This presentation was part of the SDT2012 - the 1st international conference on service design and tourism, Innsbruck/Austria, August 23-24, 2012. For more info on the conference and other presentations visit: www.sdt2012.com. All rights reserved by the author(s): Satu Luojus, Finland Laurea University of applied Sciences Satu Luojus has a PhD in Information processing science. She is a Principal Lecturer at Laurea UAS. She has over 8 years’ experience in conducting R&D -projects as a researcher or as a project manager/scientific leader. Her areas of expertise are user experience, user centered design, and user research in Living Lab ecosystems. Leena Alakoski, Finland Laurea University of applied Sciences Leena Alakoski is graduated from the Department of Economics and Management at Helsinki University (Lic. Sc). She is a senior lecturer and project manager at Laurea UAS. She has 15 years background in service business research, such as customer experienced value, and service innovation and design. Sensing an amusement park for service innovation This presentation deals with questions related to how customer experiences can be effectively assessed by evaluating the impact of multiple senses. It explicates on an empirical study of finding best practices in evaluating multisensory service experiences in an amusement park environment using service design methods. Firstly, it describes why service design methods are chosen to examine customers´ multisensory experiences in the years 2010 and 2011. Then, it proposes a set of findings based on the valuability of customer experiences gathered by different service design methods. Then, it briefly describes usefulness of chosen methods for evaluating multiple senses in service experience.

1. Sensing an amusement park
for service innovation
Service Design in Tourism conference
23rd August, Innsbruck
Leena Alakoski & Satu Luojus,
Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Espoo

2. Structure of the presentation
1. Research project
2. Frame of reference
– Service business
– Customer experience
– Theory of multiple senses
– Service design
3. Case Linnanmäki, years 2010 and 2011
4. Analysis and findings
5. Discussion

3. 1. Research project
• Presentation is based on the studies in a
project called “Multisensory service experience
and service design in tourism companies’”
(MMP) (www.multisensorisuus.fi)
• Eight Finnish companies participated in the
empirical studies of the project

4. 2. The Frame of Reference
Multisensory Service Design
(Tools)
Customer
Experience
Service Business

5. Customer Experience
• Service process consists of steps, actions and
activities
• Customer experience takes place during service
interaction process and
• it is evaluated by the customer
Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry (2009) Services Marketing

6. Tourist’s Experience
• Tourist’s experience has been explored by many
researchers (e.g. Cohen 1979, Light & Prentice
1994, Nuryanti 1996, Edwards & Llurdés i Coint
1996, Beeho & Prentice 1998, Rudd & Davis 1998,
McIntosh & Prentice 1999, Wang 1999, Wanhill
2000, Pretes 2002, Cole 2004, Uriely 2005, and
Chronis 2005, Kim et al. 2012)
• A lot of components are identified: involvement,
hedonism, happiness, pleasure, relaxation,
stimulation, refreshment, social interaction,
spontaneity, meaningfulness, knowledge, challenge,
sense of separation, timelessness, adventure,
personal relevance, novelty, escaping pressure,
intellectual cultivation
• The literature that discusses multisensory
experience in tourism is limited

7. Multisensory
• Our entire understanding of the world is
experienced through the senses
• Sensorial strategies comprise the five common
senses smell, sound, sight, taste and touch
• Multisensory approach means that more than
two sensory channels are being used to
influence the customer experience at the same
time
Hultén, Broweus & Dijak (2009) Sensory Marketing
Kim, Ritchie & McCormick (2012) Development of a Scale to Measure
Memorable Tourism Experiences
Lindstrom (2005) Brand Sense: How to build powerful brands through
touch, taste, smell, sight and sound

8. Why multisensory?
• The activation of multiple senses
– enhances customer experience
– affects consumer behavior
– promotes the basing and identification of
the brand
Lindstrom (2009) Buyology – Truth and Lies About What We Buy

9. Service Design
• SD often deals with topics and questions
related to
– how to create smooth services for users
– how to stimulate, and activate user
involvement
• We acknowledge
– deep understanding of users
– users’ activity and participation
– SD tools
Moritz (2005) Service Design – Practical access to an Evolving Field
Stickdorn & Schneider (2010) This is service design thinking

10. 3. Case Linnanmäki,
years 2010 and 2011
• 60 years old amusement park in Helsinki
(www.linnanmaki.fi)
• One of the most popular tourist attractions in
Finland (www.mek.fi)
• We have collaborated with the festival called
“Light Carnival”, 10 days long annual festival in
October

11. The objectives of the cases
• to evaluate customers´ experiences based on
multiple sense observations
• to find out the usefulness of different service
design tools for the purpose in evaluating the
impact of multiple senses

12. Method and tools, 2010
• Test customers, 48 young adults, gathered data in
small groups
• Observations were gathered by using different
variations of the probe method
• Four Service Design tools
– assignment notebook
– observation table
– photo-based storytelling
– empathy tool with video observation

13. Analysing tools, 2010
• content analysis
• customer journey
• affinity-diagrams

14. Some findings, 2010
• As a great deal of data on sensory perceptions
was acquired
• All of the tested tools were useful
• Data on sensory perceptions was useful for
developing amusement park services
• The amusement park representative was very
satisfied and acquired knowledge was
immediately applied in service development

15. Findings of the tool
usefulness, 2010
• The Observation table: a lot of systematic data, the most
dominant senses were sight and sound
• The Empathy tool: although implementing the method
was demanding, information was also generated on
other perceptions besides visual perception
• The Storytelling and photos: the most traditional way to
use the dairy tool. It concluded that the visual sense was
the most dominant. Most of the stories emphasized
feelings and emotions
• The Assignment notebook: open ended tool, and
depended on the customers’ motivation and creativity

16. Method and tools, 2011
• Data gathering tools were chosen based on
earlier findings :
– An observation table and storytelling
together
– Sensory walking (test customers were
instructed to go to previously defined
locations in the fairground and pay
attention to sensory perceptions)
– Owela web-based data gathering tool
(www.vtt.fi)

17. 4. Findings

18. Findings, 2011
Impact of the senses in different amusement park locations and rides
Näkö
Kuulo
Kosketus
Hajut, maut
Muut ihmiset
Pääsisäänkäynti Vuoristorata Safari-ravintola Pelihalli Sumujen silta Juhlatori Pluton alue
Overall experience
kokonaismiellyttävyys
Pääsisäänkäynti Vuoristorata Safari-ravintola Pelihalli Sumujen silta / Juhlatori Pluton alue
Hurjakuru

19. Multiple senses in experiences
• In order to create satisfying customer
experiences, experiences should appeal to
multiple senses
• Service experience is more effective when
many senses are in use at the same time
• The activation of multiple senses gives a
stronger sense of authenticity and experience,
and this way makes the customer happier with
the experience and more willing to tell and
recommend the experience to others
• Looking at the service experience from the
senses point of view, gives new ideas for the
further development of the service

20. Multiple senses in experiences
It has also been shown
• that we process senses differently depending
on age
• sight was the dominant sense in Light Carneval
• but co-experience and feelings of others were
very important
• sound helps generate moods by creating
feelings
• most people attach a meaning to a sound, and
music is used as a source of inspiration

21. Multiple senses in experiences
• Sense expressions, separately or together, can
visualize services, and the service landscape
• Smell appears to be the most persuasive sense
after sight and is closely related to emotional
life
• Scents often have a strong impact on emotions
and memories. It is shown that pleasant scents
create pleasant states of moods

22. 5. Discussion
• Qualitative descriptions are required in order
to understand the overall customer experience
• The overall experience is what matters, rather
than a knowledge of which separate sense
stimulates the experience
• When evaluating different senses separately
the customers couldn’t describe the overall
experience clearly
• A multisensory aspects enhances the creation
of a positive service experience only if sensory
stimulants create a harmonious whole
• Very strong perceptions can create a negative
customer experiences

23. • Disregard of a sense may create an
experience of negative quality
– e.g. when the person is unable to see the
performance or hear the music
• Excluding one of the senses may emphasise
the effect of other senses
– e.g. the experience of a roller coaster ride was
stronger in the dark – the experience becomes
different and thus stronger

24. • The stories about sensory experiences were
predictable in some way
• We received new types of findings that annual
customer satisfaction surveys in amusement
park have failed to generate
• Museums and game industry have made
diverse use of the multisensory aspects in their
services
• Further multisensory research is recommended

25. Thank you for your attention!
leena.alakoski@laurea.fi
satu.luojus@laurea.fi