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Questions and Answers
Which type of service encounter involves interaction without any direct human contact?
What is a primary opportunity of service encounters?
In the context of critical service encounters, what does recovery refer to?
Which common theme in critical service encounters involves unprompted employee actions?
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In a hotel service encounter, what typically follows a restaurant meal?
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Which of the following is NOT a benefit of service encounters?
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What is an example of a phone encounter?
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Which of the common themes in critical service encounters involves flexibility versus rigidity?
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Which statement best describes a face-to-face encounter?
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During a hotel visit service encounter, which step typically comes first?
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Study Notes
Customer Perceptions of Service Marketing
- Customer perceptions of services, assessment of service quality, and customer satisfaction are the focus of this chapter.
Satisfaction vs. Service Quality
- Satisfaction is considered a broader concept, while service quality assessment focuses on specific dimensions of service.
- Perceived service quality is a component of customer satisfaction.
Customer Perceptions of Quality and Satisfaction
- The quality of a product depends on reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles.
- Customer satisfaction is influenced by perceptions of service quality, product quality, price, situational factors, and personal factors.
What is Customer Satisfaction?
- Customer satisfaction is the customer's evaluation of a product or service in terms of meeting their needs and expectations.
- Satisfaction can be related to feelings of fulfillment, pleasure, delight, relief, and ambivalence.
What Determines Customer Satisfaction?
- Determinants of customer satisfaction include product and service features, consumer emotions, attributions for service success or failure, perceptions of equity and fairness, and other consumers, family members, and co-workers.
Outcomes of Customer Satisfaction
- Increased customer retention, positive word-of-mouth communications, and increased revenues are outcomes of customer satisfaction.
Service Quality
- Service quality is a critical element of customer perceptions, especially in pure services and cases where customer service is offered in combination with a physical product.
- The customer's judgment of overall excellence of the service provided in relation to the quality that was expected is crucial.
- Process and outcome quality are both important.
The Five Dimensions of Service Quality (RATER)
- Reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
- Assurance: employees' knowledge and courtesy, and their ability to inspire trust and confidence.
- Tangibles: appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and written materials.
- Empathy: caring, individualized attention given to customers.
- Responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.
Service Encounters or "Moments of Truth"
- Service encounters or moments of truth are the most vivid impressions of service, occurring when the customer interacts with the service firm.
- Every encounter is important in building relationships, and certain encounters are key to customer satisfaction.
Types of Service Encounters
- Remote encounters: occur without direct human contact, e.g. ATM, online shopping, billing statements.
- Phone encounters: occur through phone interactions.
- Face-to-face encounters: occur through in-person interactions.
Opportunities of Service Encounters
- Build trust, reinforce quality, build brand identity, and increase loyalty.
A Service Encounter for a Hotel Visit
- Check-in, bellboy service, restaurant meal, request for wake-up call, and checkout are all service encounters that can impact customer satisfaction.
Common Themes in Critical Service Encounters Research
- Recovery: employee response to service delivery system failure.
- Adaptability: employee response to customer needs and requests.
- Coping: employee response to problem customers.
- Spontaneity: unprompted and unsolicited employee actions and attitudes.
- Contact: employees, people, and other customers.
- Operational flow of activities and process.
- Flexibility vs. standardization of services.
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Description
This chapter focuses on how customers perceive services, assessing quality service and satisfaction. We'll explore the perceived service box in the gaps model and how expectations shift over time.
