Service Encounter

The Service Encounter Triad

Service
Organization

Control Efficiency
versus versus
autonomy satisfaction

Contact
Customer
Personnel Perceived
control
Participants in the Service Encounter
Customers
• Expectations and Attitudes
• Economizing customer
• Ethical customer
• Personalizing customer
• Convenience customer
• Customer as Co-Producer
• Customers bring their knowledge, skills, abilities to co-production process
• Role of scripts in co-production
• Service-specific scripts vs. societal-level scripts
• Scripts
• provide behavioral predictability
• promote customer satisfaction and efficiency
Participants in the Service Encounter
Contact Personnel
• Selection
• Abstract questioning
• Situational vignette
• Role playing
• Training
• Technical skills
• Decision-making skills
• Employee empowerment for making decisions within
the firm’s cultural/value framework
Difficulties with Interactions between
Customer and Contact Personnel

Unrealistic Customer Unexpected Service

Expectations
• Unreasonable demands
• Demands against policies
• Unacceptable treatment of
employees
• Breaking of societal norms
Failure
• Unavailable service
• Slow performance
• Unacceptable service
Creating an Ethical Climate
Examples of Unethical Behavior
Misrepresenting the Customer General Honesty and
Nature of the Service Manipulation Integrity
using bait tactics  giving away a treating customers
creating a false need for guaranteed reservation unfairly or rudely
service performing unnecessary being unresponsive to
misrepresenting the services customer requests
credentials of the service padding a bill with failing to follow stated
provider hidden charges company policies
exaggerating the hiding damage to stealing customer credit
benefits of a specific customer possessions card information
service offering making it difficult to sharing customer
invoke a service information with third
guarantee parties
 Service
Internal
Profit Chain External
Operating strategy and   Service
Target market
service delivery system concept

Loyalty
Customers Revenue
Satisfaction growth
Productivity
& Service
Employees Satisfaction Loyalty
Output value
quality
Capability
Profitability

Service
quality

Customer orientation/quality emphasis Quality & productivity Attractive value  Lifetime value
Allow decision-making latitude improvements yield Service designed Retention
Selection and development higher service quality & delivered to Repeat business
Rewards and recognition and lower cost meet targeted Referrals
Information and communication customers’ needs
Provide support systems Solicit customer
Foster teamwork feedback
Steps in the Service Profit Chain

• Internal quality drives employee satisfaction

• Employee satisfaction drives retention and productivity
• Employee retention and productivity drives service value
• Service value drives customer satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction drives customer loyalty
• Customer loyalty drives profitability and growth
Optimizing Customer and Contact Personnel
Interactions and Outcomes
Satisfaction Mirror
More More Familiarity with
Repeat Customer Needs and
Purchases Ways of Meeting
Them
Stronger Tendency Greater Opportunity
to Complain about for Recovery
Service Errors from Errors
Higher Customer Higher Employee
Satisfaction Satisfaction

Lower Costs Higher Productivity

Better Results Improved Quality

of Service
Service Encounter Challenge

• A particular customer has the habit of always showing up about two

minutes before closing and staying late. Often this occurs on the
night when weekly store meeting are held after closing time. This
delays starting the meeting and furthermore employees are on the
clock waiting for the customer to leave. As the store manager, what
would you do?