Customer Service PDF

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319554928 Customer Service Chapter · January 2015 DOI: 10.1002/9781118785317.weom090073 CITATION...

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319554928 Customer Service Chapter · January 2015 DOI: 10.1002/9781118785317.weom090073 CITATION READS 1 8,727 2 authors: Jeffrey Meyer Dwayne D. Gremler Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University 9 PUBLICATIONS 393 CITATIONS 64 PUBLICATIONS 23,041 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Dwayne D. Gremler on 27 October 2017. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. customer service satisfied customer, which leads to greater loyalty and, ultimately, increased financial Jeffrey Meyer and Dwayne D. Gremler performance for the seller. However, the impor- tance of customer service, and customer service Marketing is about “creating, communicating, employees, in creating and communicating offer- delivering, and exchanging offerings that have ings should not be discounted. In the creation value” (AMA, 2007). Customer service, gener- of offerings, customer service employees are ally referred to as the assistance provided to often in the best position to offer suggestions those who patronize a business, can be a key and improve processes because of their close factor in establishing this value. Before exam- contact with customers (Zeithaml, Bitner, and ining the importance of customer service, it is Gremler, 2013). In the communication of offer- necessary to note the difference between services ings, customer service can also be a crucial cog. (plural) and customer service (singular). Services For example, in a retail setting, customer service are intangible products offered by sellers either employees are often called on to communicate as a core product, such as legal services, or the value of the many offerings from the retailer. as a supplemental service to complement a The customer service interaction between the core product offering, such as the delivery and seller and the buyer generally occurs with the installation of an appliance (Zeithaml, Bitner, seller’s frontline employees, and these front- and Gremler, 2013; Lovelock and Wirtz, 2011; line employees play a critical role in customer Parasuraman, 1998). Customer service, while service. Accordingly, extant research has exam- sharing many of the features of services in ined several aspects of frontline customer addition to intangibility, such as heterogeneity, service employees, much of which is covered in simultaneous production and consumption, and Zeithaml, Bitner, and Gremler (2013, Chapter perishability, differs in two major ways. The first 11). The greater the number of customer- key difference is that customer service is offered oriented behaviors that a firm’s employees in support of the core product (whether tangible exhibit, such as good rapport and listening skills, or intangible) and is not intended to be marketed the more favorable tend to be the perceptions of separately. The second key difference is that service quality by customers. The perceptions customer service is typically offered for free and and behaviors of frontline employees influ- therefore is not directly a revenue-generating ence customer evaluations and future purchase activity. Accordingly, customer service has been intentions, and ultimately, seller performance defined by scholars as a service typically offered (Maxham, Netemeyer, and Lichtentein, 2008). free of charge in which there is an interaction This relationship between frontline employees between two parties in support of a seller’s core and seller performance lends credence to the product (Parasuraman, 1998; Parasuraman and notion that the service–profit chain (Heskett Grewal, 2000). Because customer service is et al., 1994) ultimately begins with hiring the provided in support of a core product that can right people, developing people, providing the be a good, a service, or both, it occurs along the needed support, and retaining the best people entire spectrum of goods-dominant companies in order to deliver high-quality customer service to services-dominant companies. (Zeithaml, Bitner, and Gremler, 2013). Most customer service occurs in the deliv- Traditionally, customer service has been ering and exchanging of offerings from seller provided directly by employees to customers. to buyer, and the importance of quality service However, in recent years, customers have in these two functions is well established. Just demanded greater availability, accessibility, as customers have expectations of quality with and accountability in customer service (Harris, respect to the core or supplementary offerings, 2010), and businesses have called on technology they also have expectations of quality with to help assist and serve consumers. With respect respect to the customer service they receive. to greater availability and accessibility, tech- Eliminating the gap between the customer’s nology has ushered customer service along expectations of customer service and the seller’s from face-to-face interactions to telephone customer service performance leads to a more interactions and now to mobile communications Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, edited by Professor Sir Cary L Cooper. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  2 customer service (Bitner, Zeithaml, and Gremler, 2010). Many companies and, ultimately, affects the bottom companies now have customer service centers line. Therefore, both (i) frontline employees, worldwide, allowing them to seamlessly offer who serve as an interface between consumers customer service 24 hours per day and 7 days and the company, and (ii) technology, which per week. Technology has also allowed customer can improve the availability, accessibility, and service to move from employee-directed to accountability of the assistance provided to (customer) self-directed through self-service customers, are crucial to the firm’s customer technologies in a variety of industries, such service and its success in the marketplace. as retail (e.g., grocery stores self-checkout lanes), travel (e.g., airline self-service check-in kiosks), finance (e.g., automated voice response See also coproduction (services); self-service tech- systems), and entertainment (e.g., movie rental nology; service characteristics; service delivery; kiosks). Mobile technology has allowed not service quality; the service-profit chain; the critical only consumers to receive customer service incident technique from virtually anywhere (e.g., changing flights at the airport on a smartphone after an unex- Bibliography pected cancelation) but also frontline employees to provide customer service from virtually American Marketing Association (2007) Definition anywhere (e.g., sales staff at a furniture store of Marketing, http://www.marketingpower.com/ carrying tablet computers with them to place AboutAMA/Pages/DefinitionofMarketing.aspx orders, check inventory, and view product (accessed December 2011). specifications on the spot). The Internet has Bitner, M.-J., Zeithaml, V.A. and Gremler, D.D. (2010) further increased both the availability (e.g., Technology’s impact on the gaps model of service company-sponsored troubleshooting forums) quality, in Handbook of Service Science (eds P.P. and the accessibility (e.g., employee–customer Maglio et al.), Springer, New York, pp. 197–218. chat and remote connections to fix problems) Harris, E.K. (2010) Customer Service: A Practical of customer service. With respect to account- Approach, 5th edn, Pearson Education/Prentice Hall, ability, technology has forced companies to Upper Saddle River, NJ. become more accountable for their customer Heskett, J.L., Jones, T.O., Loveman, G.W. et al. (1994) service. The Internet, mobile communications, Putting the service-profit chain to work. Harvard and social media have forced companies to pay Business Review, 72 (2), 164–174. attention to their customer service efforts or Lovelock, C. and Wirtz, J. (2011) Services Marketing: else face the consequences. The famous case of People, Technology, Strategy, 7th edn, Prentice Hall, Boston, MA. United Airlines breaking a musician’s guitar and Maxham, J.G., Netemeyer, R.G. and Lichtenstein, D.R. the poor customer service that ensued serves as (2008) The retail value chain: linking employee a prime example, with the musician’s YouTube perceptions to employee performance, customer eval- video quickly going viral with more than 11 uations, and store performance. Marketing Science, million views. The lesson for businesses is clear: 27 (2), 147–167. they must pay attention to customer service or Parasuraman, A. (1998) Customer service in business-to- pay the price for negative word of mouth that business markets: an agenda for research. Journal of has become amazingly easy to spread. Fortu- Business and Industrial Marketing, 13 (4/5), 309–321. nately, technology also allows companies to be Parasuraman, A. and Grewal, D. (2000) Serving more accountable through tracking customer customers and consumers effectively in the twenty- service and customer feedback in real time and first century: a conceptual framework and overview. measuring internal operations more effectively, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28 (1), allowing businesses to dynamically monitor and 9–16. improve customer service (Bitner, Zeithaml, and Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.-J. and Gremler, D.D. (2013) Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across Gremler, 2010). the Firm, 6th edn, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York. Customer service is a key element in the success of all businesses. It permeates nearly all of the interactions consumers have with View publication stats