Value creation through customer experience: a study of a selected church in South Africa
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Date
2024
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
This study investigated value creation through customer experience and the intention to revisit the religious servicescape in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa with specific focus on the Diocese of False Bay, focussing on the servicescape experience and how it influences church attendance. The enquiry stretches from 2018 to 2023 and is the first study of such a kind in South Africa to investigate servicescape in a religious context. This represents a long-term perspective with various factors impacting on servicescape experience and the intention to revisit, most notably the Covid19 pandemic between 2019 and 2021. The study was grounded in work of Bitner (1992) and Rosenbaum and Massiah (2011) which was extended to incorporate a virtual dimension impacting the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. This new theoretical construct was referred to as the ACSA model, containing five determinants of servicescape e.g. physical dimension, social dimension, socially symbolic dimension, natural dimension and virtual dimension. A constructivist enquiry approach was applied, employing ‘mixed method’ data gathering and analysis through quantitative and qualitative approaches. The analysis focussed on a local servicescape level. Zeithaml et al. (2009) define servicescape as the environment in which a service is delivered and in which the firm and the customer interact and any tangible commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service. Rosenbaum and Massiah (2011) complete Bitner (1992) and Zeithaml’s definitions, by stating that servicescape comprises several dimensions such as a) physical, b) social, c) socially symbolic and d) natural dimension. Through surveys and Delphi sessions with church members and the leadership of the Diocese of False Bay, 100 factors impacting the servicescape experience were identified and rated on a five-point Likert scale. The quantitative measurements showed that the servicescape experience was positively experienced and church members intents to return to church. The rated factors have identified the most enhancing and most constraining factors. The two most enhancing determinants were “the enjoyment and satisfactory of attending the servicescape and the role of the paristh priest in the overall servicescape experience. Factors related to “church structures and recognition were viewed as most constraining. Upon reviewing the quantitative and qualitative results, the study concluded that the church members of the Anglican church of Southern Africa will return to church based on the servicescape experience. The study founded that church members did return to church after the Covid19 pandemic in 2023 although not at the same levels of 2018. Twenty-three strategic proposals were formulated to improve the servicescape experience through value creation and customer experience within the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Major focus areas for improved servicescape through value creation and customer experience were listed for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, furthermore the institutionalising of a participative “Diocese of False Bay Improvement Plan (DOFIP)” have been proposed.
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Keywords
Value, Value creation, Value co-creation, Customer experience, Church