Service Scripts Research Articles

Service employee evaluations of customer tips: an expectations-disconfirmation tip gap approach

Purpose– Many service employees rely on non-contractual voluntary customer tips as a major source of their income. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the relationship between the service employee’s cognitive evaluation of the tip (expectations-disconfirmation tip gap), affective state (AS) and displayed emotions (DE) toward customers in the workplace.Design/methodology/approach– An experimental, between-subjects, scenario-based research design was conducted on 107 waiters in the US restaurant industry. A simple mediation model was first tested, before testing a more complex moderated mediation model that was developed to investigate if employees self-control (SC) moderates the relationship between the employees tip gap, AS, and DE.Findings– An employee’s negative disconfirmation tip gap negatively influences the employee’s AS, which in turn results in negative DE toward customers in the workplace. However, an employee’s positive tip gap does not positively influence the employee’s AS, relative to the control. In addition, employees’ SC does not moderate the relationship, which suggests that when employees experience negative tip disconfirmation they may openly violate the service provider’s display rules and service scripts, and display negative emotions toward customers in the workplace.Research limitations/implications– The scenario-based research design was limited to self-reported perceived levels of SC and DE. The scenario was also limited to one country and one tipping context (i.e. restaurants). Future studies could compliment these findings by conducting both qualitative studies, and survey research that relies on actual tipping data or re-enactments of actual service encounters.Practical implications– Service managers not only need to manage display rules and service scripts to influence employee DE, but also need to manage employee tip expectations, especially when employees expect to receive tips that are greater than actual tips (i.e. negative disconfirmation). Communicating and educating employees on customer tipping and what tips to expect should be central to managing employees who rely on customer tips.Originality/value– Tipping has received very little attention in the services management literature. This study broadens the focus of tipping research in the literature by presenting a more complex expectations-disconfirmation tip gap model.

The Impact of Service Scripts on Customer Citizenship Behavior and the Moderating Role of Employee Customer Orientation

ABSTRACTService scripts are behavioral and verbal prescriptions used in many organizations as a way of standardizing employees’ behaviors during their interactions with customers. Yet, they have rarely been studied empirically. There are mixed suggestions in the literature about the beneficial vs. detrimental effects of service scripts. Based on social exchange and citizenship behavior theories, this study investigates whether the relationship between service scripts and an important customer outcome, customer citizenship behavior (CCB), depends on employees’ level of customer orientation. Based on 285 matched dyads of employees and customers from a variety of service organizations, the study found that when service scripts are performed by employees with low customer orientation, service scripts have more detrimental effects on CCB in terms of reducing the propensity among customers to provide unsolicited feedback and their intentions to return to the service firm. There was also support for the mediating role of perceived service quality in accounting for these contingent relationships. These findings contribute to the literature on managing employee behavior and CCB.

A Dyadic Model of Customer Orientation: Mediation and Moderation Effects

This research distinguishes between employees’ customer orientation (ECO) and customer orientation as perceived by customers (COPC) to investigate the contingencies of the relationship between these two constructs. Drawing on emotional contagion theory and using a dyadic field study design, the authors examine whether ECO affects COPC, as well as whether the link between ECO and COPC might be mediated by employees’ authentic emotional displays. They also examine service scripts and the accuracy with which customers detect employees’ authentic emotional displays as moderators of this mediated link. The findings confirm the important role of ECO as an influence on COPC and provide evidence that employees’ authentic emotional displays mediate the effects of ECO. In addition, service scripts and customers’ detection accuracy have moderating effects.

Effective fragment potential method in Q‐CHEM: A guide for users and developers

A detailed description of the implementation of the effective fragment potential (EFP) method in the Q-CHEM electronic structure package is presented. The Q-CHEM implementation interfaces EFP with standard quantum mechanical (QM) methods such as Hartree-Fock, density functional theory, perturbation theory, and coupled-cluster methods, as well as with methods for electronically excited and open-shell species, for example, configuration interaction, time-dependent density functional theory, and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster models. In addition to the QM/EFP functionality, a "fragment-only" feature is also available (when the system is described by effective fragments only). To aid further developments of the EFP methodology, a detailed description of the C++ classes and EFP module's workflow is presented. The EFP input structure and EFP job options are described. To assist setting up and performing EFP calculations, a collection of Perl service scripts is provided. The precomputed EFP parameters for standard fragments such as common solvents are stored in Q-CHEM's auxiliary library; they can be easily invoked, similar to specifying standard basis sets. The instructions for generating user-defined EFP parameters are given. Fragments positions can be specified by their center of mass coordinates and Euler angles. The interface with the IQMOL and WEBMO software is also described.

Investigating consumer embarrassment in service interactions

This study examines consumer embarrassment in a restaurant context. Embarrassment is a negative emotion that may have detrimental effects on customer behaviors. Consequently, it is necessary for service providers to understand the antecedents of consumer embarrassment and how to avoid such incidents. Adopting a role theory perspective, we identify three potential drivers of embarrassment: vague service scripts, customer mishaps, and the presence of fellow customers. We also examine the influence of three social factors on embarrassment: internal vs. external flagging of a mishap, group size of fellow customers, and familiarity among fellow customers. When flagging is internal, group size and familiarity of fellow customers jointly influence embarrassment. However, when flagging is external, group size and familiarity fail to influence embarrassment. Further, embarrassed consumers are less likely to engage in negative word-of-mouth activities if they realize their mishap by external flagging. We discuss managerial implications, along with study limitations and directions for future research.

Scripting Employees

Because customers can recognize when hospitality firms are employing service scripts, an examination is in order to determine how customers perceive scripted service. This article assesses customer perceptions of scripted service encounters with both content analysis and quantitative analysis of more than 2,000 open-ended customer responses to a survey addressing service scripts. The study found both task- and treatment-related implications for customer reactions to scripted service. Customers’ overall sentiment toward scripting is more positive when they are focusing on task-related outcomes, but their comments turned more negative when they considered treatment-related implications, particularly when they detected employee insincerity in regard to the script. Management should consider these findings carefully because customers in this survey gave more notice to treatment-related issues than they did to task-related outcomes for the scripted service. A key implication is that managers may wish to reserve tight scripting for simple services for which efficiency is valued, such as hotel check-in or seating guests in a restaurant. For more complex services, scripts should be flexible, and managers should seek employee buy-in so that they are internalizing the script elements, rather than merely “surface acting.”

Can Customers Detect Script Usage in Service Encounters?

Service scripts are predetermined guides for employees to follow when delivering service to customers. Some services require employees to strictly follow a script, whereas others use scripts more flexibly, if at all. Extant research regarding service scripts in the domain of service operations has mainly addressed the topic from more of a process view as a control mechanism for the encounter but minimal research has examined customer perceptions of scripted service. The authors examine a pivotal first question, which is if customers can detect different approaches to script use. To answer the question, the authors conducted a video experiment of face-to-face service encounters in the hospitality industry. The results indicate that customers can detect degrees of script use across both standardized and customized encounter types. This work serves as initial empirical evidence that customers are indeed capable of detecting subtleties in scripting approaches in different service situations and supports that script level is an important service design construct for research. Furthermore, the authors highlight the use of a video experiment as an innovative methodology for assessing customer perceptions of intangible aspects to services in a realistic setting. One implication of this study is that managers need to assess the impact that different script levels have on customer perceptions of various service performance measures. Managers should also consider the effect script detection has on customer perceptions of the service experience and service brand to assure their script approach aligns with the organization’s service strategy.

Service Scripts: A Tool for Teaching Pharmacy Students How to Handle Common Practice Situations

This paper describes the use of service scripts to teach pharmacy students how to manage specific practice situations by learning and following scripted behaviors. Based upon role theory, service scripts require specific behaviors for a broad range of practice problems and communicate consistent messages about the responsibilities of all people involved. Service scripts are developed by (1) identifying scenarios for the script, (2) eliciting the script's structure and content, and (3) documenting the reasoning behind the steps in the script. Students in a nontraditional doctor of pharmacy program developed scripts for their practice settings. They concluded that scripts were useful for quickly learning new, routine tasks, but expressed concern that scripts could be misused by pharmacists and managers. The process of script development itself was useful in gaining feedback about common practice problems. By mastering managerial, clinical, and communication scripts, students can develop capabilities to provide professional services.