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Boosting service performance by dark chocolate seduction

Nanouk Verhulst (Business Department and Department of Marketing, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium and Marketing, Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium)
Hendrik Slabbinck (Deparment of Marketing, Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium)
Iris Vermeir (Deparment of Marketing, Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium)

Journal of Services Marketing

ISSN: 0887-6045

Article publication date: 28 August 2019

Issue publication date: 27 September 2019

935

Abstract

Purpose

Past research suggests that small details during a service may have a big impact on the service experience. Drawing from this literature, this study aims to test the impact of offering dark chocolate during a service on service performance outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

Three scenario-based studies and one field study tested the hypotheses. The scenario-based experiments varied in both service context (e.g. restaurant and mobile phone store) and service quality.

Findings

Eating dark chocolate positively impacts service performance outcomes. This effect is fully mediated through mood. However, this effect disappears in negative valenced service encounters.

Originality/value

This paper makes a unique contribution, by testing whether changing a small detail at the start of a service improves mood and, in turn, customers’ outcomes in different service quality contexts.

Keywords

Citation

Verhulst, N., Slabbinck, H. and Vermeir, I. (2019), "Boosting service performance by dark chocolate seduction", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 576-588. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2019-0026

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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