor, MI
was his employees to create for custom
I prepletat you want the customer to
hink they’re
the best thing that has
ped you all day. We’re
not here to sell
of hardwicher in ople. We’re selling
them an experience. I’s Bough to sell youple
of live oil. Who? You’ve got
to give them a great experience please
to go where they have a great experience, where
w’s fun, where they feel appreciated. Cascited by
Barlow & Mo, 2000, p. 6)
Creating memorable experiences and connecting with
customers on a variety of levels is important and lates
to the overall quality of the experience. Thus.
De dimen
sion of quality is an important part of meeting the needs
of customers
The Staging of Experiences
class)
• Educational experiences where there is more
active participation, but customers are still outside
the event rather than immersed in the action (es.
taking a skiing class, learning to paint, learning a
second language)
Within each of these realms, leisure services pro-
fessionals can begin to create programs that assist
participants in connecting to the programs in ways
that fit with the kind of experience they want at
a specific time and place. What is important for
parks, recreation, and leisure services professionals
is recognizing that we should strive to move our
programs beyond simply providing services to co-
creating experiences with participants. Consider
the following description of the positive emotions
that Ari Weinzweig, cofounder of Zingerman’s, a
In an effort to create memorable cuperiences, Pine and
Gilmore (1999) use the metaphor of theater to explain
how experiences need to be stayed in ways that tend
to yield value for guests. In particular they entity
five principles for staging encounters that draw guests
into the experience. These principles are:
Fully theme the encounter
Identify the appropriate theatrical for appropriate
to the theme and ensure that employees stay in char-
acter consistent with the theme and theatrical form,
.
Customize the encounter to the individual:
Absorption
Stimulate multiple senses during the encounter, and
Provide (mix in) memorabilia
Entertainment Educational
Passive
participation
Active
participation
Escapht
We integrate many of these principles into later chap-
ters and encourage programmers to think about how
to address participants’ needs as well as how to use
facilities, staff, themes, and equipment to enhance the
overall program experience. When taken together,
these principles can be thought of as a “technology”
recreation programmers can use to stage encounters
that yield memorable experiences for guests. Building
on the ideas of the experiential economy, Ellis and
Rossman (2008) have taken the work of Pine and
Gilmore (1999) and combined it with select literature
Immersion
Figure 2.2 The four realms of an experience (Pine &
Gilmore, 1998)

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