2.3 The extent to which customers are satisfied with the allocation of channels into packages.

Convenience is acknowledged to be increasingly important to consumers, yet no known research has defined the service convenience construct or examined how it is evaluated. Although most researchers and managers consider service convenience to involve more than locational proximity or hours of operation, the specific types of service convenience have not been established, and no comprehensive analytical framework has been presented in the literature. Observers have long noted consumers' interest in conserving time and effort. This phenomenon has encouraged the development of convenience goods and services, increased advertisers' promotion of the time-oriented benefits of their products, and motivated consumers to use convenience as a basis for making purchase decisions (Anderson and Shugan 1991). The continuous rise in consumer demand for convenience has been attributed to socioeconomic change, technological progress, more competitive business environments, and opportunity costs that have risen with incomes ( Seiders, Berry, and Gresham 2000). Because the demand for convenience has become so strong, marketers must develop a more precise and complete understanding of the concept. Convenience is integral to the marketing of both goods and services and merits deeper examination in both cases. Service convenience, is conceptualized as consumers' time and effort perceptions related to buying or using a service. In some convenience studies, the distinction between service and goods convenience is clear. For example, consumers' convenience orientation has been related to all products that save consumers time and effort both "labor-saving" goods (e.g., frozen dinners) and services (e.g., child care). Some proposed aspects of the convenience construct are specific to manufactured goods. These include product size, preservability, packaging, and design, which can reduce consumers' time and effort in purchasing, storage, and use (Anderson and Shugan 1991). However, many discussions of goods related convenience are distribution oriented, focusing on convenience related to the distribution of goods through retailers, which falls in the realm of service convenience. All types of convenience that reduce consumer time or effort in shopping, such as operating hours or credit availability, belong to the domain of service convenience.

Service organizations create value for consumers through performances. All businesses are service businesses to some degree. Computer manufacturers and food retailers create consumer value through a goods-services mix. Commercial banks and hospitals create consumer value largely through services. Service convenience facilitates the sale of goods as well as the sale of services. Fast checkout in a retail store is service convenience, as are available, competent salespeople who help consumers find the right garment to buy. Because virtually all organizations create value for consumers through performances and because convenience is an important consideration for most consumers, it follows that understanding service convenience better is useful. The extant convenience literature offers little explicit discussion of service convenience.