ABSTRACT
As the populations of more developed nations have become increasingly diverse, service firms across the globe are finding it necessary to build relationships with customers that are minorities in terms of their ethnicity and culture. Thus, this chapter adapts the services marketing triangle (Bitner, 1995; Zeithaml, Bitner, & Gremler, 2013) to help explain the challenges faced by service providers operating in multicultural environments. It specifically discusses how firms can communicate the appropriate marketing messages to multicultural consumers, improve service delivery to multicultural consumers, and develop a multicultural service orientation to encourage culturally sensitive front line employee behaviors. On the topic of marketing messages, the chapter discusses the importance of external communications that are inclusive, culturally relevant, and consciously crafted to establish appropriate brand associations. On the topic of service delivery, the chapter discusses considerations when interacting with multicultural consumers, the importance of having ethnically similar front line service employees, and the role of the servicescape. Finally, the chapter offers a definition of multicultural service orientation and discusses how service leadership practices and human resources practices contribute to this aspect of service firms’ organizational climates.
