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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09564239410057672. When citing the…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09564239410057672. When citing the article, please cite: Dwayne D. Gremler, Mary Jo Bitner, Kenneth R. Evans, (1994), “The Internal Service Encounter”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 5 Iss: 2, pp. 34 - 56.
Cécile Delcourt, Dwayne D. Gremler, Fabrice De Zanet and Allard C.R. van Riel
Customers often experience negative emotions during service experiences. The ways that employees manage customers’ emotions and impressions about whether the service provider is…
Abstract
Purpose
Customers often experience negative emotions during service experiences. The ways that employees manage customers’ emotions and impressions about whether the service provider is concerned for them in such emotionally charged service encounters (ECSEs) is crucial, considering the criticality of the encounter. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study proposes that two key competencies – employee emotional competence (EEC) and employee technical competence (ETC) – affect negative customer emotions and customer satisfaction with employee response in ECSEs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies on a video-based experiment that depicts a customer involved in an ECSE as a service provider delivers bad news to him. The hypothesis tests use a two-way independent analysis of covariance.
Findings
Both emotional and technical competencies must be displayed to improve the customer experience in an ECSE. When EEC is low, ETC does not decrease negative customer emotions or increase customer satisfaction with employee response. When EEC is high, ETC instead has a significant impact on both customer outcomes.
Practical implications
Managers must train employees to develop both technical and emotional competencies. Employees who demonstrate only one type cannot temper customers’ emotions or enhance their perceptions of the employees’ response as well as can those strong in both competencies.
Originality/value
Using a video-based experiment, this study examines the moderating role of EEC in the relationship between ETC and two key aspects of the customers’ experience in an ECSE (negative customer emotions and customer satisfaction with employee responses) following the delivery of bad news.
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Olivier Furrer, Jie Yu Kerguignas, Cécile Delcourt and Dwayne D. Gremler
The growing service sector has experienced several revolutions that have transformed the way services are created and delivered. In parallel, services increasingly pique the…
Abstract
Purpose
The growing service sector has experienced several revolutions that have transformed the way services are created and delivered. In parallel, services increasingly pique the interest of scholars, resulting in an expanding body of knowledge. Accordingly, it is time to reflect on extant service research, assess its boundaries, and think about its future. This paper aims to consider three research questions: How has service research evolved over the past 27 years? Which articles have most influenced the evolution of service research in the past 27 years? What are the most promising research themes for the future?
Design/methodology/approach
To answer these questions, the authors analyze the contents of 3,177 service research articles published in ten major academic journals between 1993 and August 2019. Multiple correspondence analysis reveals the evolution of key service research themes and their underlying relationships.
Findings
The research themes are organized in a growth–share matrix with four quadrants (stars, question marks, cash cows and pets) and also combine into four research clusters (human resource management, organizational behavior and strategy, technology, and operations and customer behavior and marketing). Together with a specified list of influential articles that have shaped the evolution of service research, these insights suggest an agenda for research.
Originality/value
Acknowledging the vast growth of service research, this study presents an up-to-date picture of the discipline and an agenda to stimulate continued research.
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Cécile Delcourt, Dwayne D. Gremler, Allard C.R. van Riel and Marcel van Birgelen
During service encounters, it has been suggested that emotionally competent employees are likely to succeed in building rapport with their customers, which in turn often leads to…
Abstract
Purpose
During service encounters, it has been suggested that emotionally competent employees are likely to succeed in building rapport with their customers, which in turn often leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, these relationships have not been empirically examined. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effects of customer perceived employee emotional competence (EEC) on satisfaction and loyalty. The paper also examines how and to what extent rapport mediates these effects.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the theory of affect‐as‐information, suggesting that emotions inform human behavior, the paper develops a structural model and tests it on a sample of 247 customers in a personal service setting.
Findings
Customer perceptions of EEC positively influence customer satisfaction and loyalty. Rapport partially mediates both effects.
Practical implications
The extent to which customers perceive employees as emotionally competent is related to the development of rapport, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. Managers of high‐contact services should therefore pay attention to emotional competence when hiring new employees, and/or encourage and train existing employees to develop this type of competence.
Originality/value
Previous studies have used employee self‐reports or supervisor reports of EEC, both of which have significant limitations when used in service encounters to predict customer outcomes. Furthermore, they essentially capture an employee's potential to behave in an emotionally competent way while service managers are interested in the actual display of emotionally competent behaviors as perceived by customers. Accordingly, to overcome these issues, this study adopts a customer perspective of EEC and uses customer perceptions of EEC to predict customer outcome.
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Samaneh Torkzadeh, Mohammadali Zolfagharian, Atefeh Yazdanparast and Dwayne D. Gremler
Customer engagement (CE) literature features divergent definitions and conceptualizations. To clarify its meaning, antecedents and outcomes, this paper aims to propose that…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer engagement (CE) literature features divergent definitions and conceptualizations. To clarify its meaning, antecedents and outcomes, this paper aims to propose that psychological customer engagement (PCE) is the mechanism by which customers’ readiness to engage influences behavioral customer engagement (BCE) in the form of in-role and extra-role behaviors, which then affect customers’ goal attainment, satisfaction and retention.
Design/methodology/approach
Set in the fitness center industry, this study combines perceptual data (from customers) and behavioral data (from the fitness center) to reveal a hierarchy of effects: customer readiness to PCE to BCE to customer goal attainment, satisfaction and retention.
Findings
Customer readiness variables (role clarity, ability, motivation) influence in-role and extra-role BCE directly and indirectly through PCE. Extra-role BCE is associated with goal attainment and satisfaction, and the latter is linked to customer retention. In-role BCE is associated with goal attainment only.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed integrative model bridges the psychological–behavioral divide in CE literature and encourages the adoption of a broader nomological network that accounts for the effects of customers’ characteristics and actions on their goal attainment, satisfaction and retention.
Practical implications
Managers can enhance CE by improving customer role clarity, ability and motivation. Relative to in-role BCE, extra-role BCE appears more critical because it affects both goal attainment and satisfaction directly and retention indirectly.
Originality/value
The novel integrative approach, combining BCE and PCE in a single model, also provides a consumer-oriented view on CE, which establishes a more comprehensive perspective, as summarized in the proposed model of consumer engagement.
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Michael A. McCollough and Dwayne D. Gremler
Empirically evaluates a model of service guarantees by addressing the impact of a service guarantee on consumers’ satisfaction evaluations. Proposes a model suggesting that the…
Abstract
Empirically evaluates a model of service guarantees by addressing the impact of a service guarantee on consumers’ satisfaction evaluations. Proposes a model suggesting that the differentiating and signaling properties of a guarantee can influence service provider satisfaction and that a service guarantee may capitalize on the coproduction nature of services to increase consumer self‐satisfaction and overall satisfaction. Finds empirical support that a guarantee can influence post‐consumption evaluations, even in the absence of service failure and the guarantee being invoked, and therefore suggests that a service guarantee may influence consumer satisfaction even if the service is already highly reliable.
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Dwayne D. Gremler and Stephen W. Brown
The influence of loyal customers can reach far beyond their proximate impact on the company. This impact is analogous to the ripple caused by a pebble tossed into a still pond. In…
Abstract
The influence of loyal customers can reach far beyond their proximate impact on the company. This impact is analogous to the ripple caused by a pebble tossed into a still pond. In this article we introduce the loyalty ripple effect construct and define it as the influence, both direct and indirect, customers have on a firm through (1) generating interest in the firm by encouraging new customer patronage or (2) other actions or behaviours that create value for the organization. That is, in addition to their revenue stream, we suggest loyal customers may engage in several behaviours, including word‐of‐mouth communication, that add value to or reduce costs for the firm. In our discussion, we provide some examples to illustrate our point and conduct an exploratory study related to arguably the most salient ripple generator, word‐of‐mouth communication. The paper concludes with managerial implications and provides some suggestions for future research.
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Dwayne D. Gremler, Kevin P. Gwinner and Stephen W. Brown
In this study, we hypothesize and empirically test the proposition that interpersonal bonds, or relationships between employees and customers, can significantly influence positive…
Abstract
In this study, we hypothesize and empirically test the proposition that interpersonal bonds, or relationships between employees and customers, can significantly influence positive word‐of‐mouth (WOM) communication. Such influence may be especially true for many services, particularly in situations where a relationship has developed between the customer and individual service providers. In this study we look at four dimensions of interpersonal bonds: trust, care, rapport, and familiarity. We contend that as a customer’s trust increases in a specific employee (or employees), positive WOM communication about the organization is more likely to increase and such trust is a consequence of three other interpersonal relationship dimensions: a personal connection between employees and customers, care displayed by employees, and employee familiarity with customers. These propositions are investigated using data collected from bank customers and dental patients, and we find empirical support for all but one of our hypotheses. A key finding is that the presence of interpersonal relationships between employees and customers is significantly correlated with customer WOM behavior. We conclude with a discussion of how interpersonal relationships between customers and employees might be fostered in order to increase the likelihood of customer WOM behavior.
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Thorsten Hennig-Thurau, Kevin P. Gwinner, Dwayne D. Gremler and Michael Paul
Customer relational benefits have been identified as a driving motivation for consumers to engage in long term relationships with service providers. Such benefits can be expected…
Abstract
Customer relational benefits have been identified as a driving motivation for consumers to engage in long term relationships with service providers. Such benefits can be expected to play a crucial role in the success of service firms when extending their business into other countries and cultures. Most of the previous discussion of relational benefits has been conducted almost exclusively in North-American contexts and has not addressed the impact a nation’s culture may have on the relevance of relational benefits for gaining relationship outcomes such as customer loyalty. The aim of this article is to deepen our understanding of the role of relational benefits in developing long-term relationships with consumers in a cross-cultural context. Specifically, propositions focusing on the moderating role of power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty avoidance for the benefits-outcomes relationship are developed. The article concludes with a discussion of potential implications for service firms and researchers.
Bård Tronvoll, Stephen W. Brown, Dwayne D. Gremler and Bo Edvardsson
Recent discussions of the service‐dominant logic (S‐D logic) and the creation of a multidisciplinary service science highlight the need for a paradigmatic discussion that provides…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent discussions of the service‐dominant logic (S‐D logic) and the creation of a multidisciplinary service science highlight the need for a paradigmatic discussion that provides directions for ongoing service research. This article aims to examine different epistemological foundations and proposes a framework to describe and better understand the development and future of service research.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the proposed framework, an assessment of 60 selected award‐winning and most cited articles is categorized using the paradigmatic framework.
Findings
Four paradigms are found to be prominent in service research: positivistic, hermeneutic, dialogic, and monologic. The positivistic option has been the dominant paradigm employed by service scholars, suggesting service scholars need to apply the three alternative paradigms more as a means to enrich and extend the service research discipline.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need to discuss the fundamental beliefs and worldviews (ontological and epistemological positions) guiding service research. Paradigms are critical determinants and drivers of good research.
Originality/value
A new framework for analyzing paradigmatic foundations in service research and directions for the future design of service research studies is proposed. The suggested framework could inspire scholars to reflect on their ontological and epistemological foundations and provide paradigmatic guidance within service research. This provides a basis for continuous expansion of the service research field.
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