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.