Language divergence in service encounters: Revisiting its influence on word-of-mouth

Research on language accommodation highlights the significance of accommodating customers' language requirements during service encounters. This replication study reinvestigates whether language divergence influences word-of-mouth intentions in a continuously-provided service of retail banking. Specifically, this study examines the relationships among language divergence, interaction quality, relationship quality, and positive word-of-mouth intentions. Consistent with previous research, study findings show that customers served in their second language perceive interactions with a service provider to be less responsive, adversely affecting positive word-of-mouth intentions. Additionally, language divergence has a negative influence on customer perception of information quality and empathy with a service provider, which affects the quality of the relationship customers have with the service provider. These results extend the understanding of the process by which language divergence affects positive word-of-mouth intentions.     

Investigating antecedents of consumers' recommend intentions and the moderating effect of switching barriers

The current study moves beyond customer-perceived value, service quality, and corporate image and demonstrates that switching barriers are important factors influencing a customer's decision to recommend a service provider to others. This work examines a contingency model between customer-perceived value, service quality, corporate image, and switching barriers. The results indicate that the impact of these parameters on consumers' recommend intentions increases under conditions of high switching barriers. The implications of these results are also discussed.     

An Examination of Consumers' Motives to Switch Energy Suppliers

In most European countries, the energy industry continues to undergo dramatic changes. Customer relationship management concepts and their central focus - customer retention - are playing an increasingly significant role in the marketing considerations of energy supply companies. However, little is known about the reasons why customers remain loyal to a particular energy supplier or why they switch suppliers. The purpose of this study was to identify customers' switching motives, to investigate the relationship between customer satisfaction and switching intentions as well as to identify switching segments. A total of 462 customers of a German energy supplier were surveyed regarding their perceptions and future intentions in relation to their energy provider. Results using regression analysis show that customer satisfaction had a significant effect on switching intentions. Cluster analysis identified three distinct switching clusters; dissatisfied customers, relative satisfied customers seeking change, and dissatisfied customers seeking change. Results of this study are discussed in light of its theoretical as well as practical implications.     

Is there any value in the online reviews of remedial satisfied customers? An empirical study in the hospitality industry

Hospitality service providers lack attention to the positive reviews written by remedial satisfied customers, although they have devoted a lot of energy to service recovery. Drawing on the accessibility-diagnosticity framework, this study investigates the relationship between the online review types of remedial satisfied customers and potential customers' booking intentions. The results indicate that outcome satisfactory review not only improves review impression and positively affects customers' booking intentions, but also reduces perceived risk and enhances customers’ booking intentions. The review valence consistency plays a moderating role in the dual-path effect of online review types on booking intentions.     

Understanding the causes of defection among satisfied B2B service customers

Abstract

Many research studies conclude that satisfaction is strongly and positively related to repurchase intentions and loyalty behaviour. However, companies are often faced with the perplexing question of why some customers, who are satisfied, still switch suppliers given the right circumstances. To answer this question, an exploratory research study was conducted in the facilities-management industry with business-to-business service customers. The study was conducted in two stages: an exploratory stage that focused on the industry as a whole, and a confirmatory stage that focused on lost customers from one specific company. It was found that switching motives and actual reasons for switching are quite different. Customers, despite being satisfied, are more likely to switch suppliers for price reasons than they originally stated.     

The Effects of Coupon Promotion on Repeat Visits in Restaurants

Abstract

Will customers' intention to return to a restaurant increase with coupon promotion? To answer this question, this study examines the hypothetical effects of coupon promotion on return visits to restaurants. Based on a literature review, three hypotheses were developed to test the effect of a coupon, its face value, and a patron's prior dining experience on return intention. The authors found that neither coupon use nor coupon face value contributed to explaining respondents' return intentions. However, repeat customers have a greater likelihood of returning to the restaurant than new customers. The study also showed that the quality of food and service were key indicators of return intention.     

Consumers’ Behavioral Intentions Toward Self-Service Technology in the Emerging Markets

ABSTRACT

Self-service technologies (SSTs) allow customers to offer their own service encounters via the interaction of electronic service interfaces or machines rather than by interacting with a firm's service personnel. This lack of personal interaction generates doubts and queries in the minds of the people, especially those unaware or less aware of these technology-based services. Such a situation is quite prevalent in the developing nations (like India), where still a large number of people are apprehensive about using the latest technologies. In this regard, the present study aims to develop an integrated model designed to predict and explain the various factors that influence customers’ behavioral intentions to use or not to use one particular SST (i.e., ATM services). The study finds that bank customers are less innovative and less optimistic to try out new technologies. Usefulness of the technology helps in developing positive attitude toward the technology, which in turn affects customers' intentions to use that technology.     

Applying Transactional NPS for Customer Journey Insight: Case Experiences and Lessons Learned

ABSTRACT

While the concept of “customer journeys” is widely taken up to support service design and management, practical frameworks for routine monitoring of customer experience in the context of customer journeys are lacking. This article proposes a framework for applying the widely used transactional Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a means for gathering insight into customers' experiences of a customer journey. We present lessons learnt from three case trials of the framework elements within a telecom service provider, involving the analysis of more than 1,700 quantitative and qualitative customer responses from transactional NPS surveys.     

Investigating interactive effects in the theory of planned behavior in a service‐provider switching context

This study examines whether a model of the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985) with interaction terms can adequately explain customer service provider switching behavior. Results from a survey of mortgage customers suggest that it does. Interactions between perceived behavioral control (PBC) and intentions, between perceived behavioral control and attitude, and between attitude and subjective norms were all significant predictors of switching intentions. Implications for the theory of planned behavior and its use in services marketing are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Exploring the customer's intention to switch firms: The role of customer‐related antecedents

This study examined the customer‐related antecedents of the customer's intention to switch firms. Customer citizenship behavior was a key element in this study. Scholars have extensively studied the antecedents of customer citizenship behavior. However, the way that customer citizenship behavior relates to other attitudinal variables and the intention to switch has scarcely been analyzed. The proposed hypotheses were verified using partial least squares variance‐based structural equation modeling applied to 947 users of beauty care service firms in five countries. The results suggest that customer citizenship behavior is an antecedent of satisfaction, trust, and attitudinal loyalty. Two of these variables influence customers’ intentions to abandon relationships with the service provider. The implications of these findings enhance managers’ and scholars’ understanding of the determinants of customers’ intentions to switch firms.     

Evidence Supporting the Importance of Brands in Marketing Computer Products

ABSTRACT

For convenience store (c-store) management to be truly customer-focused, they must listen to their customers and provide the products that meet customers' needs. This study investigates one aspect of c-store customer satisfaction, the product mix. The purpose of this paper is to investigate c-store customers' perceptions of product offerings to expand the c-store's product mix and in turn increase customer satisfaction. Fourteen products were examined. Of the fourteen, three were rated very likely to be purchased: postal services, home style meals, and a salad bar. Differences in preference were found between gender and marital status. Men and single customers had higher purchase intentions for the home style meals than women and married customers. Suggestions for future research are provided.     

The Impact of “Encouragement” in the Development of Professionals for the Non-Profit Service Sector

Abstract

This study examines the role of perceived intent in the context of penalty evaluation. Based on prior attribution research, the study proposes that customers' responses to penalties are different depending on their perceptions of the organization's intent of using penalties. Using the data collected across the service industry, the study shows that when customers perceive the organization's intent as defensive rather than offensive, their evaluations of the penalty and the organization (e.g., perceived justice, satisfaction, behavioral intentions) are more positive than when they do not. Managerial implications are offered.     

Internet Banking–An Empirical Investigation of a Trust and Loyalty Model for New Zealand Banks

ABSTRACT

The development of Internet Banking (I-Banking) requires a new recognition of customers' values for building long-term organization-customer relationships in the E-era. A Structural Equation Model was developed and tested in this paper to identify the determinants that influence customers' trust in, and loyalty to, I-Banking in New Zealand. The results indicated that shared value was the most critical factor impacting customers' trust in I-Banking, compared with two other important factors: communication and opportunistic behaviour control. With regards to improving loyalty among I-Bank customers, findings suggest that I-Banking needs to take satisfaction, trust, brand reputation and switching cost seriously. In particular, satisfaction needs to be regarded seriously, as it is the most important factor influencing customers' loyalty. Based on these findings, the paper culminates in recommendations to improve I-Banking services for customers.     

Competitive Positioning in International Logistics: Identifying a System of Attributes Through Neural Networks and Decision Trees

Abstract

Firms involved in international logistics must develop a system of service attributes that give them a way to be profitable and to satisfy customers' needs at the same time. How customers trade-off these various attributes in forming satisfaction with competing international logistics providers has not been explored well in the literature. This study explores the ocean freight shipping sector to identify the system of attributes that maximizes customers' satisfaction. Data were collected from shipping managers in Singapore using personal interviews to identify the chief concerns in choosing and evaluating ocean freight services. The data were then examined using neural networks and decision trees, among other approaches to identify the system of attributes that is connected with customer satisfaction. The results illustrate the power of these methods in understanding how industrial customers with global operations process attributes to derive satisfaction. Implications are discussed.     

Customer Satisfaction in the Property and Casualty Automotive Insurance Industry

Abstract

This study addresses the important issue of service quality and customer satisfaction in the highly competitive property and casualty (P & C) insurance industry. Automotive dealers and related customer groups were surveyed about their perceptions of the service quality they received from their P & C insurance companies, and about their intentions to change carriers.

Strong relationships were found between intention to change the carriers and all dimensions of service quality. No statistically significant relationships were found between the length of coverage and service quality dimensions. The findings suggest that consistent delivery of high quality service is imperative to retain customers and that the customers' loyalty toward the company is short lived at best.     

The Relative Effects of Relationship Quality and Exchange Satisfaction on Customer Loyalty

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses two key questions on how supplier firms can better manage industrial buyers to create higher loyalty. The first involves whether to focus on relationship quality or exchange satisfaction. This dual route model towards enhancing loyalty in essence is concerned with comparing the relative strengths of the effect from relationship quality to loyalty and from exchange satisfaction to loyalty. The second point of interest pertains to whether the effects from relationship quality and exchange satisfaction to loyalty are moderated by environmental conditions such as switching barriers and viable alternatives. Using data on business customers' ratings of a major information technology provider, we find that the effect of exchange satisfaction on loyalty is significantly greater than the effect of relationship quality on loyalty. We also find that the impact of exchange satisfaction on loyalty is less sensitive and more stable across different levels of switching barriers and viable alternatives. Conversely, the effect of relationship quality on loyalty is more pronounced to such moderating variables in that the effect of relationship quality on loyalty was greater when switching barriers were low and many viable alternatives existed. Implications for marketing theory and practice are discussed.     

The effects of social justice and stigma-consciousness on gay customers' service recovery evaluation

This study examines how social justice and the stigma-consciousness level of gay customers influence their service recovery perceptions. The results, based on an experiment involving 379 gay respondents, indicate that distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice significantly affect gay customers' service recovery evaluations (satisfaction) and post-complaint behavioral intentions (negative word-of-mouth and repatronage). Also, higher stigma-consciousness gay customers show more negative service recovery evaluations and behavioral intentions than those with lower stigma-consciousness. Service providers who are interested in attracting and maintaining gay customers should create awareness among their employees about stigma-consciousness.     

Service worker appearance and the retail service encounter: the influence of gender and age

This study explores how the age and gender of service workers influence customers' perceptions of the retail service encounter in a health and beauty retailer. An analysis of qualitative interviews with 40 customers and 20 service workers suggests that customers seek reassurance in the service encounter by ‘matching’ and ‘mirroring’ the age and gender of customer-facing staff with their expectations of who should deliver appropriate service during the retail service encounter. These non-verbal cues, as a way of assessing the credibility of the service provider, are particularly important when customers are involved in high-involvement purchase occasions.     

Customer Complaints and Switching Behavior—A Study of Relationship Dynamics in a Telecommunication Company

Abstract

Data on customer complaints and switching behavior provide us with important information about customer relationship dynamics. Studying customer complaints and switching behavior, i.e., crossroads in a relationship, will help us better understand the consequences of customer dissatisfaction and what erodes loyalty and has a negative impact on profitability. This understanding will help manage complaints proactively rather than reactively and help prevent switching. It will also improve quality and support service development.     

Understanding the impact of online customers’ shopping experience on online impulsive buying: A study on two leading E-commerce platforms

Research offers some indication that the online customers' shopping experience (OCSE) can be a strong predictor of online impulsive buying behavior, but there is not much empirical support available to form a holistic understanding; whether, and indeed how, the effects of the OCSE on online impulsive buying behavior are affected by customers' attitudinal loyalty and self-control are not well understood areas of research. In this study, we examine how functional and psychological dimensions of the OCSE influence online impulsive buying within e-commerce platforms. We will investigate customers' attitudinal loyalty as a mediator between the OCSE and online impulsive buying behavior, and the customers' self-control as a moderator between customers' attitudinal loyalty and online impulsive buying. To analyze these relationships we will conduct an online survey (n = 1489) with customers of two leading Chinese e-commerce platforms: Jindong and Taobao. The findings from structural equation modeling indicate a positive relationship between the tested dimensions of the OCSE and customers' online impulsive buying. We also find a mediating role of customers' attitudinal loyalty and negative moderation of customers’ self-control. Theoretically, the findings contribute to the literature regarding online impulsive buying and the online customer experience. For managers, the findings stress the importance of ethical management with regard to the online shopping experiences.