The Invisible Water Utility: Employee Behaviour and Customer Experience in Service-Dominant Logic

Anthology of four studies about water utility marketing. The first two studies explore water utilities from a macromarketing perspective, corroborated by interviews with customer advocacy organisations and regulators, and a content analysis of industry literature. The third study analyses employee attitudes towards customer-centric service provision. The last study introduces the concept of Service-Dominant Quality, based on the axioms of S-D Logic. The findings of these studies are synthesised to review the applicability of S-D Logic to marketing practice. The exploratory research defines a Marketing Mix for tap water services. Analysis of employee data provides insight into the relationships between engineers and marketers in water utilities. The SERVAQUA survey instrument was developed to measure Service Quality for tap water, based on S-D Logic. Synthesising these findings enhances understanding of how Service-Dominant Logic can be applied to a managerial context.