Evaluation Of Service Encounters Research Articles

Smart Service Interactional Experience for Family Travelers: Scale Development and Validation

This study explores the key features of the smart service interactional experience (SSIE) and develops and validates a scale based on the perspectives of family travelers. Through multiple stages of qualitative and quantitative investigations using U.S. and U.K. samples, this study identified eight distinct features of SSIE: efficiency, ease of use, learning, socialization, newness, safety, flow, and seamlessness. The study findings also validate the aforementioned scale through two robustness tests and reveal significant relationships between the aforementioned SSIE attributes and the service encounter evaluations of family travelers. This study theoretically contributes to the development of smart hotel conceptualizations and the nascent research on family travelers. Furthermore, the study findings imply many valuable, practical suggestions for hotel practitioners who plan to invest in smart hotel operations and target family travelers.

You deserve the bad (or good) service: the role of moral deservingness in observers’ reactions to service failure (or excellence)

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how observers evaluate a company that provides service failure (or excellence) to an immoral versus a moral customer. This study introduces the concept of deservingness to the service literature and suggests that observers appreciate when a company delivers “justice” – either bad service to an immoral customer or good service to a moral customer – and thus evaluate the company more favorably.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents three online studies using scenarios (ns = 205, 199 and 181) and one lab study (n = 89) using a confederate to manipulate customer morality.FindingsAcross four studies, this study finds that a service failure has a less negative impact on observers’ company evaluations when observers consider the target customer immoral, and thus deserving of the bad outcome. Conversely, the positive impact of observing service excellence is enhanced when observers consider the target customer to be moral, and thus deserving of a good outcome. This effect occurs because the perception of deservingness leads observers to experience more positive feelings about the service outcome and these positive feelings transfer over to observers’ evaluations of the service provider.Research limitations/implicationsThe mechanism shares some similarities with the concept of immanent justice reasoning, whereby individuals draw a causal link between someone’s prior immoral behavior and an unrelated negative outcome. However, the studies go one step further by showing that such causal reasoning, at least on a moral level, can impact the judgments of the other party (in this case, the company involved in the service outcome).Practical implicationsService providers need to be particularly attentive when serving customers who are viewed in a positive light, as an observed failure that affects a moral customer can be particularly damaging to company evaluations. Conversely, companies should make efforts to publicize when exceptional service is given to nice, admirable customers, as this is particularly effective at improving evaluations.Originality/valueResearchers have examined how allocations of responsibility affect observers' evaluation of service encounters. This paper adds deservingness as an alternate mechanism and examines service excellence as well.

Authenticity, rapport and interactional justice in frontline service: the moderating role of need for uniqueness

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how perceptions of employee authenticity and customer–employee rapport influence customers’ interactional justice assessments and related service evaluations, and how customers’ need for uniqueness impacts these relationships.Design/methodology/approachA multi-method, three-study design is used to test the research model. Specifically, structural equation modeling provides tests of the main hypotheses, and two supplemental experimental studies tease out conditional effects providing insightful managerial contributions.FindingsResults indicate that customers’ perceptions of employee authenticity affect customers’ interactional justice evaluations, particularly when customers identify high levels of customer–employee rapport. Additionally, the aforementioned relationships are contingent upon customers’ need for uniqueness, such that customers with higher levels of need for uniqueness experience lower levels of customer–employee rapport and, consequently, provide poorer interactional justice assessments. Finally, conditional effects are found given the type of provider and frequency of visit.Originality/valueThis research extends prior efforts to understand how customer–employee dynamics influence customers’ service encounter evaluations. In particular, it furthers understanding of authentic FLE–customer encounters, explores drivers of interactional justice and explicates how consumers’ varying levels of need for uniqueness have differential effects on service outcomes.

Students’ Views on Public Transport: Satisfaction and Emission

Overall satisfaction is an emotional response to a perceived discrepancy between expectations and perceptions. Overall satisfaction is more of a holistic affective construct after a service delivery experience, while transaction-specific satisfaction refers to attribute-based cognitive evaluation of service encounters. The authors investigated which particular attributes of public transport service drive satisfaction of customers, contributing to public transport becoming more sustainable. The questionnaire used in this research was constructed based on Benchmarking in European Service of Public Transport (BEST). The respondents belonged to the group of younger users of public transport services. Correlation analysis, factor analysis, and regression analysis were used in data processing and interpretation. Results obtained from the research show that young people emphasize the importance of on-line information, comfort, and prices of the public transportation. This paper not only provides insight into expectations of public transport users, but also investigated the potential decrease in CO2 and PM emissions when private vehicles are substituted with the public transport.

Configuring Customer Touchpoints: A Fuzzy-Set Analysis of Service Encounter Satisfaction

Knowledge about the importance of sub-service encounters or touchpoints within the service process is a topic of interest to both researchers and businesses. However, existing research mainly analyses service encounter evaluations based on composite or overall measures. While these studies make a significant contribution to understanding the importance of specific attributes for evaluating the overall encounter, our study extends existing research by showing how evaluations might be built upon different configurations of touchpoints. Based on a qualitative comparative analysis, we identify the determinants that are ultimately necessary, as well as those that are sufficient, for creating positive customer experiences within airline services. We provide managers with guidance on how to design successful customer experiences and long-lasting customer satisfaction. This knowledge helps service firms invest in quality improvements that will pay off in the long run.We enrich service theory by providing an in-depth view of customer service encounters and by identifying how different configurations of touchpoint evaluations lead to satisfactory service experiences. We establish a complementary explanation of the creation of customers’ evaluations of multiple touchpoints.

The effect of humour usage on customer’s service experiences

Cross-disciplinary research recognises humour as an effective communication tool for fostering engagement and positive interpersonal relationships, although inappropriate use can create negative outcomes. Drawing on positive psychology, this study aims to empirically examine the extent to which frontline employee’s (FLE’s) humour usage can influence customers’ service encounter evaluations. Findings from 252 retail service customers indicate that their sense of humour drives humour perceptions and facilitates positive encounter evaluations. In particular, FLEs’ other-directed humour, rather than self-directed humour, leads to more enjoyable interactions for customers. This effect is moderated by pre-encounter mood, in that customers react more positively to other-directed humour when they are in a bad mood. This study contributes empirical support for the importance of appropriate humour usage to the service encounter literature. From a managerial perspective, the outcomes highlight that service encounters benefit from other-directed humour. JEL Classification: M31

커피전문점의 관여도와 상황요인들이 서비스접점의 평가와 상품태도에 미치는 영향

The purpose of the study is to figure the influences of situational factors on the evaluation of service encounter and product attitude by using coffee-shop customers as the research sample. The study found that situational factors have an positive effect on evaluation of service encounter and a significant difference in the degree of effect between hedonic and utilitarian motivation groups. The study also found customers involvement and the evaluation derived from situational factors were negatively correlated.

The Effects of Other Customers’ Dress Style on Customers’ Approach Behaviors

Most hospitality services are delivered in the same location in which they are produced, and, thus, their delivery involves the presence of other customers. Yet, the role of other customers’ physical appearances in influencing service encounter evaluations has received scant attention. Moreover, previous research shows that consumers with a low sense of power are motivated to seek status by engaging in conspicuous consumption. The current study examines the joint impact of other customers’ dress styles and the observer’s sense of power in influencing customers’ approach behaviors (e.g., willingness to stay longer in a restaurant, interact with other customers). The results from our experiment show that customers’ approach behaviors among observers with a low sense of power were significantly higher when other customers’ dress styles were formal rather than informal. Conversely, the effect of other customers’ dress styles was minimal among observers with a high sense of power. Results from this study indicate that approach behaviors mediate the impact of other customers’ dress styles on word-of-mouth intentions among customers with a low sense of power. The findings of this study help hospitality operators use dress codes to their advantage.

Wearable technology in service delivery processes: The gender-moderated technology objectification effect

In the current research, we investigate how employees’ adoption of wearable technology (i.e., a front-line employee using Google Glass for a hotel check-in) influences consumers’ service encounter evaluations and revisit intentions. Building on the theoretical frameworks of technology objectification effect, person sensitivity bias and gender stereotypes, we find that wearable technology has a differential impact on service evaluations based on the employee's gender. Study 1 demonstrates that for female employees, the adoption of wearable technology leads to more favorable customer evaluations in service failure encounters. Study 2 shows that for male employees, the adoption of wearable technology leads to less favorable customer evaluations in service success encounters. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.

Touch versus Tech: When Technology Functions as a Barrier or a Benefit to Service Encounters

Interpersonal exchanges between customers and frontline service employees increasingly involve the use of technology, such as point-of-sale terminals, tablets, and kiosks. The present research draws on role and script theories to demonstrate that customer reactions to technology-infused service exchanges depend on the presence of employee rapport. When rapport is present during the exchange, the use of technology functions as an interpersonal barrier preventing the customer from responding in kind to employee rapport-building efforts, thereby decreasing service encounter evaluations. However, during service encounters in which employees are not engaging in rapport building, technology functions as an interpersonal barrier, enabling customers to retreat from the relatively unpleasant service interaction, thereby increasing service encounter evaluations. Two analyses using J.D. Power Guest Satisfaction Index data support the barrier and beneficial effects of technology use during service encounters with and without rapport, respectively. A follow-up experiment replicates this data pattern and identifies psychological discomfort as a key process that governs the effect. For managers, the results demonstrate the inherent incompatibility of initiatives designed to encourage employee–customer rapport with those that introduce technology into frontline service exchanges.

Societal Norms, Need for Closure, and Service Recovery

ABSTRACT There is an increasing need for an understanding of how culture shapes consumers’ service encounter evaluations. This study introduces a new aspect of culture (societal tightness or looseness) to the global marketing literature. In addition, the authors examine the role of a novel individual-level factor (Need for Closure) in influencing fairness judgments. Findings of this quasi-experimental study suggest that consumers faced with strict societal norms have more negative reactions to socially deviant employee behaviors than their counterparts in looser societies. Moreover, high Need-for-Closure individuals perceived equal compensation as more fair than either under- or overcompensation vis-à-vis other customers. The article concludes with a discussion of managerial implications for global service providers.

An examination of the impact of cultural orientation and familiarity in service encounter evaluations

PurposeCustomers' judgment of service quality is by and large based on their evaluation of personal experiences during the service encounter. The purpose of this study is to investigate from a customer perspective, the impact of familiarity (of the individual service provider) and cultural orientation on evaluations of both successful and failed service encounters.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ an experimental design with data collected from student samples in the USA (Western, individualist culture) and Thailand (Eastern, collectivist culture).FindingsResults show an individual customer's cultural orientation, as well as familiarity (with a focal service provider), have an impact on perceptions and post‐purchase evaluations of both successful and unsuccessful service encounters.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the services marketing and consumer behavior literature by shedding light onto the role of familiarity and cultural value orientation in influencing consumer responses to service encounters. It is one of only a handful of cross‐cultural studies in this research domain.

Preconceptions about Service

Recent research has suggested that customer evaluation of service encounters depends not only on the attributes of the particular service rendered but also on other cognitive and affective factors. This article sets out to investigate the effects that preconceptions about service types have on customers’ perceptions and on their overall evaluation of service encounters. The study is founded on Categorization Theory and Perception Distortion Theories and poses and tests three hypotheses on a customer sample taken from the Spanish retail banking sector. The results show a strong effect of preconceptions about the service category on the perceptions of quality during the service encounter; however, their direct effect on the overall evaluation of the service is unsubstantiated in our study.

Impact of customer preconsumption mood on the evaluation of employee behavior in service encounters

AbstractThe influence of customers' affective states on the evaluation of service encounters has been conceptually discussed for more than a decade. However, empirical studies, field studies in particular, are scarce. Recent studies have contributed to the area by empirically demonstrating mood effects on service satisfaction. Because of the interpersonal nature of services, the behavior of the service personnel is of utmost importance for overall service satisfaction. This article extends previous research by investigating the impact of customers' reported preconsumption mood on the evaluation of three service behaviors, proposed by Winsted (2000) in her seminal study. The findings support the existence of three service behavioral dimensions, namely, concern, congeniality and uncivility, and show that mood valence influences these behaviors as well as encounter satisfaction. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the importance of past service experiences for customers' responses, especially their repurchase intentions. Future research directions regarding mood effects in services are also discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Impact of Culture and Gender on Customer Evaluations of Service Encounters

Despite the growing interest in cross-cultural research in the hospitality literature, little empirical research has been conducted on the effects of culture on consumers’ assessment of service quality. This study was designed to close this gap by investigating culture-based biases in the evaluation of service encounters in a hotel and restaurant setting. Based on prior research in consumer behavior, gender was hypothesized to moderate the impact of culture-based biases. The results of this field study suggest that customer evaluations of service encounters might indeed be culture bound. Asian travelers gave significantly lower ratings to the service provider in both settings (hotel checkout and fine dining). Contrary to our predictions, customer gender failed to have an impact on service encounter evaluations. Power distance and communication context are used as a theoretical framework to discuss the results obtained in this study.

An empirical investigation of the impact of non‐verbal communication on service evaluation

Considers the role of non‐verbal communication in consumers’ evaluation of service encounters. Non‐verbal communication has been extensively studied in the psychology and psychotherapy disciplines and has been shown to have a central effect on participants’ perceptions of an event. As services are essentially interpersonal interactions it follows that non‐verbal communication will play a major part in service evaluation. Uses an experimental methodology based on video scenarios to demonstrate the effect of this type of communication on consumers. The results indicate significant differences in respondents’ reactions to the scenario according to the non‐verbal behaviour of the service provider.

Service behaviors that lead to satisfied customers

Examines service provider behaviors that influence customer evaluation of service encounters. Develops a list of service provider behaviors relevant to customer evaluation of a service encounter. Examines performance of these behaviors in specific restaurant and medical transactions. Then examines the relationship between performance of each behavior and encounter satisfaction. Behaviors are grouped, using factor analysis from consumer surveys, into three dimensions: concern, civility, and congeniality. Each is defined using multiple behavioral measures. Measures include concepts not widely addressed in current services literature, including conversation, respect, genuineness, attitude, and demeanor. These dimensions and constituent behaviors provide a framework for future research and service training and management.

The role of culture and purchase motivation in service encounter evaluations

This study was developed to shed some light on the role of culture and purchase motivation in influencing consumers’ evaluations of services. More specifically, the goal was to contrast Asian and Western travelers’ perceptions of brief, routine‐type service encounters in a hotel context. The results of this empirical study suggest that culture‐based biases in the evaluation process might depend on the consumers’ purchase‐related goals. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the use of expressed emotions as an indicator of how the customer feels about the service might be restricted to Western customers. Managerial implications of this study relate to the training of customer‐contact employees.

Gender Differences in the Impact of Core and Relational Aspects of Services on the Evaluation of Service Encounters

Gender Differences in the Impact of Core and Relational Aspects of Services on the Evaluation of Service Encounters

Gender differences in the impact of core and relational aspects of services on the evaluation of service encounters

Research in services marketing suggests that services consist of two components: (a) the core service (e.g., the dinner served at a nice restaurant) and (b) the relationship between the service provider and the client (e.g., the friendliness of the waiter). These dimensions are logical analogues to those in the social psychological literature describing leaders effective at task‐oriented behaviors (i.e., those focused on getting the job done) and social‐oriented behaviors (i.e., those leaders focused on maintaining group cohesion). A third literature, on gender differences, consistently describes men as agentic (i.e., goal oriented) and women as communal (socially oriented).A synthesis of the ideas from these literatures suggests hypotheses regarding which factors should be most influential to male and female consumers in determining customer satisfaction with service encounters. The results from three experiments provide support for the hypothesis that women may be generally more sensitive to relational aspects of a service encounter and men to core aspects, though there appear to be several factors moderating these findings which are not easily explained in a simple, unified theory.