Tight and loose comprehensive customer contact (3C) plans and strategies

Strategic business and service plans provide guidelines for tactical decisions about the service process and its associated service encounters. Tactical plans include decisions and design specifications concerning the servicescape, the process, the servicescripts, and more micro specifications about the desired nature of service encounters and moments of truth. To help develop, coordinate and integrate these diverse components, a Comprehensive Customer Contact [3C] Plan is developed. Two extreme types of 3C Plans are described here according to how tightly or loosely the elements of the service delivery system are designed. Service strategies built around these tight or loose system configurations can lead to innovative new ways of gaining competitive advantage for both routine and professional service organizations. The article concludes by suggesting premises concerning this tight/loose dichotomy requiring future research.