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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale for measuring consumers’ perceived service value in the Indian retail banking services. This purpose is rooted in the absence of consensus on what constitutes service value and how to measure such value in the above context. Design/methodology/approach The scale development procedure comprised qualitative and quantitative approaches. A list of possible measurement items was compiled based on literature review and expert opinion through focus groups. Data were collected from a sample of 442 respondents representing the Indian retail banking sector using survey instrument and were analyzed using the structural equation modeling. Findings The study revealed a seven-dimensional scale for measuring service which includes service equity, service quality, customer intimacy, product leadership, operational effectiveness, customer communication, and perceived sacrifice. Thus, the scale emerging from this study is consistent with established scales and is applicable to the Indian retail services setting. This study contributes to the knowledge gap by confirming that the west-centric service value measurement scale is moderately applicable to the services sector in India. Originality/value This research is a direct response to calls from the leading marketing pundits to explore the validity and applicability of the existing marketing constructs and models originated in the west to Indian markets. Keeping in mind the established service value measurement scale, this study develops and validates a seven-dimensional scale for measuring service value in an Indian setting with novel sub-dimensions.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically sketch the phenomenon about the nature of service value expected in different stages of relationship over time in Indian retail banking context. Design/methodology/approach Customer service value dimensions pertinent to Indian retail banking context were explored psychometrically. Later, mean factor scores of obtained service value dimensions across relationship stages (early, intermediate, and advanced) were calculated and fed into PERMAP software to graphically depict the relationship between value dimensions and relationship stages. To validate the PERMAP solution, one-way ANOVA was run for each value dimension with independent variable as a relationship level. Findings The service value dimensions pertinent to Indian banking context are customer intimacy, product leadership, service equity, perceived sacrifice, service quality, and operational excellence. The authors could empirically prove that except for operational excellence and service quality, all the other value dimensions exhibited variation in importance over time. Results reveal that customers in the early stages of relationship value tangible value dimensions and the ones in advanced stages of relationship value intangible dimensions. Practical implications Managers should formulate marketing strategies which will signal the customers, the superiority of the bank in delivering performance on tangible dimensions during the early stages of relationship, whereas understanding and addressing unique customer needs and establishing an emotional bonding with customers should be emphasized in the advanced stages of relationship. Originality/value The current research could adequately establish the essential role of tangible value dimensions in shaping service value during the early stages of relationship and intangible value dimensions in the later stages of relationship.

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Services are intangible in nature. For a marketing educator, it is difficult to illustrate to students the means of creating favorable customer experiences through standard lectures or case studies in a services context, considering this intangibility property. This paper describes a simple role playing game that uses the Chinese puzzle 'Tangram' to help students comprehend how customer experiences are shaped within and beyond a service setting. In the game, the class gets divided into two groups, individual customers and furniture retailer teams. The two groups interact with each other in buying and selling modular furniture. At the end of the game, customers share qualitative and quantitative feedback on their retailer experience, and the retailer team which obtains a high score on profitability as well as customer experience quality is declared as the winner. The debriefing session that follows the game lets students share their experiences and key learnings. The game provides the students with a scope to learn and explore the importance of customer experience quality without direct supervision from the instructor. This game requires minimal physical infrastructure. The materials required to conduct this game are easily available in departmental stores, and the monetary cost involved in deploying this game is nominal.