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Lessons from
Improvisation in service jazz
performances: lessons from jazz
Joby John
Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA 247
Stephen J. Grove
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA, and
Raymond P. Fisk
University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to establish the efficacy of jazz improvisation as a useful
metaphor to understand and implement features that contribute to excellent service performances.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper begins by presenting services as performances that
often require flexibility and adaptability in their enactment. It then offers the metaphor of jazz
improvisation as a means to comprehend and communicate the dynamics of such flexibility and
adaptability. Jazz elements are used to illustrate their application to service delivery issues.
Practical implications – Similar to jazz, services deal with complex and real time delivery
circumstances; this makes services prone to uncertainty at the service encounter. Lessons from jazz
offer service managers guidelines for improvisation by each player in their ensemble that can enable
them to adapt to customers and produce a coherent and cohesive performance.
Originality/value – The jazz improvisation metaphor offers a template and guidelines to
comprehend and enact principles pertaining to adaptability in services contexts that may be useful
for managers in designing service delivery and training frontline service employees.
Keywords Services, Music, Metaphors, Customer services quality
Paper type Conceptual paper

Jazz Players do what managers find themselves doing: fabricating and inventing novel
responses without a prescribed plan and without certainty of outcomes; discovering the
future that their action creates as it unfolds (Jazz musician and systems management scholar,
Frank J. Barrett (1998, p. 605).
I wish my work as the manager of a small business were more like my work as a jazz
musician. I get frustrated when people can’t take the next step on their own because they are
afraid of rocking the boat or making waves (Peplowski, 1998, p. 561).

Introduction
What can service organizations learn from a jazz musician? In many ways, they can
learn a lot. Jazz is a music form that is distinguished by its significant emphasis on
improvisation. Although other forms of music incorporate or allow a measure of Managing Service Quality
Vol. 16 No. 3, 2006
improvisation as well, improvisation is a central feature of a jazz performance. It is our pp. 247-268
contention that jazz improvisation is a potentially powerful metaphor for livening up q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0960-4529
and/or adapting many facets of service delivery since various aspects of jazz DOI 10.1108/09604520610663480
MSQ performance are similar to the elements of successful service provision. Hence, we
16,3 propose that service organizations could benefit greatly by embracing the metaphor
and attending to principles pertaining to the way jazz is performed. For instance, jazz
musicians speak of being “in the moment” during their recitals. Their performances are
rich in creativity and require a great deal of coordination among the musicians.
Further, jazz performers often appear to revel in playing their music and have been
248 known to spur each other on to greater heights of musical inventiveness. Many service
organizations could excel if their workers and their actions reflected similar qualities.
The considerable variability in customers, employees and service situations is a
widely recognized characteristic of services (Rathmell, 1966) that presents both
challenges and opportunities to customers and employees alike. Hence, we argue that
improvisation on the part of employees – the ability to creatively adapt – is essential
to serve effectively their various customers and their equally varied needs. Lessons
learned by embracing the similarities between jazz and service performances, jazz
musicians and service employees, and jazz audiences and service customers may prove
to be very useful in this regard. This paper establishes the jazz metaphor as a means of
conceiving and implementing an improvisational character in service delivery to
improve service quality and create a superior customer experience.
Applying the construct of jazz improvisation to services is an exercise that is
spawned from previous efforts. Music scholars such as Berliner (1994) and Hargreaves
et al. (1991) have written about the underlying cognitive strategies and the artistic
nature of jazz improvisation as a means to frame improvisation in other contexts.
Others have applied the improvisational character of jazz music to organizational
behavior in the attempt to underscore organizational creativity and innovation (see
Barrett, 1998; Bastien and Hostagier, 1988; Weick, 1992). More recently, Brown and
Eisenhardt (1998) explored the power of improvisation in the design and development
of strategy at organizations such as Nike. Similarly, Gold and Hirshfeld (2005, p. 40)
presented “the model of jazz as a way of providing an experiential metaphor for
collaborative improvisation in management.” These authors offered success stories of
the application of “jazz behaviors” in companies like IBM, Lucent and McGraw-Hill.
Hence, the application of the jazz metaphor and, particularly the construct of
improvisation in a services context seem to be a logical extension.
We begin with a brief discussion of the utility of metaphors as a means of
comprehending and communicating diverse aspects pertinent to services marketing,
and a brief overview of jazz’s potential in that regard. Next, we review the phenomenon
of service performance and establish the validity of jazz as a metaphor that captures
key facets of service performances. Elements that constitute jazz as a distinctive type
of music are examined, as they pertain to service delivery. Our central focus is on the
improvisational character of jazz and the principles and direction it offers for
fashioning superior service performances. Finally, we present the utility of the services
as jazz metaphor by translating various aspects or elements of jazz into managerial
guidelines for the service organization.

The utility of metaphors for services

Employing metaphors to grasp and communicate important concepts is not new. The
language of business is filled with metaphors, and marketing is no exception (Clancy,
1989; Zikmund, 1982). As a particular form of language, the metaphor is a way of
“seeing something from the viewpoint of something else” (Brown, 1977, p. 77). A Lessons from
metaphor is capable of transferring qualities from a familiar phenomenon to one that is jazz
unknown (Ortony, 1975). Services scholars have often used metaphors to comprehend
and communicate the issues and challenges that managers face. For example, the
metaphor of service as a “flower” (Lovelock, 1994) poses supplementary service
elements such as hospitality, caretaking, billing and the like as petals surrounding the
core service product, thus establishing what attracts one to the service are the 249
supplementary aspects. The service setting has been described as its “package”,
bringing attention to the fact that a service’s physical environment performs many of
the same functions that a package for a physical good does (Bitner, 1992). Another
widely accepted metaphor in the services literature is the depiction of service as
“theater” (Grove and Fisk, 1983; Grove et al., 2000), a framework that can be used to
describe and analyze the components of service experience and their impact. Thus, the
jazz improvisation metaphor that we propose here is but one of many metaphors that
can be used to capture key elements of service experiences. Broad guidelines derived
from music have been previously applied to marketing in general (see Jennings, 2004),
so the application of jazz improvisation to services marketing that we develop here is
not without precedent.

The potential utility of the services as jazz metaphor

Jazz and the improvisation it embodies are particularly relevant in several services
contexts. For instance, in many services where the performance is tightly scripted (e.g.
fast food restaurants, department of motor vehicles, and hotel check-in), there may be a
tendency to become chained to what Harris et al. (2003) call the “functional script” and
lose sight of important environmental cues. Tight scripting falls short when it fails to
accommodate aspects of latent or unusual customer needs that might be at play in a
service delivery process:
Using improvisation techniques, [employees] can extend their individual role repertoire as
well as develop schemas for difficult or unexpected situations (Harris et al., 2003, p. 196).
The jazz metaphor highlights what should be added to the service design when the
performance has been tightly scripted by bringing attention to the importance of
deviating from the script and improvising when necessary. In other services (e.g.
corporate banking, education, and legal advice) the nature of service delivery is such
that a tight script is simply not possible, nor desirable. Instead, adaptation to each
situation is necessary; lessons from jazz can help organizations accommodate the need
for employees’ “extra-role performance” (Organ, 1988; Bettencourt and Brown, 1997) in
those circumstances.
Practitioners have begun to embrace the notion of learning improvisation
techniques from jazz musicians. For example, Creativity Connection – a program of
the non-profit group, Arts and Business Council of Americans for the Arts – is
designed to help corporations to “surface creativity through high-quality arts-based
learning, and strengthen employee skills in crucial areas such as collaboration, conflict
resolution, change management, intercultural communication, and public
performance.” Jazz musician, Michael Gold, founder of Jazz Impact which delivers
some of the services offered by Creativity Connection “applies the improvisational
behaviors of jazz to the development of new ideas, products and processes for
MSQ companies like Wachovia, McGraw-Hill, General Dynamics, Mastercard, Siemens, and
16,3 Blue Cross/Blue Shield”.
The lessons that Gold offers and that jazz provides regarding improvisation are
closely linked to concepts such as creativity and innovation. The definition of
improvisation (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2005a) – “ to compose, recite, play
or sing extemporaneously: to make invent, or arrange offhand; to fabricate out of what
250 is conveniently on hand” – reflects the similarity. Recognizing that, we are particularly
focused on the construct of improvisation and how service organizations can develop
improvisation skills using the guidance of jazz to tap workers creativity and
innovation. Clearly, such skills are not equally important to all service organizations.
For example, it would seem that improvisation is most useful in high contact and
face-to-face services or in services that are non-routine in nature compared to other
types of services or situations. In the section which follows, we review services as
performances – a discussion which underscores particular circumstances when
improvisation is needed.

Services are performances

Scholars have argued for some time that services are essentially performances (see
Berry, 1980; Grove and Fisk, 1983; Grönroos, 1985; Lovelock, 1994) that create the
customers’ experience. As Berry et al. (1985, p. 48) note: “the manner in which the
service is performed can be a crucial component of the service from the consumer’s
point of view.” Employees, customers and setting combine to craft the performance
that creates the service experience. Service performances evolve as the blending of
these service components occurs and deteriorate if any of these components fail to
support one another. Deterioration is often a reality due to the real time nature of
service performances that fosters unpredictability and undermines control in the
service delivery process. When the inevitability of customer involvement and
participation is factored in, it becomes apparent that service performances often entail
a great deal of uncertainty in their execution.
To provide satisfying performances, adaptation by the service employees is likely to
be needed to accommodate or respond to the uncertainties introduced by the nature of
services. While employees may be carefully selected and well trained, the excellence of
their role in the service performance is sometimes compromised because of the many
uncontrollable factors that affect service quality. Often, standardized or tightly
scripted service processes are simply not possible and service delivery must be
modified, and done so in real time. Indeed, exceptions frequently become the rule in
service delivery. Furthermore, even in unlikely circumstances, customers often expect
service providers to learn each individual customer’s needs or wants, respond to their
special requests, and treat their service circumstance as unique. After all, from the
customer’s point of view, empathy (the caring, individualized attention the firm
provides its customers) is one of the five cornerstones of service quality (Parasuraman
et al., 1988). In short, adaptation of the service performance is frequently expected and
appreciated.
The need for and expectation of adaptation of service performance are more
pronounced in services that are delivered to an individual customer rather than those
customers who are batched as a group (Clow and Kurtz, 2004; Lovelock, 1994). For
example, a lawyer’s consultation is tailored for each client whereas an entertainment or
sports event is presented to a general audience. Furthermore, to meet customer Lessons from
expectations of excellent service, workers must often perform as a team and cooperate jazz
with each other as they accommodate different customer situations (Grove and Fisk,
1983). Consider the team of workers involved in making the hospital patient or the
hotel guest comfortable. Also, in extreme situations, personnel are sometimes forced to
alter the service performance as they make the effort to recover customer good will
from service failures (Tax and Brown, 1998). For instance, the repair shop manager and 251
the airline attendant are forced to deviate from their normal routines when the
promised service is not performed in a timely manner or falls miserably short of
expectations. Across all of these circumstances, the service performance must be
altered to accommodate the customer for better service quality and adapt to uncertain
situations.

Jazz as metaphor for service performances

Jazz is improvised music that encourages its performers to embrace creativity and
spontaneous music composition within a basic structure. Similarly, many services
require flexibility in their design and delivery that allows for creative solutions and
spontaneous actions in response to customer needs. Services such as those provided by
hospitals, financial counselors and travel agents reflect such a circumstance. Moreover,
even routine services such as those offered by dry cleaners or retail banks will
sometimes require jazz-like improvisation.
As a music type, jazz “ . . . typically takes the following form. It begins and ends
with an ensemble statement of a composed melodic frame. Between these opening and
closing statements, the musicians take turns to improvise melodic solos of several
choruses” (Johnson-Laird, 2002, p. 415). The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
(2005b) adds that jazz is “. . . characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms,
polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate
distortions of pitch and timbre.” These observations point to several key aspects of
jazz – specifically, its complex, polyphonic, improvisatory, free flowing and, harmonic
nature. Collectively, these features give jazz its unique and lively character; a property
that has spawned the slang connotation of jazz to refer to liveliness and spirit. To jazz
something is to add vigor and exuberance to it or to act or proceed with great energy,
the result of which is a uniquely developed product.
To establish the efficacy of jazz and its improvisation character as metaphor for
services, we now assess the applicability of this music form’s key aspects in the context
of service performances.

Services performances are complex

Jazz musicians note that ”the art of jazz playing is very complex and the result of a
relentless pursuit of learning and disciplined imagination” (Barrett, 1998, p. 606). Like
jazz performances, services are fundamentally complex (Zeithaml, 1981), a
circumstance that is exacerbated by the real time nature of service production and
consumption. Services entail a complicated arrangement of various parts of the service
organization’s delivery system – workers, setting, customers, to produce a composite
– the service performance (Fisk et al., 2004). Furthermore, most service organizations
must simultaneously address those various elements to produce their performance.
Obviously, some service performances are more complex (i.e. entail more steps) than
MSQ others and carry a greater likelihood of variability in their enactment (Shostack, 1987).
16,3 Consider, for instance, the many facets and potential variability involved in an airline
or physician’s service performance. Those conditions create both the opportunity and
the imperative to anticipate, coordinate and improvise during airline and physician
service delivery. Clearly, the same conditions exist across a wide range of service
organizations.
252
Services performances require improvisation
As discussed earlier, improvisation is a central feature of jazz. Likewise, service
performances depend greatly on improvisation by service providers. Since there is
often a degree of customer interaction in the production and consumption of services,
organizations are frequently confronted with situations that require spontaneous or
impromptu actions and responses on the part of their employees in response to
customer requests or needs. Frontstage service workers must be capable of
accommodating a significant degree of variation in customer expectations through
their improvisation abilities. If that improvisation is well executed, an organization has
the opportunity to deliver what patrons perceive as a customized service performance.
In short, fielding a customer’s unique request or responding to a buyer’s unarticulated,
yet discernible special needs can pay large dividends in service quality and customer
satisfaction. Customers are likely to feel they are being treated as individuals and that
their unique circumstances are being addressed. Consider the case of a student who
desires special seating or the hotel patron that requires a lower floor. Organizations
that improvise to accommodate such wishes are able to tap the service quality
dimensions of both empathy and responsiveness (Parasuraman et al., 1988).

Service performers are often empowered with some degree of freedom

In a jazz ensemble, each performer assumes some degree of melodic freedom with
respect to the content and manner of their musical display. Similarly, frontline service
employees are often given the latitude to improvise and adapt to different customer
situations (see Bowen and Lawler, 1992). Such workers are empowered to exercise their
discretion to accommodate and adjust to unique service circumstances. Thus, service
delivery that stresses empowerment is not unlike the jazz performance that relies on
the musicians’ ability to improvise in their effort to create an enjoyable recital. It
recognizes that frontline service employees – like their jazz musician counterparts –
are in the best position to determine what fits a specific customer’s needs and
expectations. For example, restaurant staff are often granted the authority to assess a
service failure situation and are given the liberty to compensate the dissatisfied
customer appropriately. Hence, the tenets of jazz provide a template for the rationale
behind and execution of empowerment.

Service performers bend the rules

As a music form, jazz involves a wide range of scales that can digress greatly from the
routine and allow performers to play outside the “key or scale.” In some service
circumstances, frontline employees are often required to devise creative means to
accommodate customers’ needs and wants that may ultimately entail significant
exceptions to the norm. While these occasions may not occur in every service
encounter, there are nonetheless many situations where customer interaction falls
beyond the “normal” or the “standard.” Unusual requests from customers, service Lessons from
failure, and service systems with a great deal of divergence (see Shostack, 1987) in their jazz
design necessitate a creative and immediate response. Personnel who are prepared and
empowered to deal with those circumstances can fashion a superior service image.
Take, for example, the organization that allows its employees to refund to customers
the price they may have paid for a defective purchase even though the product may not
have been acquired at that particular store. Similar “beyond the norm acts” are 253
legendary examples that underscore Nordstroms department stores’ reputation for
superior quality service. Just as a jazz recital that involves playing outside the scale
creates a memorable performance, such extraordinary deeds are likely to bring
customer delight.
The common theme found in each of the preceding discussions is the proposition
that, like jazz, services are essentially performances that often rely on “improvisation”.
In jazz, the complexity of the music and, arguably, its most endearing quality comes
from the significant degree of freedom the performers are given to improvise. The
musicians’ ability to improvise is not limited to the scale or key that other performers
in the ensemble are playing in, and yet, the end product is a harmonious mix of
pleasing sounds. The tension in the apparent digression is intentional. Famous jazz
pianist, Jonny King (1997, p. 5) says that, while improvisation may be incidental to
other types of (western) music, it is the very heart and soul of jazz:
Improvisation sets jazz apart, defines it, makes it special, and gives jazz its unpredictability
and excitement. Improvisation makes jazz a truly spontaneous art form and imbues it with
the constant capacity for change and moment-by-moment metamorphosis.
Great service performances often embody these same components as jazz does.
Freedom to deviate in the interest of audience satisfaction, knowledge of when and
where improvisation is appropriate, familiarity with the patterns of response across the
collectivity of both the audience and fellow performers, and commonly recognized
ways of signaling to one another when deviations are to occur are all part of a jazz
recital as they are in excellent service delivery.

Service delivery as jazz improvisation

Several key aspects of jazz music contribute to its improvisational nature. In this
section, we explore various elements of jazz improvisation and their application to
service delivery. Specifically, we examine jazz improvisation underpinnings that
include pacing the performance, agreeing on improvisation situations, signaling
transitions, practicing the improvisation, and training the individual staff. First, we
provide a broad overview of the link between jazz improvisation and services.

The elements of jazz improvisation and their services application

Several service applications can be gleaned from inspecting the basic elements of jazz.
All jazz shares musical features that define its improvisational character. These are
found in Table I, as are suggested service examples that spring from those features.
Beyond the basic structure defined by the elements of pace, beat and rhythm, the
improvisational character of jazz is manifested in the notes, melodies, and the off-beats
that gives a recital its special harmony. Jazz’s basic structure is created by the
percussion, the rhythm, the riffs and in the syncopation. In services, these
MSQ
Term Description
16,3
Syncopation Shifting of normal rhythm and
accenting the off-beat as the basic
and continuous in order to build
complex jazz rhythms
254
Percussion The basic beat or tempo
determines the pace of the jazz
performance and is provided by
any and all of the instruments of
the ensemble
Rhythm Provides a volume-tone-pitch
background that counters and
accents the pace of the jazz music
Riff A single rhythmic phrase repeated
as background to the lead melody
Improvisation Composing as one plays, rather
than from written notes produces
variations of basic themes; it
depends a great deal on the talent
and ability of the individual
performers
Blue notes In jazz this is the frequent
insertions of notes between the
flat, the natural and the sharp
(shades of a basic note) with no
notation
Tone color Jazz involves different
instruments playing different
melodies so that each provides a
different tone
Harmony Complementing the basic with 7th
and 9th chords allows numerous
half-tones across the entire scale
Table I. during a jazz performance
Ten basic elements of
jazz and their service
applications
Service application
Services are designed and delivered with
customer intervention, where customization is
the norm. Firms frequently build in an element of
surprise into the customer experience. The
built-in flexibility makes service performances
very complex. For instance, an auto repair shop
washes and vacuums one’s car at no charge
Each service is performed at a pace created by
the individual frontline employee at each stage of
the process. For example, consider the pace found
at a hospital’s emergency room vis-à-vis the
typical bookstore
The pace at which the service is delivered is
sometimes accentuated by individual frontline
employee performing variations to the pace. For
instance, different flight attendants on a flight
often have to perform variations of the same task
As standard procedure, certain steps in service
delivery are frequently repeated to ensure
excellence. For example, an attentive waiter or
host at a restaurant may monitor the diner’s
experience several times
Since there is a significant degree of variation
built into the design of many services, there is the
potential for frontline workers to improvise
across specific customer situations. For example,
a hotel concierge draws from his/her knowledge
to guide guests to various area activities and
venues
Episodic divergence from the norm provided in
the service design allows customization and
adaptation to individual customer situations so
that these cannot be scripted. For instance, a hair
dresser carries on casual conversations on a
variety of topics tailored to each customer’s
interests and background
Each service employee contributes to a customer
experience with different behavioral approaches
to the task of serving the customer. For example,
the overall service experience at a holiday resort
is affected by interactions with a multitude of
service personnel
Service employees provide numerous enactments
of the same task such that the variation is along a
well-established continuum of accepted
deviations. For example, customers experience a
different variation of seemingly similar tasks
with different bank tellers
(continued)
Term Description Service application
Lessons from
jazz
Break A very brief syncopated interlude There is a chance to be unique during the service
is often improvised and unwritten delivery process when the customer
in a jazz performance unexpectedly is provided a pleasant break from
the normal routine. Such is the case when,
cartoon characters amuse patrons to relieve the 255
monotony of waiting in line at a ride or exhibit at
an amusement park
Joys of Jazz brings people of different When an organization’s service culture is
playing music backgrounds together in conducive to workers who cooperate without
impromptu jam sessions that scripts to fashion a positive customer experience,
celebrate music the employees share in the sense of
accomplishment. For example, staff at Seattle’s
famous fish market provide a fun experience as
they play off of each other’s antics
Source: Adapted from: Hughes (1982, pp. 48-50) Table I.

characteristics are evident in the pace of the service performance and short patterns of
repeated scripts, with individual variation potentially evident at each
customer-provider interaction. Consider the jazz improvisation-like actions reflected
by the desk clerk or airline agent who meets and greets each customer with a unique
treatment. The improvisational character of jazz is also embodied in the blue notes
(between the flat and the natural), in the different melodies that produce diverse tones
by the various instruments, and in the breaks. In services, these aspects are present in
accepted deviations from the script or norm when the opportunity or need to
accommodate special situations exists. Such jazz-like responses are evident among
well-trained repairmen, landscapers and other service personnel who are expected to
adapt to individual customers. Further, just as musicians with diverse music
backgrounds come together to perform jazz, the service performance often relies on
customer interactions involving various service personnel acting as an ensemble. The
customers’ service experience with respect to a hotel, airline, restaurant, hospital and
various other services is the result of a team effort not unlike the jazz performance of a
musical ensemble.

Setting the pace of the performance

The pace in a jazz performance is a defining characteristic that sets one arrangement
apart from another. Even the parts within an arrangement are likely to possess
different paces, contributing to a particular piece’s unique quality. Similarly, every
service performance encompasses a pace – a cadence and a rhythm – that helps define
the service in the eyes of the customer. In the enactment of a service, the pace is
designed into the delivery process. Some restaurants, for example, pride themselves on
saying, “take your time, we won’t rush you,” while others create systems to expedite
the service transaction quickly and efficiently. The pace is generally a function of the
genre of the service. For instance, a four-star restaurant is likely to take the “no rush”
approach, while a fast food enterprise usually stresses a rapid pace. Yet, even in the
four-star restaurant, the pace of some components of the service may be quite brisk; for
MSQ example, the seating of the guests on their arrival or the clearing of the table following
16,3 the completion of the meal.
Every service industry has a norm for the pace of service delivery in each of the
steps in the service process. In the hotel industry, for instance, the pace of maid service
is quite different from that at the front desk during peak check-in or check-out times.
Similarly, a ticket agent at the airport gate who is preparing and ushering passengers
256 on to the plane for departures maintains a quicker pace than that found at many other
steps in an airline’s service delivery process. It is important to note, however, that even
if the varying pace during service delivery is indeed a matter of convention and/or
necessity, it must still be guided and monitored. In a jazz performance, any and all
instruments can play the role of setting the pace or the rhythm. While the norm for the
service pace in different industries is often well known, in any particular service
organization the service manager usually takes an active part in setting and controlling
the pace for his or her staff and, ultimately, the organization’s service performance.

Agreeing on when and where improvisation occurs

Just as the pace is preset and designed into the jazz performance, so also are the points
and parts in the recital where deviations are permitted. Similarly, in many service
delivery systems, there are usually steps at which the service provider may build in
flexibility (see Shostack, 1987). Some services impart specific instructions to personnel
at various steps regarding what is permissible when deviations from the routine are
necessitated. This is particularly important when service failure occurs due to some
unforeseen problems, yet is also critical in other circumstances as well. For example,
unanticipated weather-related delays or planned overbooking in airlines have specific
responses and scripts designed into the service process. Also, there are often steps in
the service enactment where improvisation is encouraged and other steps where little
improvisation is allowed. For instance, cockpit crews are not allowed to chat or make
jokes on the intercom during take-offs and landings, whereas, during uncontrollable
delays on the tarmac, pilots and crew members may improvise to mitigate passengers
aggravation at the delay. Thus, there are many situations in services where the
employee must follow the service script exactly and others where the worker has
significant latitude and improvisation is encouraged (see Mohr and Bitner, 1991).
Clearly, this is similar to the nature of jazz performance where there are specific points
during a recital at which improvisation may commence and is encouraged and other
points where the musicians are expected to sustain the flow.

Signaling transitions to each other

Jazz musicians also have a way of communicating to each other when transitions, i.e.
transferring responsibility for carrying the music lead, are planned for different parts
of the melody. This is especially important since improvisation is an expected aspect of
each jazz musician’s performance. In services delivered by multiple personnel (e.g.
restaurants, hospitals, airlines, etc.), similar transitions are likely and how they are
communicated across the various employees is important to eliminate confusion
during the service performance. Without a signal, there is an impression that the
service process is not well organized or coordinated. For instance, if the customer has
already placed an order at a restaurant and another waiter arrives at the customer’s
side to take an order as well, it might appear that the restaurant is clumsy or inept.
Hence, restaurants are known to use secret signals to communicate whether a certain Lessons from
step in the process of service delivery has been completed and that the next step is jazz
warranted. For example, most restaurants use the presence or absence of a menu card
on the customer’s table to signal if an order has been taken. Other signals might
include the placement of the salt and pepper containers on the table to indicate whether
or not a specific step has been completed. Like their musician counterparts, wait staff
sometimes use more direct signals such as hand signals. 257
The impact of poor communication during service delivery can vary in its intensity.
Consider the potential result of inadequate signaling among staff and attendants
during a patient’s visit to a hospital emergency room. Because of poor communication,
a patient might get misdirected to the wrong ward, unintentionally left unattended
during the process, or even ignored despite the gravity of his or her affliction. To
protect against such events, emergency units such as Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital
have carefully mapped the typical patient’s experience and arrived at safeguards to
ensure that lack of communication does not occur (see Lovelock, 1994). Since so much
of jazz relies on improvisation, jazz musicians learn to signal to each other when the
pace or melody is to change. Similarly, when improvising during service delivery, it is
critical to signal when transitions occur.

Practicing patterns of short performances

Much of a jazz musician’s ability to improvise depends on the practice sessions where
members of the ensemble learn to anticipate and respond to each others’ efforts. The
short tunes or “licks” that each person plays become familiar to other members of the
ensemble and, subsequently, makes it possible for the musicians to play off one
another during a performance to create the jazz composition. In many ways, it is
similar to how people put words and phrases together to communicate a message in
conversation. The jazz “conversations” are the result of practice sessions that include
sharing and coordinating the short tunes that is repeated often enough so that each
member of the group becomes familiar with their flow.
Similarly, many services involve training that includes brief rehearsals that stress
careful coordination and execution of various phases pertaining to service recovery
(see Bitner et al., 1990; Boshoff and Allen, 2000). For example, service personnel are
trained to know what to do first thing when a service failure occurs and what the
specific steps in the subsequent service recovery are. The Ritz Carlton hotel chain has a
“credo”, a document that each employee carries, that emphasizes specific actions that
service personnel should take in diverse situations. These guidelines range from how
to greet customers to how to respond when a customer complains. Actions, like the jazz
licks, are practiced often enough that they become automatic for each employee, and all
employees understand what their colleagues will do in various situations. Just as
practice enables jazz musicians to integrate different short tunes or licks into a
performance that ultimately reflects the music form’s improvisational character,
service organizations that stress knowledge and rehearsal of specific responses to
customers’ and co-workers’ needs are able to create seamless service delivery that is
improvisational in nature.
MSQ Training for virtuosic solos
16,3 Jazz performances typically include solos by each instrument in the ensemble that
becomes an integral part of the overall music recital. Similarly, service delivery is often
comprised of individual performances by employees that combine to create the
customer’s experience. Even those services that are provided by a single worker often
involve unique aspects that need to be addressed in separate activities ranging from
258 specification of customer need to the delivery of the service itself. In many services
such as hotels, airlines, hospitals and the like, the process of service delivery involves
various steps enacted by different employees. Consider a hotel’s service and the simple
activity of checking in: the process entails various solo performances by employees
such as the doorman, the bellhop, the front desk receptionist, and perhaps the room
service staff and the concierge. Each employee enacts a role that facilitates and plays a
part in the guest’s initial hotel experience. In short, each individual’s actions
contributes to the larger activity of checking into the hotel, much like each solo
performance by the jazz musicians in an ensemble helps fashion the totality of the jazz
recital. Services, like jazz renditions, often rely on solo performances by individuals
that flow together to create excellent service quality and a pleasing customer
experience. Each person’s performance may offer several “moments of truth” which
may have a significant impact on customer experience and, consequently, on customer
evaluations of the service performance.

Managerial guidelines for applying jazz improvisation to services

Our contention is that when a customer has special needs or requires some form of
customization, there is an opportunity to improvise. Such is often the case with services
like management consulting, financial advice firms, some forms of repair and
maintenance service. In addition, when service failure occurs there is often a need to
improvise. Events such as lost luggage on the airline flight, overbooking in the
hospitality industry and misplaced garments by the dry cleaning service create the
need to react in real time. In a sense, the role of improvisation and the lessons that jazz
provides become significant when the variations of customer expectations cover a
broad range of service features that require a significant degree of customization.
Figure 1 is a simple representation of how the degree of deviation from the norm
impacts the potential for and level of jazz-like service improvisation.
We also argue that, when possible, service managers should strive to provide
pleasant surprises for customers that go over and above what customers expect from
the service organization. Customer delight does not have to be simply a cliché. Many
services present numerous opportunities for jazz-like improvisation. For example,
when service delivery involves multiple steps or numerous personnel in its enactment
and the customer is present, the service might be designed to include some enjoyable
surprises to alleviate the customers’ pain of in-process waiting. This is similar to
jazz-like “syncopation” that involves shifting and accenting the rhythm of a
performance to create an element of surprise. Workers who can inject the circumstance
with humor or provide complimentary beverages or snacks are a good example of this.
In addition, when frontline personnel are given a degree of latitude in the execution of
their role, improvisational skills can be very powerful in recovering customers for
whom the service may have failed. Improvising by acting quickly and providing fair
and equitable compensation for the violation of customer expectations can go a long
 Lessons from
jazz

259

Figure 1.
The opportunity and the
need for improvisation

way to assuaging their dissatisfaction (see Bowen and Lawler, 1992; Tax and Brown,
1998).
When is jazz application most applicable? We answer this fundamental question
first, before we suggest how jazz improvisation can be established in service delivery.
We then argue that there are three critical managerial imperatives for incorporating the
notion of jazz-like improvisation in services: fostering an organizational culture that
embraces improvisation; designing the service to feature employee improvisation; and,
encouraging customers to improvise during service delivery. Finally, we discuss the
benefits and costs of jazz improvisation in service organizations?

When is jazz improvisation most applicable?

An examination of the nature of the service delivery can point the manager to a
systematic way to assess opportunities to incorporate improvisation and the lessons
from jazz. When service delivery is more predictable or follows a routine pattern (e.g. a
fast-food restaurant), there is considerably less need for improvisation. Conversely,
when the service is designed to accommodate individual customers (e.g. corporate
banking), there is likely to be a significant need and opportunity for improvisation.
Similarly, when steps in the service delivery process are sequential and do not allow for
asynchronous completion of tasks, the service delivery process may come to a
standstill unless each task in the series or the sequence is completed on time (e.g.
delayed test results holding up diagnosis or treatment in a hospital emergency room).
In such services, the insights from jazz improvisation may be quite valuable. To ensure
that, indeed, “the show does go on” the service manager may need to recognize that
“playing outside the scales” is necessary to accommodate the situation (e.g. flight
attendants will attempt to improvise entertaining distractions when experiencing
unusually long delays on the tarmac before take-off).
Another service delivery circumstance that is likely to necessitate an appreciation of
jazz-like principles occurs when the customer is directly involved in the service
delivery process. For example, the physical presence of a guest often inserts a greater
measure of pressure upon hotel staff when making a special request, a circumstance
MSQ that frequently calls for altering the service performance to accommodate the
16,3 customer’s wants. This is not unlike altering the jazz performance through “blue note”
deviations (see Table I). Finally, the ability to improvise increases in importance when
service delivery relies heavily upon technology. This is in part due to the often
profound effect such technology failure can have on the service process and outcome.
Consider the case of an amusement park ride or Internet service malfunction. The
260 ability to maintain a jazz-like harmony for the service performance by responding to
such unwanted episodes in stride is paramount for customer satisfaction. When
technology fails, immediate and creative means to assuage customers’ disappointment
are needed. Lessons from jazz improvisation can help. Table II presents a set of
conditions when improvisation would be important to incorporate into service
delivery.

Great services organizations are great improvisers

Great service organizations are prepared to deal with the unexpected. They embrace
improvisation. Every one in the organization appreciates and understands the role that
powerful improvisation skills play in fashioning an excellent service experience and
they develop those talents accordingly. As with the jazz ensemble, improvisation
proficiency becomes second nature. Consider the case of package delivery service.
Delivery personnel may be confronted with a wide range of possible scenarios and
customer instructions at the client’s door. In some cases, the scenario may be as
straightforward as delivering the package at the customer’s front door. Other times,
there might be special instructions as to where and when to leave the package. On
occasion, the delivery person may need to render a decision based on experience and
judgment regarding where the appropriate place to deposit the package might be.

Improvisation is less important Improvisation is more important

Production-line type service Predictability of service Customized service delivery

delivery is more predictable and delivery typically requires highly
may require less need for individualized attention and,
improvisation hence, improvisation
The less the real time nature of Real time nature of service The greater the real time nature of
service delivery, i.e. when several delivery service delivery, i.e. when several
steps in the process of service steps in the process of service
delivery can be done delivery must be done
asynchronously, the lower the synchronously or in tandem, the
need for improvisation greater the need for improvisation
The less direct customer Customer involvement and The greater direct customer
involvement and proximity to the proximity involvement and proximity to the
service production and delivery service production and delivery
process, the less the need for process, the greater the need for
improvisation improvisation
The lower the dependence of the Technology dependence The greater the dependence of the
Table II. service delivery on facilities and service delivery on facilities and
Managerial guidelines on equipment, the lower the need for equipment, the greater the need
when to improvise improvisation for improvisation
Great service organizations not only allow, but also encourage such improvisation. The Lessons from
greater the latitude in decision making that is granted to frontline staff, the greater the jazz
possibility that improvisation will be employed to satisfy customer needs or wants. It
is obvious that improvisation requires some degree of training pertaining to the diverse
ways of adapting to different service situations, otherwise frontline personnel may be
uneven or, worse, incompetent when exercising improvisation.
A corporate culture that supports jazz improvisation is necessary – one that fosters 261
an understanding about what it takes to meet individual customer needs even as
standardized procedures are utilized as the norm. Figure 2 relates that in a service
organization where improvisation is accepted and encouraged, employees must adapt
to individual customer needs and improvise when unusual situations arise. This
requires a considerable degree of organizational support, where the front and back
stage recognize and appreciate the importance of improvisation in the face of real time
production and consumption of their service. Without organizational cohesion and the
appropriate service culture (see Bowen et al., 2000), improvisation would be impossible
to develop and implement. At its heart are organizational policies and procedures
related to service delivery that integrate improvisation into the service design and
reward its effective execution.

Give employees flexible tools and train them thoroughly

The general structure of the service performance and employees and use of the
essential knowledge and skills that are required to deliver the service parallel the basic
elements of any music composition. Service firms conceive and execute service
performances at this basic level. Astute service firms such as Fedex, Ritz Carlton, and
Southwest Airlines incorporate improvisation into their service design by allowing
their employees to use their discretion (see Kelley et al., 1993) to accommodate
customer expectations during the service encounter. When improvisation is added as a
key feature of service design, it becomes similar to a jazz performance. Employees are
permitted and even encouraged to use their judgment to meet the specific and
individual customer needs. Thus, the emphasis when depicting services as jazz is on
the improvisation skills of the employee. In Figure 3, we stress the nature of jazz
improvisation in services by underscoring that it is the service manager who designs
employee discretion into the basic structure of the service that ultimately allows
employees to improvise when needed. Workers can be trained in improvisation skills

Figure 2.
Great service
organizations are great
improvisers
MSQ
16,3

262

Figure 3.
The service providers as
jazz improvisation

(Barrett, 1998). Research in organizational behavior has shown that when employees
are given considerable freedom or autonomy in the conduct of their tasks, creativity
and innovation are fostered (Amabile, 1988). As employees combine their basic service
knowledge and skills with their improvisation acumen, the actual service performance
is more likely to reflect the customers’ expectations. For example, customer service
personnel may be granted discretion with respect to an organization’s refund or service
guarantee policy. If they are trained to appropriately improvise in dealing with the
disgruntled customer, they are more likely to execute a strong service recovery for that
customer, improve perceptions of service quality and ensure customer satisfaction and
loyalty.
Expertise in improvisation comes with practice and experience. Different front-line
performances require diverse expressions of these improvisation skills. Employees
need to be trained in the skills of improvisation as part of their operations and
customer interaction training. Role-playing, observation and shadowing workers who
have developed improvisation skills are warranted. Ultimately, workers’ scripts and
role performance should be designed to accommodate some degree of flexibility in the
use of the different improvisation skills they have been taught. At the same time,
however, it is equally important to discourage rigid and unresponsive enactment of
workers’ roles in many instances and to demonstrate their negative consequences.
Let the customer improvise, too Lessons from
In a service organization, customers are an integral part of the production process since jazz
their participation in some way is often required (see Berry, 1980; Fisk et al., 2004). In
some services, customer participation is required throughout the entire service process
and the customer role is intimately linked with the production and delivery of the
service product (Chase, 1978; Kelley et al., 1990; Silpakit and Fisk, 1984). In such
services, the same arguments posed earlier about the employees’ adaptability and 263
improvisational skills apply to the customer. Therefore, the service design in such
instances must allow the customer to improvise, too. This is true customization where
the customer becomes sole arbiter in a decision to be made about the production and
consumption of the service. Bettencourt (1997) concludes from a literature review of
customer participation in services that there are three dimensions of customer
voluntary performance: customer as promoter of the firm; customer as human resource;
and, customer as organizational consultant. The essence of these dimensions points to
the fact that customer roles often need to be managed in many of the same ways that
service workers’ roles are managed.
Similar to Figure 3, in which we demonstrate how service design should take into
consideration the need to allow employee discretion for improvisation, service design
must also incorporate a parallel logic for the customer. The basic structure of any
service delivery process specifies the customer role, since the customer is often a
co-producer in many service performances, such as hairstyling, physician diagnosis,
education and the like. As in the case made for employee discretion for improvisation,
the metaphor of service performance as jazz has relevance for the customer role.
Service design must accommodate customer discretion for improvisation, as well.
Figure 4 extends the idea in the previous figure and suggests that since customers are
co-producers in a service, improvisation skills of the customer should be incorporated
in the service design.
Some service organizations recognize the value of customer participation and
improvisation in the service delivery process. Consider, for example, how passengers
stow their luggage in on an airline flight. Within organization guidelines, such as

Figure 4.
Incorporating
improvisation by
employee and customer in
service concept and design
MSQ constraints on size and number of carry-on bags, passengers are able to determine
16,3 what may be brought on board. On full flights, passengers very often must improvise
how and where they can stow their hand baggage. Similar improvisation occurs on
long flights with respect to in-flight entertainment and meals. Passengers often
improvise by bringing their own means of amusement, reading materials or work to
keep them occupied during the flight. They also augment the airline food service with
264 carry-on snacks and beverages. Like the typical airline, smart service organizations
allow customers to improvise during the service process.
Service managers will find that developing and sustaining the culture of
improvisation in their organizations is a powerful means of meeting the challenges of
service delivery. Hence, it is important for service organizations to incorporate
improvisation in their service design. To that end, service employees must be
acquainted with, trained for, and encouraged to improvise, and the organization must
recognize the efficacy and contribution of customer improvisation, as well.

Benefits and costs of jazz improvisation to service organizations

The service manager who is encouraged to inculcate improvisation in his/her service
employees will no doubt ask about its expected costs and benefits. While it is
impossible to guarantee that the benefits will always exceed costs in every case, it
seems reasonable to expect that when implemented wisely, the benefits of
improvisation can outweigh the costs.
Beyond an enhanced service performance that reflects distinctive and original
rhythm; jazz-like improvisation is beneficial when there is need for service recovery. As
noted earlier, during service delivery improvisation can differentiate a service
organization by continually offering customers a unique experience. Improvisation can
also “save the show” for a service provider when service failure has occurred.
Improvisations that work successfully become excellent service recovery process
candidates to be scripted in to the overall service delivery process, much as successful
syncopations and breaks are filed away mentally by jazz musicians for future use.
Quicker recovery from service failures will improve service quality and individual
customer satisfaction. Customers who witness and experience successful
improvisation may be impressed enough to spread positive word of mouth about
the service provider. Employees who are successful in meeting customer needs and
saving situations for the service organization and its customers have a sense of
accomplishment and a higher sense of job satisfaction, and, like their jazz ensemble
counterparts, experience the “joys of playing” (see Table I).
The most significant costs associated with incorporating jazz-like improvisation are
likely to be found in the selection, hiring and training of employees. In service
organizations that rely heavily on part-time workers, it may take a lot more screening
to hire those who are willing and able to improvise. Training costs will need to
accommodate the need to instruct employees on the significant issues pertaining to
when, where and how to improvise. Obviously, poor improvisation decisions could be
expensive to the service organization in terms of overcompensated service recovery,
perceived inequity in the treatment of some customers vis-á-vis others, and mishandled
situations leading to loss of customer goodwill. While it is clear that some
improvisation goes on in some service organizations, there is very little systematic
research on the costs and benefits of such improvisations.
Conclusion Lessons from
Services are performances. We have examined the nature of jazz to establish the jazz
validity of the metaphor of service delivery as jazz performances. To that end, we have
focused on the central feature that characterizes jazz music – its improvisational
character. To understand how service improvisation can be accomplished, we drew
from the key characteristics of jazz and offered managerial guidelines for considering
service performances as jazz. Like jazz musicians, service managers must deliberately 265
set the pace of the service delivery, agree on when and where improvisation would be
appropriate or necessary, come to a mutual understanding of how each participant in
the service delivery might improvise, plan on appropriate signals to each other when
improvisation is to occur and encourage each service performer to practice their
respective improvisational roles. Managers would benefit from training frontline staff
with improvisation skills and providing them with the flexibility and discretion to use
them within appropriate pre-established guidelines.
In a review of the services literature, we were unable to uncover any articles that
focused specifically on the construct of improvisation in services among any of the
major journals. It was particularly surprising that articles dealing with services
employees failed to explicitly address the topic of improvisation. It is possible that
improvisation may have been subsumed under other services phenomena such as
empowerment, flexibility/divergence, or adaptive behavior of service employees (see
Bettencourt and Gwinner, 1996; Shostack, 1987; Sureshchandar et al., 2001; Yagil,
2002). However, we feel that a detailed explication of worker improvisation in services
contexts would be a fruitful avenue of research that could lead to a better
understanding of factors that contribute to satisfying service encounters and service
quality.
As a first step in further research, it would be logical to precisely define the
construct of improvisation in services. Further, it would be necessary to design a
psychometrically-sound scale that measures worker improvisation in services. Once
such a scale is developed, it would be possible to study the antecedents and
consequences of improvisation by service employees. An approach that incorporates
multiple methods to achieve these research goals would be most ideal. Beyond paper
and pencil methods to ascertain improvisation, case method analysis might be used to
study successful service firms to reveal worker improvisation skills and their impact
on service performance and customer satisfaction. Such an exercise might also disclose
the organizational characteristics that support and foster improvisation by employees.
A major advantage of the jazz improvisation metaphor is that it is fun to apply. An
example of how fun and service delivery can be melded is found in a Seattle-based fish
market called “Fish”. The establishment is featured in a training film used in customer
relationship management seminars and workshops that depict workers at the Fish
performing antics to entertain customers and passers-by as they deliver their service.
Customers (Fish employees call them the “yogurt dudes”) from nearby offices eat their
yogurt and fruit lunches while they watch the performance at the Fish market.
Similarly, jazz performances embrace fun in the way the musicians enjoy themselves
and in the way the audience finds pleasure in the music and the musicians’ exuberance.
It is our contention that extending the enjoyment payoff of jazz performance to service
delivery via principles posited here can benefit customers and workers alike.
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Further reading
Fisk, R.P., Grove, S.J. and John, J. (1999), Services Marketing Self-portraits: Introspections,
Reflections and Glimpses from the Experts, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL.
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About the authors

Joby John is Professor and Chair of Marketing at Bentley College (USA). He is a former marketing
officer at Pfizer and BAT, India. He has lectured in a dozen countries on services marketing,
customer-focused management and cross-cultural issues. He has published over 50 scholarly
papers and most recently, three books: Services Marketing Self-portraits: Introspections,
Reflections and Glimpses from the Experts; Interactive Services Marketing; and, Fundamentals of
Customer-focused Management: Competing through Service. He is a past President of the
American Marketing Association’s (AMA) Boston Chapter and a past chair of the Services
Marketing Special Interest Group of the AMA. Joby John is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: jjohn@bentley.edu
Stephen J. Grove is a Professor of Marketing at Clemson University (USA) He has published
in Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Public Policy and
Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Services
Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Advertising, The Service
Industries Journal, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Services Marketing and others. He
has served twice as Chair of the American Marketing Association’s Services Marketing Special
Interest Group (SERVSIG) and is co-author of the text, Interactive Services Marketing.
Raymond P. Fisk is Professor and Chair of the Department of Marketing, at the University of
New Orleans. He has published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, European Journal of Marketing, Service Industries Journal,
International Journal of Service Industry Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Managing
Service Quality, Marketing Management, Journal of Health Care Marketing and others. He has
published five books: Interactive Services Marketing, 2nd ed.; Services Marketing Self-portraits:
Introspections, Reflections and Glimpses from the Experts; Marketing Theory: Distinguished
Contributions; AIRWAYS: A Marketing Simulation; and Services Marketing: An Annotated
Bibliography.

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