Service Encounters Research Articles

Research note: conceptualizing agentic luxury in luxury services

PurposeWhat role do consumers play in constructing their own luxury experiences? Challenging the dominant product-focus in luxury conceptualizations, this research note conceptualizes agentic luxury in the context of luxury services. Drawing on extant luxury research, the purpose of this article is to develop how consumers may take on more active roles in enacting their own luxury services experiences.Design/methodology/approachThis research note is conceptual but builds on managerial insights from the luxury service sector to conceptualize the concept of agentic luxury.FindingsOur research note develops a conceptual definition of agentic luxury and provides seven research propositions for its impact on luxury service encounters. These propositions detail how consumers engage in constructing their luxury experience; the roles of consumers and luxury service providers in the experience; and boundary conditions of agentic luxury. The authors further develop the role of customer-as-designer and highlight similarities and differences for agentic luxury between luxury goods and services.Practical implicationsThe authors combine the recognized specificities of the largely goods-dominated luxury sector with service research to show how luxury service providers can engage customers for more complete and engaging luxury service experiences.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research note is the first to conceptualize agentic luxury. The authors show how agentic luxury fills a gap in the current literature, and our propositions advance the relevance of agentic luxury for luxury service research.

Being friendly and competent: Service robots' proactive behavior facilitates customer value co-creation

The rapid expansion and integration of robots in the service industry have transformed the way services are delivered. With service robots increasingly replacing frontline human staff, the dynamics of service encounters have shifted from human-to-human to human-to-robot interactions, thereby significantly impacting the process of value co-creation. The active involvement of customers in co-creating value with these robots becomes crucial for the successful implementation of robotic services. Drawing upon social perception theory, we investigate the influence of service robots' proactivity on customers' willingness to engage in value co-creation and delve into the underlying mechanisms. Three studies were conducted across diverse service settings, each involving different service robots. Consistently, the findings demonstrate that customers display a greater inclination to co-create value with proactive service robots. The proactive behavior exhibited by these robots substantially enhances customers' perceptions of warmth and competence. Importantly, these effects are observed across various service scenarios and customer segments, including both premium and regular customers, thus affirming the robustness and generalizability of our findings. Our research provides practical guidance for practitioners involved in the implementation of service robots. Additionally, theoretical advancements and suggest potential directions for future research are discussed.

The impact of service robots on customer satisfaction online ratings: The moderating effects of rapport and contextual review factors

AbstractRecent research has established a positive relationship between the use of service robots powered by artificial intelligence in hospitality firms and customer satisfaction online ratings, a particularly important form of electronic word of mouth. However, it is not clear if and how this relationship is augmented or diminished by moderating factors. In this study, we examined four potential moderators by using machine learning and natural language processing techniques to analyze 20,166 online reviews of hotels that had implemented service robots. We had four key findings. First, a positive service robot‐satisfaction rating relationship was further enhanced by improved customer‐service robot rapport during the service encounter. Second, higher customer effort focused on service robots in a review reduced the service robot‐satisfaction rating relationship. Third, posting reviews using a mobile device (vs. other devices) showed higher satisfaction ratings. Finally, customers' prior experience in writing online reviews was unrelated to the service robot‐satisfaction rating relationship. Taken together, these results suggest that service robots should be designed to be interactive and encourage customers to build rapport, for example, by service robots engaging in conversational flows. Moreover, customers should be nudged to use their mobile devices to post timely reviews on their positive human–robot interactions.

Expressing and Responding to Customer (Dis)satisfaction Online: New Insights From Discourse and Linguistic Approaches

In the current era of digitalization, customers are routinely invited to express their (dis)satisfaction with a product or a service and to provide recommendations for other prospective customers by writing reviews on a variety of online social media platforms. Such forms of electronic word-of-mouth have been found to strongly influence other consumers’ purchase decisions. In the case of negative reviews, the negativity expressed in a particular comment can spread to the whole community, which can damage a company’s reputation and profits. In an attempt to take consumer feedback into account, companies engage in “webcare.” This type of online service encounter has been defined by van Noort and Willemsen as “the act of engaging in online interactions with (complaining) consumers, by actively searching the web to address consumer feedback (e.g., questions, concerns, and complaints).” Following-up on these developments, scholars have started to research the communicative strategies used by companies to address consumer feedback and those used by (dis)satisfied customers to voice their (dis)satisfaction from the perspective of discourse analysis and linguistic pragmatics, paying attention to their linguistic realizations and their interactional dynamics. The aim of this Special Issue is to further expand our knowledge on the discourse-pragmatic strategies used in the interaction of (dis)satisfied customers and companies online, and on how these different strategies influence other prospective customers’ perceptions, ultimately impacting their purchase decisions. In doing so, it positions itself at the crossroads of linguistics, communication, and business studies.

The Impact of Customer Perceived Justice on Target-Based Customer Citizenship Behaviors: The Mediating Effects of Customer Trust and Affective Commitment

Abstract Customer citizenship behaviors (CCBs) allow firms to boost their performance and competitiveness, but little is known about the impact of customer perceived justice (CPJ) in frontline service encounters on different key dimensions of target-based CCBs. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response framework and theories of equity and social exchange, the present investigation developed an integrative framework to explore how CPJ influences target-based CCBs in the after-sales service field. Using survey data collected from 368 smartphone customers in China, structural equation modeling via AMOS v. 24 was employed to empirically examine the hypotheses. The findings revealed that CPJ positively impacted the behavior to help other customers and provide feedback to the company. Customer trust and affective commitment mediated the links between CPJ and target-based CCBs, respectively. The findings hold theoretical and practical implications for strategically managing CPJ and target-based CCBs in frontline service encounters.

The Role of Personal Commitment in Association Between Aerospace Education and Service Experience Through Quality Design: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract This study investigates whether personal commitment moderates the effect of aerospace education on service experience through quality design. A cross-sectional study using a close-ended questionnaire was administered to a sample of 174 aviation students of Moi University, Kenya. Moderated mediation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro in order to investigate the relationship among variables. The results showed that the association between aerospace education and service experience was significant, and this association was mediated by quality design. The mediated effect of quality design was moderated by personal commitment. Based on the findings, companies involved in aviation should focus on improving the good environment of the service encounter (i.e., education, quality design and commitment) to enhance service experience. The findings made a contribution in terms of allowing us to understand the factors that can enhance service experience in the aviation industry.

Empatia – video reflection method for reflecting on empathic interactions between care worker and client

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce the Empatia video reflection method, designed to enhance care workers’ awareness of empathic care. The method makes the quality of care visible, which is needed when digitalization efforts in elder care focus on the efficiency and adequacy of care work.Design/methodology/approachThe Empatia method leans on previous studies of the interaction between care professionals and clients and elaborates further previous video reflection methods. In empathic care work, the care worker sees the client on their life continuum, rather than focusing on only medical treatments.FindingsThe empirical example demonstrates how a care worker gained awareness of their empathic interaction habits. Within the work community, the reflection process sparked discussions on values: the purpose of care work and how to conduct empathic care. Focusing on empathic relationships in care fosters both the client’s and the care worker’s well-being.Practical implicationsThe strength of the Empatia method is that it makes empathy visible in interaction and something that is individually and collectively learnable. The Empatia includes an analytical tool for researchers to reveal empathy in client interaction. It can be developed further into a reflection tool for service work to learn how to be empathic in service encounters.Originality/valueCompared to other video-stimulated recall methods, the Empatia involves contextual understanding of care work. Empowering positive interactions instead of detecting errors and solving problems is a novel concept and is scantily used in studies of organizational learning. The Empatia provides a detailed method description that allows for the replication of the method by anyone.

Is strong more vulnerable? An empirical investigation of psychological contract formation, violation, and customer reactions

The authors combine the psychological contract theory with the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions to systematically examine how psychological contract breach affects customer reactions to service failures. In service encounters, customers may perceive a discrepancy between what the brand has promised and what they have received, leading to breach that could potentially evoke feelings of violation and result in retaliatory behaviors. Two online scenario-based experiments reveal that 1) breach and subsequent feelings of betrayal mediate the impact of the strength of psychological contracts on anger in response to service failures, and that 2) breach, betrayal, and anger mediate the impacts of the strength of psychological contracts on partner quality inferences and negative word-of-mouth communication intentions, with the effects being moderated by the reason for the failure (customer fault versus brand fault). These results indicate that managing psychological contracts can help mitigate negative reactions to service failures.

Configuring public service interpreting in Finland as a sentient professional practice and affirmative social service work: emotion in the work of public service interpreters

ABSTRACT In this article, we build on an understanding of multilingual social service work as an existing and permanent, yet under-researched, professional landscape and an everyday reality in the contemporary Finnish context. We explore this landscape by focusing on the critical case of public service interpreting and adopt a critical stance towards the idea of public service interpreters as neutral and invisible by examining the role of emotions in public service interpreting in social services. Drawing from reflective diaries produced by 16 public service interpreters during spring 2022, we analyse the presence and significance of emotions in interpreter-mediated service encounters. The results challenge the idea of the role of public service interpreters as mechanical and invisible and instead present public service interpreting as a sentient professional practice and affirmative social service work.

More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents

To leverage the complementary strengths of humans and artificial intelligence (AI) in online service encounters, firms have begun to use hybrid service agents: combinations of AI agents (e.g., chatbots) and human agents (e.g., service employees) behind a single interface. However, it is unclear whether firms should be transparent about behind-the-scenes employees working in tandem with an AI-based chatbot to serve customers. Against this backdrop, we investigated the impact of human involvement disclosure on customer interactions with hybrid service agents. Our findings suggest that disclosing human involvement before or during an interaction with the hybrid service agent leads customers to adopt a more human-oriented communication style. This effect is driven by impression management concerns that are activated when customers become aware of humans working in tandem with the chatbot. The more human-oriented communication style ultimately increases employee workload because fewer customer requests can be handled automatically by the chatbot and must be delegated to a human. These findings provide novel insights into how and why disclosing human involvement affects customer communication behavior, reveal its negative consequences for employees working in tandem with a chatbot, and highlight the potential costs and benefits of providing transparency in customer–hybrid service agent interactions.

Emotion regulation research in hospitality and tourism

Purpose This paper aims to develop a comprehensive model on intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation (ER) in hospitality and tourism (H&T) service encounters. Design/methodology/approach A critical review and reflection of ER research from multiple disciplines was conducted. Methodologies appropriate for investigating ER were also reviewed. Findings A comprehensive framework was proposed to outline key influential factors, processes and consequences of intra- and interpersonal ER in service encounters in the H&T industry. Methodologies integrating advanced tools were suggested to measure complex and dynamic emotion generation and regulation processes in social interactions from a multimodal perspective. Research limitations/implications The researchers developed a comprehensive conceptual model on both intra- and interpersonal ER based on a critical review of the most recent psychological research on ER. Various theoretical and methodological considerations are discussed, offering H&T scholars a solid starting point to explore dynamic emotion generation and regulation processes in complex social settings. Moreover, the model provides future directions for the expansion of ER theories, which have been mostly developed and tested based on laboratory research. Originality/value The proposed model addresses two critical issues identified in emotion research in the H&T field: the lack of a dynamic perspective and the neglect of the social nature of emotions. Moreover, the model provides a roadmap for future research.

Diversity, equity and inclusion in employee-queer customer interactions in the hospitality service setting: including multiple stakeholders’ perspectives

PurposeDrawing from cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) and attribution ambiguity theory (AAT), this paper aims to examine how employees interact with queer customers within the hospitality service and the ways that queer representations regulate emotions when discriminated against by normative gender roles.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a mixed method. Study 1 used firm-level secondary data to analyze hospitality firms’ efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and the effects on firms’ profit margins and customer satisfaction. In Study 2, an experimental design was used to understand how employees’ assailing behavior toward queer customers interacts with employee feelings of guilt and impacts their sabotage and organizational citizenship behavior via self-serving bias. Study 3 further explored how queer customer victimization interacts with stress to influence their perceptions of organization DEI authenticity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) through resilience.FindingsHospitality firms’ DEI efforts were associated with varying outcomes, including higher profit margins but lower customer satisfaction, while guilt weakened the impact of employees’ assailing behavior on their outcomes and customer stress amplified the effect of assailing behavior on queer customers’ perceptions of DEI authenticity and CSR through resilience.Research limitations/implicationsHospitality organizations should take proactive measures to address self-serving bias among employees. Moreover, fostering an inclusive culture is crucial, with managers playing a pivotal role in facilitating discussions and creating an environment that values diversity, inclusivity and respect for all employees.Originality/valueThe study makes a remarkable contribution to hospitality literature by focusing on CDT and AAT in providing valuable implications for DEI advocators to be aware of the tensions between heteronormativity and queer representations in service encounters.

Health care and harm reduction provider perspectives on treating older adults who use non-medical opioids: a qualitative study set in Chicago

BackgroundOpioid overdose death rates are increasing for adults aged 55 and older, with especially high rates in large urban areas. In parallel, admissions to treatment programs for older adults using illicit substances are increasing as well. Despite these trends, there is a lack of information about older adults who use non-medical opioids (NMO) and even less knowledge about their health and service encounters. Conducted in Chicago, Illinois, this qualitative study explores the perspectives of health care and harm reduction service providers who work with older adults using non-medical opioids.MethodsThe study used snowball sampling to locate participants with expertise in working with older adults who use non-medical opioids. In total, we conducted 26 semi-structured interviews from September 2021-August 2022. We explored questions regarding participants’ perceptions of older adult opioid use patterns, comorbidities, and involvement in harm reduction outreach and opioid use disorder treatment.ResultsMany of the providers we interviewed consider older adults who use NMO as a distinct population that employ unique use behaviors with the intent to protect them from opioid overdose. However, these same unique behaviors may potentiate their risk for overdose in today’s climate. Providers report initial encounters that are not care seeking for opioid use and primarily oriented around health conditions. Older adults who use non-medical opioids are seen as complex patients due to the need to diagnostically untangle symptoms of substance use from co-morbidities and conditions associated with aging.Treatment for this population is also viewed as complicated due to the interactions between aging, comorbidities, and substance use. Providers also noted that older adults who use NMO have use behaviors that make them less visible to outreach and treatment service providers, potentially putting them at increased risk for overdose and health conditions associated with opioid use.ConclusionsFindings from this study are intended to inform future research on care provision for older adults who use non-medical opioids and may be especially applicable to large urban reas with histories of opioid use dating back to earlier drug epidemics of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Green food packages’ effects on consumers’ pre- to post-consumption evaluations of restaurant curbside pickup service

PurposeThis study aims to assess green food packages’ role in sustaining a restaurant’s curbside pickup service on three stages of consumer experiences: choosing a restaurant, evaluating their experiences of a recent purchase and weighing their post-consumption behavioral intentions after the recent purchase.Design/methodology/approachThe service encounters framework and relevant literature guided the development of the questionnaire. A Qualtrics panel data of 314 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed with choice experience, ordinary least squares regression and PROCESS modeling.FindingsFirst, word-of-mouth (WOM) and function encounters significantly influence consumers’ first-time curbside pickup purchasing decisions. Then, service results encounter (besides distributor encounter) most significantly affects consumers’ overall curbside pickup experience. Finally, green food packages increase consumers’ shares of future purchases through their positive WOM intentions and extra efforts of revisiting the restaurant. Consumers’ perceived importance of green restaurant practices strengthens green food packages’ positive impact on extra efforts.Practical implicationsThis study provides operational and marketing insights for restaurants to use food packages and sustain their curbside pickup service.Originality/valueBesides assessing consumers’ evaluations and behavioral intentions for an off-premises restaurant service expected to stay beyond the pandemic, this research uniquely focuses on green food packages, a sustainability issue lacking research attention. The findings add new empirical insights to studies about sustainability and restaurant/food–retail operations.

Affect-as-Information: Customer and Employee Affective Displays as Expeditious Predictors of Customer Satisfaction

This study introduces affect-as-information theory to the service encounter, integrates it with the peak and end model of affect, and thereby shows that these dynamic customer and employee affective displays can be used to estimate post-encounter customer satisfaction. A large-scale dataset of 23,645 real-life text-based (i.e., chat) service encounters with a total of 301,280 genuine messages written by customers and employees were used to test our hypotheses. Automatic sentiment analysis was deployed to assess the affective displays of customers and employees in every individual text message as a service encounter unfolded. Our findings confirm that in addition to customers’ overall (mean) affective display, peak (i.e., highest positive or least negative), and end (final) affective displays explain customer satisfaction. Further, as customer displays may not fully capture their satisfaction process and employees understand the service quality they deliver, we propose and confirm that employee displayed affect explains further variance in customer satisfaction. We also find that the predictive power of affective displays is more pronounced in service failure than non-failure encounters. Together, these findings show that automatic monitoring beyond customer overall affect (i.e., adding customer peak and end, and employee affective displays) can expedite the evaluation of customer satisfaction.

A Multisector Analysis of Tourist Delight and Positive Visitor Outcomes

ABSTRACT This research provides new insights into how customer delight functions across the tourism experience. Drawing from literatures on delightful experiential encounters, service encounters, cognitive appraisal theory and multisectoral satisfaction index studies, we develop and test a comprehensive model of tourist delight that integrates multisectoral delight, destination delight, and destination loyalty. Results from a novel application of multivariate probit analysis to data from an exit survey administered to 1,240 visitors to Barbados suggest that destination delight is strongly associated with delight across tourism sectors, and that traveler, trip and planning characteristics explain variation in delight. Tourists’ behavioral intentions are associated with delight in all tourism sectors. Delight with accommodation, food and beverage, and the overall destination provide the strongest avenues for economic returns through visitor loyalty. Understanding the key sectors and elements of tourist delight gives tourism stakeholders a practical way to design targeted marketing strategies that yield destination loyalty.

The impact of service robots on consumer response: Examining the roles of consumers' service expertise and technology expertise

AbstractService robots as an example of service innovation has been of great interest to researchers as it could produce greater value‐in‐use for consumers during service encounters. However, the question of how and why service robots may affect consumers remains inadequately understood. Leveraging service‐dominant logic and the heuristic‐systematic model, Study 1 examines the impacts of service innovation types on brand equity and the moderating role of consumer expertise. Study 2 explores whether cognitive and emotional trust can bridge the underlying mechanism. We find that consumers with higher levels of service expertise rate firms with supportive innovation (vs. interactive innovation) higher in brand equity. On the other hand, service novices rate firms with both types of service innovation similarly. Emotional trust significantly mediates the effect mentioned above. In addition, consumers with high technology expertise will better recognize firms' service innovation efforts regardless of innovation type. Our findings extend the service innovation literature by demonstrating how individual‐level factors such as consumer expertise help explain the relationships between various types of service robots and consumer response. Moreover, we reveal the importance for service brands to invest in different service robots based on target groups and build emotional trust with consumers.

Measuring service quality based on customer emotion: An explainable AI approach

This paper develops an explainable artificial intelligence (AI) approach to measuring service quality in voice-based service encounters. Drawing from the psychology and computer science literature, we construct features of a customer's emotion dynamics during a service encounter. Using real-world call center data from a large insurance company, we train an ensemble model with these emotion dynamics features to predict service quality. The model has higher prediction performance than the two benchmark approaches using quality-assurance evaluation and operational indices. Our method for emotion dynamics classification outperforms a host of state-of-the-art time series classification algorithms. We further apply explainable AI methods to identify the most important features of emotion dynamics and show how they are related to service quality. For example, the location where the last emotion episode appears in a service call has a U-shaped relationship to low quality. Finally, to demonstrate utility, we design an IT artifact to automatically measure service quality after service encounters in the call center and use the measure to predict a customer's referral intention.

Conservation of Resources Theory Interpretation of Co-Destructed After-sales Service Encounters

The current study investigates the consumers’ co-destructed experiences with after-sales services (AS) through the lens of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and Service Dominant Logic. The research is carried out in two phases. First, a qualitative study is conducted by analyzing consumer stories about co-destructed AS experiences with data collected from a public complaint website and three focus group interviews. Second, the proposed model is empirically tested on 207 consumer responses collected through a survey. The results reveal different paths on which consumers’ secondary losses either lead to low AS satisfaction or punitive behaviors after experiencing a co-destructed AS interaction.

IndiGo Airlines in India: managing “moments of truth”

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:▪ to analyze service attributes that influence customers’ decisions to purchase services;▪ to identify the factors that influence customers’ perceptions of service quality;▪ to identify the “moments of truth” that the service provider (IndiGo) would need to monitor and manage through the service encounter; and▪ to use the Servuction model to analyze the various elements of the service process. Case overview/synopsis In May 2022, the chief executive officer of IndiGo Airlines - India’s largest passenger airline by market share, Ronojoy Dutta, faced flak over the airline staff's handling of a specially abled child travelling with his parents on IndiGo Airlines. The staff member, reacting to the tantrums of the disturbed child, had refused to allow the boy and his parents to board the flight. He had cited the “risk to other passengers” from the boy as the reason for such a refusal (Biswas, 2022). In spite of the boy’s parents being supported by their fellow passengers, the IndiGo staff member refused to relent, and the flight took off without the trio (Firstpost, 2022). The incident goes viral when a fellow flyer shares a Facebook post describing it first-hand and provokes widespread condemnation of the nation's “preferred airline” (IndiGo, 2023) by citizens and politicians on various social media platforms besides Facebook (Gupta, 2022). Dutta initially supports his employee even as he issues a statement expressing his regret at the “unfortunate incident” (Business Standard, 2022a). The regulatory body for aviation in India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, imposes a fine of INR 5 lakh on IndiGo for denying boarding to a specially abled child (Indian Express, 2022). How could an incident like this impact the perception of IndiGo’s service quality? How could Dutta better ensure that IndiGo managed the various touch points with the customer over the entire service encounter – the “moments of truth”? How could he prevent such a fiasco in the future, ensuring that IndiGo remains India’s “preferred airline”? Complexity academic level This case is intended to be taught in an undergraduate or MBA marketing course in a module on service marketing. The case can also form a 90-min module in a service marketing course within an advanced management or executive education program. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CCS 8: Marketing.