Perceived power imbalance and customer dissatisfaction

This study explores the causes of customer dissatisfaction in service interactions in which customers perceive a status of lower power than the service providers. Characterizing such service encounters as encounters between powerful service providers and subordinate customers, the study attempts to identify the service providers' specific actions that caused customers to experience memorable dissatisfaction. For contexts of the study, professional, judgemental, and governmental services are used. The customers' dissatisfying experiences with these services were studied by using the critical incident technique to uncover and classify the causes of dissatisfaction as well as their post-encounter behaviours. During the data analysis, 10 causes of dissatisfaction emerged. In addition, customers' reactions to their dissatisfaction were noted and classified. Implications for practitioners and academicians are provided.     

Service relationships and the customer disengagement – engagement conundrum

Abstract

Emergent research on customer engagement has focused on enhancing engagement within service relationships. Less attention has been given to how and why customers disengage from their relationships, and the potential interplay between engagement and disengagement has not yet been explored within the marketing literature. This study presents the findings from a qualitative exploration of the concept of customer disengagement, its initiating triggers, nature and the process by which it unfolds within functional/utilitarian (F/U) and participative/co-creative services (P/C). Rather than being mutually exclusive, it finds that engagement and disengagement are highly connected and that prior levels of engagement significantly influenced customers’ subsequent propensities to disengage. Specifically, customers’ propensity towards disengagement was higher within services considered F/U in nature and lower within services of a more P/C nature. In addition, the extent to which customers disengaged from their relationship was strongly determined by their prior levels of engagement with weak engagement for F/U services and strong engagement for P/C services. Relationships in the F/U category were subsequently transactional and volatile when compared to relationships within the P/C category that were comparatively emotionally bonded and enduring.     

Social media's contribution to customer satisfaction with services

An important recent initiative in the effective transmission of healthcare services is the establishment of the patient-centered medicine (PCM) philosophy as a mechanism for enhancing customer satisfaction. Although the goals of PCM are important, there is less understanding of the means by which service providers can promote this philosophy.

This study examines the relationship between customers’ attitude toward and use of social media, PCM, and their satisfaction with healthcare services. Data were collected from a large, urban-based pediatric office in the northeast. The sample consisted of 234 respondents who were classified as ‘e-Patients’ – that is, they reported having access to the Internet and going online for health information. A three-stage regression analysis, conducted to establish the path coefficients for each stage in the model, shows that customers’ (patients’) attitude toward social media can be an effective method to enhance PCM and, ultimately, satisfaction. The findings contribute to theory in services by exploring the challenges of managing service delivery at the interface between customer satisfaction and the role and usefulness of adopting and effectively using social media.     

An omnichannel approach to retailing: demystifying and identifying the factors influencing an omnichannel experience

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to identify the factors that influence an omnichannel experience. Omnichannel is an emerging approach to retailing that responds to the changing nature of how customers shop in alternation between online and offline shops, and the increasing use of digital devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets), as a consequence retailers are focusing and establishing a seamless integrated approach to their services. Omnichannel is now a hot topic in retailing but there is a lack of empirical studies into the factors that influence an omnichannel experience. Using a mixed methods approach, we propose and empirically test a conceptual model that identifies four factors influencing an omnichannel experience: brand familiarity; customisation; perceived value, and technology readiness. We conceptualise omnichannel to include three key channels; in-store, online and mobile. Two hundred and forty-six questionnaires were collected and analysed using PLS-SEM and 11 interviews were carried out with marketing/ omnichannel professionals. Our results indicate that brand familiarity has a strong influence on omnichannel (in-store, online and mobile) while perceived value has a negative impact on the mobile experience. Our results show that retailers need to consider multiple factors, such as brand familiarity, customisation, perceived value and technology readiness as influencing factors of an omnichannel experience, and plan the use of multiple touchpoints simultaneously to enhance their overall customer’s experience. Although this study demonstrates the significant factors influencing an omnichannel experience, questions remain regarding the exact use of each touchpoint by customers and the extent of overlap between the touchpoints. which .     

Conceptualizing and measuring experience quality: the customer's perspective

Today many customers, managers, and scholars have become aware of the importance of experiences, which are characterized as satisfying customers' psychic or personal needs. For customers, they care more about the experiences that are provided by stores, and they are willing to pay for them. As for managers, attractive experiences are the products they have taken great efforts to create, manage, and sell. For academic researchers, experiences are considered as distinct economic offerings that are different from goods and services. These scholars believe that the focus of the economy has been transferred to experience (O'Sullivan, E.L., & Spangler, K.J. (1998). Experience marketing: Strategies for the new millennium. State College, PA: Venture Publishing), and that experience industries are on the rise (O'Sullivan, E.L., & Spangler, K.J. (1998). Experience marketing: Strategies for the new millennium. State College, PA: Venture Publishing; Pine, B.J., & Gilmore, J.H. (1998). Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review (July–August), 97–105; Pine, B.J., & Gilmore, J.H. (1999). The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage. Boston: Harvard Business School Press; Schmitt, B.H. (1999). Experiential marketing: How to get customer to sense, feel, think, act, relate to your company and brands. New York: The Free Press). Although experiences have moved to the centre of customers' consumption activities and have become crucial for business success, very few studies have investigated the customers' perceptions of experience quality. In this research, we have conceptually defined experience quality as the customers' emotional judgment about an entire experience with an elaborately designed service setting. We have undertaken multiple phases in conceptualizing and measuring the concept of experience quality.     

机场零售业的营销特征分析

机场零售业对机场总体营业额、航空运输业客户满意度有重大意义。与普通零售业不同,机场零售业的客户群按照其行为特征可以分为“情操享受型”、“随机发现型”和“应急需求型”。消费行为的主要诉求是集个性化、舒适性、便利性、尊重感和成就感于一体的。相应的营销组合是,满足客户需求创造客户价值、按创造的客户价值定价、建立多渠道交互性的有效沟通、为顾客提供便利服务,同时兼顾创造性的差异化供给,防止同业竞争者间产品与服务的雷同。     

Interpreting value in the customer service experience using customer-dominant logic

Abstract

Traditionally, customer value has been examined from the perspective of the firm. New understandings of customer value from the customer-dominant logic perspective of services emphasise the need to move away from the service-dominant perspective and adopt a customer-based approach that considers value within the broader context of a customer’s lifeworld. This article explores how individual customers make sense of their participation in an extraordinary, commercially-driven consumption experience. A phenomenological approach is taken to understand the lived experience of these participants. The findings of this exploratory study reveal the highly complex nature of value in the experience in the chosen context of luxury driving experience days. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

What drives customer engagement after a service failure? The moderating role of customer trust

This study investigated the relationships between complaint handling, customer experience, and customer engagement, as well as the moderating effect of customer trust prior to a service failure. The results were obtained from 320 Indonesian consumers of courier, express, and parcel services. Favourable employee behaviour was found to be the most effective complaint handling effort that influenced customer experience, followed by organizational procedures and then compensation, indicating that positive customer experience led to customer engagement. Additionally, this study revealed that higher levels of customer trust prior to a service failure reduced the positive effects of complaint handling efforts on customer experience. This finding suggests that customers with higher levels of trust in a firm are less sensitive to that firm's complaint handling and recovery efforts. This article contributes to the literature on customer engagement in the service failure and recovery contexts, especially in developing countries. It examines the most influential complaint handling dimensions for predicting customer engagement following service failures. Furthermore, this study is one of the first to explore the moderating role of customer trust in service failure and recovery literature.     

餐饮企业提高顾客忠诚度的策略选择

随着生活节奏的加快,人们生活方式发生了改变,需要餐饮企业提供相应的满足人们需要的菜品和服务。餐饮企业之间的竞争激烈,要提高竞争力,必须提高餐饮企业顾客忠诚度。为此,餐饮企业必须以低成本策略让顾客吃得起,以差异化策略比竞争对手更好地满足顾客的需要,以此提高对顾客的吸引力;用亲情服务留住顾客,以产品和服务创新留住顾客,以优良的菜品和服务质量留住顾客,增加顾客的回头率;用先进的企业文化来树立企业的良好形象,开展数据库营销,构造与顾客交流的平台。     

Zone of tolerance for banks: a diagnostic model of service quality

Service quality has become an increasingly important factor for success and survival in the banking sector. Provision of high-quality service aids in meeting several requirements such as customer satisfaction and its consequent loyalty and market share, soliciting new customers, financial performance, and profitability (Cui, C.C., Lewis, B.R., & Park, W. (2003). Service quality measurement in the banking sector in South Korea. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 21(4), 191–201.). This paper presents the bank service quality measurement in its extended form. It deals with the concept of ‘zone of tolerance’ in judgments of service quality proposed by Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (1993, The nature and determinants of customer expectations of service. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 21(1), 1–12.). The ‘zone of tolerance’ is recognized in the service quality literature as representing a range of expectations and an area of acceptable outcomes in service interactions. The present study describes the zone of tolerance for young customers’ service expectations and determines the customer satisfaction level for banks. The study focusses only on the youth market to formulate long-term strategies because young customers tend to keep themselves up to date with latest technological developments. A conceptual model BANKZOT is presented in this study, and the results demonstrate that evaluation of services can be scaled according to different types of expectations – ‘desired' and ‘adequate’ – and that customers use these two types of expectations as a comparison standard in evaluating bank services. The findings reveal that young customers have a narrow zone of tolerance with regard to the services provided by the banks. The results with respect to gap analysis reveal that there was a shortfall in the service quality provided by the banks in the sample, with the largest gap being found in tangibles and empathy of service quality dimensions. The results of exploratory factor analysis reveal that the SERVQUAL model is found to be uni-dimensional in this study. The results, managerial implications, and future research implications are discussed in detail.     

New Perspectives on Customer Relationships: How Relational Models Influence Customer Experience and How They Are Activated

Abstract

Much research has been conducted into the determinants of customer experience. However, these studies do not include relationship norms as a possible determinant of customer experience. Nevertheless, there are strong indications that the relationship norms used by a customer are an important factor in customer behavior and customer experience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of relational models on customer experience and to explain possible differences in presence of relational models. This paper describes the results of two studies. The first study focuses on the effects of relational models on customer experience. This first study shows that the type of relationship has a strong influence on customer experience in terms of consumption emotions, customer satisfaction, and recommendation intention. Knowing that differences in the presence of relational models have a strong influence on customer experience, a second study focuses on finding a possible explanation for the differences in the presence of relational models. We hypothesize that differences in the presence of relational models can be explained by how organizations approach their customers and how customers perceive the organization. Especially, the perceived organizational involvement and freedom of choice as perceived by the customer play an important role. The second study, therefore, focuses on the influence of perceived organizational involvement and freedom of choice on relational models. The study shows that organizational involvement and freedom of choice have a significant impact on the activation of relational models. The findings are interesting for organizations that want to improve customer experience.     

零售商品牌资产管理策略体系构建——基于多维理论视角的探讨

零售商品牌资产的管理和创建是零售企业获取持续竞争优势的关键,但关于零售商品牌资产管理策略的理论指导并不系统和丰富。因此,本文从零售商品牌营销管理、顾客情绪管理、顾客体验管理、顾客关系管理、顾客忠诚管理5个多维理论视角,对零售商品牌资产管理的策略体系进行了构建,以期为零售商品牌资产的创建过程和途径提供丰富的管理视野与思路。     

共享服务系统体验价值共创行为的影响因素

由于共享经济的发展和信息技术的进步,共享服务系统中的共创行为变得越来越容易实现,消费者与企业协作共创价值成为新的发展趋势。在消费者需求和共享行为都不断变化的情况下,如果共享服务供应商不清楚何种因素能够加速消费者价值共创行为的生成,则会影响共创价值实现。基于服务主导逻辑的理论,构建共享服务系统体验价值共创行为及其影响因素的理论模型。依据收集的450份有效问卷,对数据进行分析后发现,共享服务系统中感知利益、感知信任和社会可持续性通过互动协作(价值共创过程)对顾客体验价值产生影响,顾客体验价值对顾客的价值共创行为意向产生影响。研究结果表明,顾客参与共创动机中的效益动机和信任动机显著正向影响互动协作,互动协作显著正向影响体验价值和共创行为意向,而体验价值在互动协作和共创行为意向之间起到显著部分中介作用。共享服务提供方和产品制造方应多从顾客视角考虑其效益需求和信任需求,定位顾客需求和偏好,提供更有吸引力和说服力的商品与服务,使顾客感知到更多的收益,并形成较高信任度;提升与顾客的互动水平,建立顾客对服务方的好感,激发顾客更多的主动交互行为、参与行为和个人创新行为;重视资源的整合、分配和调动,实行以顾客驱动为核心的开放创新模式;招募优质用户,通过倾听和观察了解其价值主张,促进价值共创行为的生成,改善共享服务系统的整体服务质量。     

Exploring antecedents of customer citizenship behaviors in services

Social exchange theory explains how a party in social interaction provides the other party with reciprocal rewards. Applying this concept to the customer context, this study empirically investigates determinants of customer citizenship behaviors (CCBs) in services. For the generalizability of the study across various service providers, the data were collected based on Bowen’s (1990) classifications of services. With a total of 665 usable customer responses, structural equation modeling was adapted to test the theoretical research model. This study reveals that customers’ perceived support and justice from the service provider positively influence affective commitment toward the organization, resulting in CCBs. The results show that customers’ perception of organizational support has the partial mediation effect between customers’ perception of organizational justice and their affective commitment. Furthermore, customers’ affective commitment partially mediates the relationship between customers’ perceived organizational justice and CCBs, but fully mediates the effect of customers’ perceived organizational support on CCBs.     

一种商业银行客户分割的多维方法——基于客户期望收益和态度的分割模型

客户分割与资源分配是企业一直在努力解决的问题,但目前,空前巨大的客户数据量使得准确进行市场细分和寻找目标市场变得复杂和难以有效实施。通过数据挖掘技术从大型数据库中抽取隐藏的预测信息,利用层次聚类分析建立了一个根据客户的多个态度维度进行客户分割的多维方法。结果表明,以这一方式产生的聚类在同质性较好并且通过参考人口学特征的差别能够获得客户细分市场的轮廓。此外,识别了四个有特色的、表明对信息服务和技术有特殊偏好的客户群。     

Changing Perceptions and Changing Behavior in Customer Relationships

We formulate a theoretical model in which we postulate that if customers' behavior is perceived as not optimal, customers will adjust this behavior based on their current satisfaction and payment equity. Furthermore, customers will also include new experiences. In our empirical study we particularly investigate customer referrals and the amount of services purchased. Our results show positive effects of current satisfaction and payment equity on referrals, while also changes in satisfaction and payment equity affect customer referrals. With respect to the amount of services purchased, our estimation results reveal a positive significant effect of only changes in satisfaction.     

Do Farmers' Market and Specialty Food Store Customers Differ in the Effects of Perceived Utilitarian and Hedonic Shopping Values?

This study explored differences in the effects of perceived utilitarian and hedonic shopping values on customer satisfaction for the two separate groups of the agricultural product marketing channel: farmers' markets and specialty food stores. Empirical data were collected from customers of agricultural product retailers located in Taiwan (N = 412). The results show that different agricultural product marketing channels provide different values to their customers. Farmers' market customers experience a greater hedonic value, and specialty food store customers experience a greater utilitarian value. In addition, the perceived utilitarian and hedonic shopping values of farmers' market customers are more highly positively associated with customer satisfaction than are those of specialty food store customers.     

大型零售商场顾客忠诚驱动因素实证分析——以杭州市为例

制定与实施顾客忠诚管理策略,为顾客提供综合性、差异化的服务,履行高度的顾客承诺,是大型商场保持与顾客长期、双向互动关系的重要保障。本文以规范分析和实证研究相结合的方法分析顾客忠诚的影响因素,构建大型商场顾客忠诚的基本驱动因素模型,选取杭州四大商场为数据采集对象,实证检验各种影响因素对大型商场顾客忠诚的影响,并提出了提高大型商场顾客忠诚度的相应策略。     

Online retail experience and customer satisfaction: the mediating role of last mile delivery

ABSTRACT

For various industries worldwide, recent years have been defined by the remarkable growth of e-commerce. Enabled by the Internet, retailers can reach more customers, spread much further in the distribution chain, and optimize their resources. In the new market environment, customer experience has become a source of competitive advantage. This study investigates the role of last mile delivery in the customer’s e-retail experience. A quantitative methodology was used, which incorporated a survey that was conducted in Sweden and measured participants’ most recent e-retail experience. The results indicate that the last mile delivery experience mediates the relationship between the customer’s perception of the online shopping experience and customer satisfaction. These conclusions provide ground for further thorough investigations of the role of last mile delivery in the e-retail context and support e-retailers in increasing their customers’ satisfaction.     

The moderating effects of gender roles on service emotional contagion

This study attempts to examine how service personnel's appearances, attitudes, and behaviours affect customers' emotions and thus their satisfaction and loyalty; it also considers gender roles an important moderator, in that customers with different gender roles may detect and feel differently when they are exposed to personnel's appearances, attitudes, and behaviours. Empirical data were collected from customers in clothing shops in Taiwan. The results suggest that customers with androgynous role more sensitive to the emotional contagion process. Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed.