Mitigating the effect of service encounters

Although marketers believe that encounters with service employees are a major determinant of customers' perceived service quality and value, there is little empirical evidence that quantifies this relationship. This paper considers the role of employee service encounters, such as repair visits and sales calls, within a comprehensive model of customers' assessments of service quality and value. It is estimated with survey data that describe small business customers' ratings of a local telephone company. In contrast with marketing folklore, most employee service encounters do not affect perceived service quality, but they have a strong effect on perceived service value. By quantifying the effect of sales calls, repair visits, billing contacts and so forth, we find that service encounters frequently do not compensate for service failures and disruptions.     

Differences in Cross-Cultural Negotiation Behavior Between Manufacturers and Service-Oriented Firms

ABSTRACT

In this age or the global economy, Cross-Cultural negotiations is becoming an ever increasing important part of the management and marketing process for nearly every firm. In this study, we compare the cross-cultural negotiations behavior and differences in the perceived processes between manufacturers and service-oriented firms. We report significant differences between the two groups and provide analysis.     

Perceived Importance Factors of Restaurants in Relation to University Customers' Demographic Characteristics

Abstract

This research examines the attributes which influence customers' decisions to return to a restaurant for another meal. Quality of food was rated as the most important attribute, followed by quality of service, cost/value of the meal, and ambiance of the restaurant. Nutritional value was rated as the least important attribute. Male customers did not rate the attributes differently from the female customers.     

论市场经济中的社会语用

中国加入WTO后 ,必将融入世界经济发展的大潮流 ,而社会语用与经济具有密切的联系 ,语言的使用离不开社会这个大环境。因此 ,语言是一种经济投入 ;市场经济需要有特定的社会语用。但这种语用也需要规范化 ,特别是在一些店铺、招牌、广告、标语的用语上不能随意断章取义。社会语用使用得当能更进一步促进我国与国外的经济交往。     

Service recovery expectation model – from the perspectives of consumers

This paper explores the influence of the major attributes of consumers, such as personality traits, gender, number of consumptions, and levels of involvement, on service recovery expectations. A combination of linear multivariate statistical analysis and nonlinear fuzzy neural network models is further used to analyse data and validate hypotheses. Consumers of middle-to-high-end Chinese restaurant chains are sampled as the interactions between these restaurants and consumers are frequent. The empirical research finds that old customers have lower expectations of service recovery than new ones and male consumers have lower expectations than female consumers. Extrovert-type consumers have lower expectations of service recovery than introvert-type consumers. There is a positive correlation between consumers' involvement and service recovery expectation. As this paper examines the expectations of service recovery from the perspectives of consumers, it aims to help companies use pre-processing of service recovery as a precautionary measure, rather than as a remedial measure as mostly seen. Different from the vast majority of literature that deals with the issue by focusing on western enterprises, this paper uses small-and-medium enterprises in Taiwan and constructs management implications accordingly.     

Improving customer website involvement through experiential marketing

This study outlines some of the important positive outcomes of enhancing e-retailing services through adding experiential benefits. It investigates how provision of experiential values by an online store improves involvement of customers in the e-retailer's website. This paper also looks at the impacts of experiential values on the recently developed construct of perceived e-retailer's assistive intent and investigates whether this variable contributes to the enhancement of website involvement. Collecting data from 431 North American students through a survey on actual shopping experiences supports the overall model and the majority of the hypotheses. Findings confirm that esthetics, service excellence, and customer return on investment are effective experiential values in terms of improving e-retailer's assistive image and enhancing customers' involvement in the website.     

The impact of offshored and outsourced call service centers on customer appraisals

Firms are increasingly relying upon offshored and/or outsourced call centers to provide post-sales assistance to their customers. Although the motivation to engage in these practices is efficiency gains, the possibility exists that offshored and outsourced call centers may have a detrimental impact on customer appraisals. The aim of this research is to posit the conceptual reasons as to why differences may arise in customer evaluations from these practices. To this end, we rely on the homophily principle and hybrid organization theory to provide conceptual grounding, and utilize a company dataset of customer post-call evaluations to offer an initial test of the hypotheses.

Receptivity to advertising messages and desired shopping values

Advertising designed around the ‘value’ notion represents a way to deal with widespread retail competition and knowledgeable, empowered consumers. This study empirically examines the influence of receptivity to advertising messages (RTAM) on desired shopping values and assesses whether this relationship is moderated by gender, age, and income. The structural model indicates that, compared to low‐RTAM shoppers, high‐RTAM shoppers tend to perceive each of the six value dimensions, (i.e. monetary cost saving, time cost saving, energy cost saving, post‐sale customer support, engaging store environment, and personal leisure experience) as more important in making a retail patronage decision. Further analysis shows that the links from RTAM to monetary cost saving and to post‐sale customer support are stronger for younger male shoppers. Another interesting finding is that the link from RTAM to monetary cost saving is stronger for high‐income shoppers whereas the link from RTAM to engaging store environment is stronger for low‐ and middle‐income shoppers. If retail advertisers are aware of the value dimensions that are crucial to the high‐RTAM segment within specific target markets, they could achieve advertising goals more effectively and efficiently through tailored advertising messages.     

Will You Help Me Please? The Effects of Race,Gender and Manner of Dress on Retail Service

This research attempts to determine if a customers visible physical characteristics influence retail service delivery. The results of this study suggest that black and male customers wait significantly longer than white and female customers at retail customer service counters. In addition, females are more likely to experience a positive transaction outcome than males.     

Please smile,the CCTV is running!

This paper examines the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) system notices in banks. This study was designed to measure the effect of the wording of CCTV notices on customer service quality expectations and purchase intent, while also considering the customer involvement as the moderating effects. Results show that customers, in expectation of better service quality, may be more likely to purchase the service when moderately worded CCTV notices (i.e. ‘please smile, the CCTV is running!’) had been employed in the bank rather than when the negatively worded CCTV notices (i.e. ‘Taping now! All your behaviour here is monitored by the CCTV system!’) are deployed. These effects were stronger in low-involvement situations. Implications of the findings and the future research directions are also discussed.     

顾客参与服务创新、顾客人力资本与知识转移的关系研究

在后现代社会,服务经济在促进经济发展和就业方面越来越重要.随着服务行业竞争的日益加剧,服务企业需要不断进行新服务开发,从而获得竞争优势.顾客参与新服务开发过程,有利于促进知识的转移.顾客作为知识转移的发送方,其转移知识能力和意愿具有积极的影响,顾客的转移能力和意愿可以视为顾客人力资本.文章在文献回顾和综述的基础上,研究了顾客参与服务创新行为和知识转移的关系,并构建一个基于顾客人力资本中介机制的理论模型,试图进一步揭示顾客参与和知识转移之间关系的内在机制.最后探讨了本文的不足和未来的研究方向,为下一步实证研究提供了理论基础.     

浅析卷入概念的发展历程及其应用

卷入概念近年来广泛应用于消费者行为、市场营销、广告和电子商务等学科领域。然而学术界对卷入概念的界定和理解处于相对混乱的状态。本文较系统地梳理卷入概念的发展历程,将卷入界定为个人受到某种刺激或情景的激发后所处的一种心理状态,并区分出价值范畴的卷入、印象范畴的卷入和结果范畴的卷入三种类型。同时,分析卷入概念在相关学科领域中的应用现状,指出其重点是研究卷入与其他变量之间的关系,且从认知和情感两个心理方面研究卷入概念的应用是未来的一个发展方向。