Management Of Service Encounters Research Articles

How Does Customer Personality Shape Customer-Employee and Customer-Firm Interactions?

In recent decades, the banking industry has undergone several changes implying the need for banks to differentiate themselves This research examines the effect of the Big Five on relationship quality and customer loyalty on both employee and firm levels in retail banks. A total of 210 online surveys were collected via the convenient sampling method. The findings showed that openness to experience, extroversion and neuroticism influence relationship quality on both levels. Conscientiousness affects relationship quality at the bank level while agreeableness affects relationship quality at the customer contact employee level. Relationship quality displayed significant influence on customer loyalty on both levels. Several implications are derived for service research and service encounter management. The findings provide valuable insight for matching retail bank customers and customer-contact employees based on their personality profiles to ensure long-term relationship quality and customer loyalty. Insights into the relationship quality-customer loyalty link can act as a starting point for academics who are interested in understanding the role of frontline employees in services management.

Touch Versus Tech in Service Encounters

The emergence of various service technologies has reshaped how today’s customers interact with the service provider. The current research proposes a service matrix delineating various types of service encounters along two dimensions: touch (the extent to which customers directly interact with frontline employees) and tech (the intensity of technology use). Furthermore, we investigate the moderating role of relationship type (i.e., communal vs. exchange) in influencing customer evaluations of touch and tech type encounters and further identify the underlying mechanism. The results from the two empirical studies demonstrate the moderating effect of the communal relationship norms and the consequent mediation effect of warmth. This research lays the foundation for the future investigation of different service encounter management practices based on various levels of human factors and technology infusion. For service companies, our findings about the interplay of service encounter types and customer–company relationships will help them to better understand their customers and consequently provide an optimal level of service.

서비스 접점 관리를 위한 순서효과

서비스 접점 관리를 위한 순서효과

Literature Review of Service Encounter Management, using Emotions Management

Literature Review of Service Encounter Management, using Emotions Management

Effects of Service Recovery Justice on the Post-recovery Satisfaction and Loyalty: Focused on the Family Restaurant

This research empirically analyzes the effects of service recovery justice on the post-recovery satisfaction and loyalty based on the service recovery paradox in the family restaurant. To achieve this purpose, we employ a field survey of family restaurant customers who experienced service failures and conduct an empirical method utilizing evidence from 264 respondents. The findings present that distributive, interactional, and procedural justices have a significant influence on the post-recovery satisfaction, which positively affects on the loyalty. These results emphasize the service encounter management to establish a positive service recognition for the customer who experienced a service recovery. Furthermore, this study provides implications for managers and practitioners to maintain and improve the customer relationship through the service recovery efforts considering all justices even if there is a service failure in the family Received (January 18, 2016), Review Result (February 1, 2016) Accepted (February 10, 2016), Published (March 31, 2016) 440-746 First Author, Dept. Management of Technology, Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon, Korea email: ihyoon@skku.edu 35349 Corresponding Author, Dept. Business Administration, Mokwon Univ., Daejeon, Korea email: cjung@mokwon.ac.kr Effects of Service Recovery Justice on the Post-recovery Satisfaction and Loyalty: Focused on the Family Restaurant Copyright c 2016 HSST 424 restaurant.

Analysis of Service Quality Features and Customer Satisfaction in Golf Course: An Application of the Kano Model

The purpose of our research is to derive critical service quality elements in golf course based on SERVQUAL using Kano model and Timko's better and worse coefficients. To achieve the research purpose, this study employs a field survey of golf course customer and conduct an empirical method utilizing the evidence from 380 respondents. Our results show that total 20 items are classified into 5 attractive quality elements, 4 must-be quality elements, 8 one-dimensional elements, and 3 indifferent quality elements except reverse quality elements. In addition, the findings present that service encounter management including service staffs and caddies has the highest better coefficient, and the worse coefficient of the safety of golf course is the lowest. We believe that practitioners are able to establish strategic guidance based on the results of this research, providing useful implications to improve the service quality and prioritize investments in golf course.

Literature Review of Service Encounter Management, using Emotions Management

Background/ Objectives: The aim of this service management literature review is to identify the role of emotions during service encounter, to analyze effect of emotions on service customers and employees, and to identify ways to manage emotions for effective service encounter. Method: The review based on systematic review based on literature tracked chronologically; based on SCOPUS database. The literature is then scanned for relevance and citation counts. The themes arising in service encounter management are identified and grouped for conceptual ease. Conclusion/ Improvements: The study highlights importance of effective emotion management during service encounter. It identifies customer emotional reactions like anger, frustration, fear, hate, grief, love and joy; and indicates relationship of demographic factors with emotions. The study also uncovers effect of emotions on service employees during service encounter in terms of; emotional labor, employee burnout, emotional dissonance. Finally, the study lists ways to manage emotions using;—emotional intelligence and motivation; supervisory support; employee and customer citizenship behavior; clue management, theatrical approach and emotion script; and service recovery management. For effective customer experience, it is imperative to manage every service encounter effectively. Since services in general involve human being, emotions generated during service delivery process is a key to customer experience. Managers are advised to create customer experiences considering for emotion management. The study is a unique effort to highlight literature related to service encounter in relations using emotions. It analysis emotions related service consumers as well as service employees.

On the Role of Empathy in Customer-Employee Interactions

While the service literature repeatedly emphasizes the role of empathy in service interactions, studies on empathy in customer-employee interactions are nearly absent. This study defines and conceptualizes employee and customer empathy as multidimensional constructs and empirically investigates their impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. A quantitative study based on dyadic data and a multilevel modeling approach finds support for two effects of empathy in service interactions. The study reveals that customer empathy strengthens the positive effect of employee empathy on customer satisfaction, leading to more “symbiotic interactions.” The findings also indicate that empathic customers are more likely to respond to a dissatisfying encounter with “forgiveness,” in the sense that customer empathy is able to mitigate negative effects of customer dissatisfaction on customer loyalty. From these empirical results, the authors derive several implications for service research and the management of service encounters. In particular, the present study provides a valuable basis for strategies of “interaction routing,” that is, matching customers and employees on the basis of their psychological profiles to create smooth and satisfying service interactions. The authors elaborate on approaches to implement this strategy in service organizations.

Serving `The Guest': Günther Anders at the Grand Seaside Hotel

Drawing on data collected during 14 months of ethnographic research in an Australian Coastal Hotel, the paper describes the management of service encounters. Hotel staff used meetings and training sessions to simulate service scenarios, hypothesizing `customer wants and needs'. In order to do this they constructed the image of an ideal `Guest', an image that was collectively evoked in order to shape the conduct of service encounters. We claim that these imaginary service encounters mean that the `creators' of this imaginary object become increasingly subjected to its demands. The object, `The Guest', attempts to dominate its creators. The traditional demarcation between subject and object is blurred, and perhaps reversed. Drawing on the neglected work of Günther Anders, the paper inquires into the status of this object and addresses the process of its production and consumption. It demonstrates how subjects and an (imaginary) object become entangled.

DETERMINANTS OF US CVB’S WEBSITE SERVICE QUALITY

Website service quality is widely accepted as one of the key determinants of online business success. Several studies identified key factors that determine the website service quality factors appropriate for online business environments. A convention and visitors bureau (CVB) website is a service portal that delivers information online about a destination so users can develop an overall image of the location. CVBs struggle to deliver positive destination images because the competition among destinations to host conventions is intense. In spite of the important role of CVBs and the beneficial spillover effect of CVBs, there are few studies available reporting on the unique service qualities of a CVB website. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the determining factors that are appropriate for CVB websites from the meeting planners’ perspective. The research questions are: What are the determining factors of service quality of a CVB website? Do the determining factors of CVB website service quality positively influence meeting planners’ satisfaction? The new conceptual framework was developed from a variety of destination marketing and Internet marketing concepts: e-servicescape management, web community network, Internet service encounter management, and online system quality. Empirical results indicate that three of the four factors, that is, e-servicescape, web community network, and online system quality are important determinants in evaluating CVB website service quality. The findings also show that three determinants have significant and positive influence on meeting planners’ satisfaction. The findings from this study will provide meaningful advice for CVB website quality management. To enhance the CVB website service quality and satisfaction level of meeting planners, these three determinants should be considered of the utmost strategic importance and priority.

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT: AN EXAMINATION OF SERVICE STRATEGY IN A HIGH‐CONTACT SERVICE ENVIRONMENT

A critical component of service strategy in high‐contact environments is service encounter management. Effective service encounters are a result of the quality of employee development, including systems for work and job design, training and development, and attention to employee well being. Results of empirical analysis indicate that service strategies reflecting the dimensions of employee development drive employee outcomes such as productivity and satisfaction. Employee outcomes are significantly associated with customer satisfaction, but only some linkages to financial performance are significant. This study illustrates the importance of employee development in service strategy design for managing service encounters in high contact service environments.

The Role of Non-verbal Communication in Service Encounters: A Conceptual Framework

This paper presents a synthesis of the work in the psychology and anthropology disciplines concerning nonverbal behaviour and applies this knowledge to the understanding and management of service encounters. As face to face service encounters are primarily social occasions when the rules and norms of social interaction apply, then an understanding of the way that consumers interpret non-verbal interaction is crucial to an understanding of how service encounters are managed and evaluated. The paper considers a number of aspects of service delivery that impact on the interpretation of nonverbal cues and the participant characteristics that effect this interpretation. Finally the paper provides a number of suggestions for the management of encounters, selection and training of employees and further research into this area.

Role Theory and the Management of Service Encounters

In this article, the contribution of role theory to our understanding and management of service encounters is highlighted. In the first section of the article the focus on social exchange within role theory is identified and commonalities between relational approaches to marketing and a role theoretical perspective are outlined. Thereafter the article outlines the specific contribution of role theory to our understanding of service encounters. Role theory, it is argued, permits better management of the interactive features of service provider-client interface and a clearer focus on role performance and the interpersonal dimensions of service quality. Role analysis offers both focus on role consistency in service provision and a framework for dealing with the uncertainty and evolution in long term service relationships. In services marketing, role can be incorporated as a factor in successful service performance and form a central framework for good service encounter management.