1) The document describes a simulation tool used to teach undergraduate students about managing service production processes through scenario-based exercises. 2) The simulation requires students to manage a "Benihana" restaurant by making decisions that impact factors like customer batching, dining times, advertising, and seating arrangements. 3) By completing multiple challenges in the simulation, students learn to develop scenario-driven strategies by manipulating different operational decisions and see how they affect key outcomes like profits, customer volumes, and turnover.

1. TEACHING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS TO
MANAGE SERVICE PRODUCTION PROCESSES BY
SCENARIOS
(Servuctions with scenarios)
Explicit vs. implicit teaching
Vanya Slantcheva-Baneva, PhD

2. the issue
students claim:
“doing Marketing of a service is to manage,
more or less, its communication mix for the sake
of targets; and in reverse.”
&
“doing Marketing Management of a service
means developing marketing strategies for
namely running that service.”
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3. in other expressions:
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4. when are novice, students perceive that
marketing a service means promoting it:
product price
placement promotion
process
physical
environment and
evidence
people
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5. on and on, students learn that …
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6. marketing of a service deals with 7Ps’
frame:
product price
placement promotion
process
physical
environment and
evidence
people
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7. managing marketing of a service is designing
that service from marketing perspective
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then

8. service is determined by
inseparability and simultaneity
of its blended production and consumption
processes.
but
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9. or
Servuction
(service production
process)
Consumption
Gronroos, C. (2000) Service Management and Marketing. 2nd ed., John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.
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10. so
managing marketing of a service is:
overseeing service synchronization (by time and mode)
between the consumer and the service provider
and
steering service feasibility (by encounter, or interaction)
considering its design,
(N.B.) recalling its conceptual 7P framework.
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11. an issue in teaching then is:
students know about managing the Marketing of a
service, but they need to understand it as such:
• likewise product offer, service is to be an
operationalized offer, but
• contrariwise, service itself is a service- or
product-dominated, or hybridized band of
components that determines it as a
servuction-consumption offer.
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12. challenge for the students:
to create the best service offer by generating
servuction-consumption pitches.
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13. to overcome the challenge:
a simulation tool is used to manage servuction-
consumption components of a service –
an exercise driven in scenario-thinking line
when service is needed to be marketed.
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14. AN ONLINE-BASED SIMULATION:
SERVICE MANAGEMENT OF A “BENIHANA”
RESTAURANT
the tool chosen
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15. running your “benihana” restaurant by
a simulation-oriented settlement
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16. challenge 1: batching dining room
customers
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17. challenge 2: designing bar seats vs.
restaurant tables
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18. challenge 3: change dinging time
before, during and after peaks
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19. challenge 4: boost demand with ad-
campaigns and special programs
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20. challenge 5: matching batching types
at different times
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21. challenge 6: designing scenario-driven
servuction-consumption strategy
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22. or
building up scenario-driven strategies by
making possible go-to-market decisions:
as an interrelation of:
• batching decisions
• bar decisions
• dining time
• advertising decisions
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23. towards
best rehearsed scenario-driven
strategy
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24. ICAICTSEE 2014 Conference
CHALLENGE
1 2 3 4 5
Batchingdiningroom
customers
Design the
bar
Change dining time
(minutes)
Boost demand with advertising
and special programs
Use different types of
batching at different
times
batching
Barseats/
Restauranttables
Pre-peak
peak
Post-peak
Adbudget
Adcampaign
Openingtime
Pre-peak
peak
Post-peak
no no
15/19 45 45 45 none awareness 5 pm no
55/14 60 60 60 1-2x discounts 6 pm tables of 4 to8
yes yes 87/10 75 75 75
2-3x
happy hour 7 pm
tables of 8
4 share a table3-4x

25. customers in
dining room vs. bar
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26. total dinners vs. total drinks
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27. and the outcomes of “max profit
performance” strategy per night are:
• customers in dining room – 88
• customers in bar – 70
• total dinners served – 432
• total drinks served – 445
• max customer lost – 10
• average profit – $622
• max profit – $1,003
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28. picking up some insights
• going through challenges from 1 to 6, students can learn to
manipulate variety of strategies by making bulk of possible
decisions driven by hypothetical operations scenarios.
• students agree that any servuction process (or scenario) is to be
built on key internal drivers (decisions) that need to be selected by
managing marketing issues of the service under consideration.
• students favor “the highest profit per night” strategy as a pattern
for the best servuction scenario.
• but students do not propone the best scenario-driven strategy as
“the highest profit per night” one;
• they consider “the highest profit per night” strategy as “the best
turnover’s” servuction process, which certainly does not
correspond to the best service quality provision and consumption
be means of higher CPV.
According to students the best servuction scenario is a servucion-
consumption process driven by scenarios that aim to…
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29. to design the feasible service consumption
is to perish the imperishable service
production
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