{
  "title": "Customer reception: what the setting communicates before the first contact",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/accueil-client-ce-que-les-lieux-disent-avant-le-premier-contact-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2026-07-10",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "Reception begins before the first conversation. Research invites managers to examine the cues provided by the setting, rather than attribute the entire experience to staff behaviour.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Client Reception",
  "place": {
    "name": "Fribourg",
    "region": "Fribourg",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Mary Jo Bitner (1992, Journal of Marketing) proposes a theoretical framework in which the physical service environment influences customers' and employees' responses."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Physical cues also shape expectations",
      "point": "Julie Baker, Ananthanarayanan Parasuraman, Dhruv Grewal and Glenn B."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that a more visually polished reception necessarily produces a better experience."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence does not settle",
      "point": "Bitner's framework is conceptual, while the study by Baker and her colleagues concerns a retail environment: neither directly measures wayfinding errors at the entrance to an industrial or university site."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Fribourg",
      "point": "Within SHR's « Accueil client » programme, a practical exercise in Fribourg could examine the arrival route at an agri-food company, a bilingual industrial site or a service within the university sector."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Bitner",
      "year": "1992",
      "source": "Journal of Marketing"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Voss",
      "year": "2002",
      "source": "Journal of Marketing"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 424,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2026-07-10-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/accueil-client-ce-que-les-lieux-disent-avant-le-premier-contact",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/accueil-client-ce-que-les-lieux-disent-avant-le-premier-contact-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/accueil-client-ce-que-les-lieux-disent-avant-le-premier-contact-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/accueil-client-ce-que-les-lieux-disent-avant-le-premier-contact-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/accueil-client/fribourg",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/fribourg",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}