Search results

The lessons of quality management apply to services as well as tangible goods. Awareness also has been increasing that services, like tangible goods, can be guaranteed as a means of implementing a total quality management (TQM) orientation in the organization. While higher education has been exploring some of the tenents of TQM, it has been slow to embrace the power of service guarantees. In this conceptual article we present a system of service guarantees designed to foster a TQM orientation in higher education. We propose that institutions consider a system of guarantees aimed at three primary constituent groups – students, faculty, and employers – over the short, medium and long term. The rationale and implications of the guarantee system are explored, and possible impediments are discussed.

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.

Previous research has found that interactional justice and distributive justice are critical factors influencing customer satisfaction after a service recovery. In addition, previous service recovery research has found that satisfaction is an important determinant of key outcome variables such as trust, commitment, and negative word‐of‐mouth. The current study extends previous research by investigating the role of service failure severity within the existing framework of service recovery research. The results indicate that service failure severity has a significant influence on satisfaction, trust, commitment, and negative word‐of‐mouth. The results also provide partial support for a moderating influence of service failure severity. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.

The paper aims to investigate the different forms of retaliatory responses towards unsatisfactory service encounters experienced by Australian consumers. It further compares demographic and psychographic profiles of complainers versus non‐complainers.

In total, 1,200 mail surveys were sent out through a random list of addresses obtained from the White Pages. Data from 237 usable surveys (29.1 per cent) were analysed using a series of statistical techniques including factor analysis to profile psychographic factors and discriminant analysis to identify complainers from non‐complainers.

It is found that both complainers and non‐complainers engage in some form of retaliatory responses. Complainers have a high sense of justice, are less conservative and have a more positive attitude towards complaining than their non‐complaining counterparts. Gender, income and education have no effect on complaining behaviour for both complainers and non‐complainers.

The high number of retaliations through “exit” is a concern for Australian firms. Firms have to make an effort to identify exactly the conditions in which each occurs and the strategies best available to rectify them. Mechanisms can be put in place to reduce these occurrences to improve the business as a whole.

The paper matches the demographic and psychographic profiles of complainers and non‐complainers with potential types of products and services and the related retaliatory responses.

Contemporary research on service quality and satisfaction has limitations. First, current satisfaction models treat the consumer as an isolated individual, not considering the social context of the service provision. Second, while satisfaction and quality are thought to be process outcomes, the dominant survey research approaches are not well suited to learning about processes. Finally, popular paradigms assume consumers’ determination of service quality and satisfaction is based solely on a set of attributes. Symbolic interaction and ethnographic methods expand the theoretical basis of service quality/satisfaction research beyond an individually centered psychological view to consider social influences and processes, thereby providing a deeper understanding of how consumers experience quality and satisfaction. The knowledge gained from this approach is easily accessible to service managers and may serve to improve employee recruiting, training and evaluation. Examples of employing symbolic interaction and ethnographic methods are provided. Actions to improve the management of service providers are listed

The purpose of this paper is to extend thinking on service recovery processes and satisfaction with service recovery, using multi‐dimensional consumer outcomes. The objective of the work was to propose that satisfaction with service recovery should be based on customers' expectations of the recovery encounter, which would be shaped by their expectations of “non‐failed” encounters.

The paper adopts a theoretical approach. Using the existing service recovery literature as well as the traditional services literature, the conceptual framework and associated research propositions are developed.

The proposed framework suggests that service recovery is a service encounter it its own right. The effectiveness of recovery encounters will be based on how encounters operate relative to customer expectations and experiences with regard to the recovery activity.

The research propositions and proposed framework need further empirical investigation.

The proposed framework suggests that managing service recovery should be undertaken in a similar fashion to managing any service, and thus managers need to understand customers' recovery expectations. Organisations also need to consider how a recovery action impacts on a range of customer outcomes, as focusing on one aspect will not capture consumers' full set of behaviours.

The proposed model identifies that service recovery should be evaluated with regard to consumers' recovery expectations and satisfaction is not based on expectations with regard to non‐failed encounters.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if self-serving bias affects audit client satisfaction level with their audit firm.

A 2×2 between-subjects design is used, where the authors experimentally manipulate the level of client involvement in the audit and the extent of value-added services the client received.

Using a sample of 115 financial managers (audit clients), the authors find no evidence that self-serving bias exists among clients in the experimental setting. Rather, they find that clients appear to be more satisfied with their auditor when they (clients) participate more in the service exchange.

The research is limited to a specific context within the privately held company audit setting.

Audit firms may consider encouraging their privately held clients to participate more in the audit process by clearly communicating expectations and providing clients with audit preparedness materials, including templates and training where necessary.

Although the self-serving bias has been shown to exist in the marketing literature, the authors present a setting where the relationship between service provider (auditor) and customer (client) is such that the self-serving bias may not hold.

The understanding of operational failure (or loss generally) and its role as an imperative for service design is underdeveloped. This paper investigates external and internal loss categories (such as market failure, and unexploited resource development) and their relationship to the loss response; specifically, reactions to loss in the form of ex post loss control via new service design (NSD).

The investigation consists of complimentary theoretical and empirical dimensions and includes the analysis of five service design cases. This analysis deploys a model based upon the extant service design and innovation, resource‐based view and operational risk literatures.

The findings question the universal applicability of extant normative and descriptive models of service design. After arguing that their use should be limited to specific contexts, the paper proposes a new, more general conception of service design modes.

The paper comments on patterns of service design practice not discussed previously. It highlights some dangers inherent in following conventional prescription on design processes, illustrates a positive role for loss in design, and proposes new frameworks for NSD that accommodate loss as a contributor to the process.

This paper aims to examine the benefits of letting customers choose among compensation methods following a service failure. The author is also interested in the role of gender in influencing satisfaction with the compensation method and post‐recovery emotions.

A between‐subjects quasi‐experiment was conducted in addition to a series of pretests.

Findings from this study indicate that women are more satisfied with the compensation when given the opportunity to choose from alternatives than are men. Moreover, women seem to value the act of choosing more than their male counterparts. The findings further suggest that service operators and retailers might benefit from offering the customer a choice between hedonic and utilitarian compensation options as part of the service recovery process. Letting the customer choose his/her preferred recovery option enhances satisfaction with the chosen compensation method, thus somewhat mitigating the ill‐effects of service failures.

This research contributes to understanding of service recovery efforts both from a theoretical and practical standpoint.