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Generally, the article provides a fundament beyond the state‐of‐the‐art construct of service quality. In particular, the content is dedicated to the construct of interactive service quality in service encounters. Interactive service quality in a service encounter requires the simultaneous consideration of the service provider’s and service receiver’s perspectives. Furthermore, it also demands the consideration of both the service provider’s and the service receiver’s expectations and perceptions in a service encounter. The theoretical contribution is a generic conceptual framework of interactive service quality in service encounters consisting of the service continuum, the service cycle, and an interactivity model. The managerial contribution is a model of the invisibility dilemma of a service offer, the features of interactive service quality and an application model of interactive service quality in service encounters. Suggestions for further research are also proposed.

Studies of the construct of service quality have traditionally been undertaken from the perspective of the service receiver. More recently, research has focused on both the service provider's perspective and the service receiver's perspective. In addition, there have also been some triadic network approaches to the study of service quality. However, there has been very little research into sequential service quality in service‐encounter chains (that is, consecutive service performances in a series of service encounters). The incorporation of connected service encounters in services management can improve understanding of sequential service quality in service‐encounter chains. This paper provides a customized construct of sequential service quality and highlights the importance of time, context, and performance threshold in service‐encounter chains. Furthermore, the paper presents a generic five‐phase performance process, and a customized six‐dimensional construct of sequential service quality.

The unidirectional measurement and evaluation of the service quality in a specific service encounter is not enough to understand the existing service quality between two actors in a dyadic service encounter. Furthermore, a bi‐directional approach may not always be sufficient to understand the service quality in a specific service encounter. The incorporation of a third actor may improve the understanding of service quality in dyadic service encounters. Therefore, a method is applied to analyze the dynamics of service quality in triadic business networks.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and apply teleological approaches from complexity sciences in services.

The performance of service encounters and the outcome of service quality are dependent upon complex and dynamic interactions between service providers and service receivers. A set of teleological approaches from complexity sciences is incorporated and applied in the context of service settings.

A teleological application from complexity sciences in relation to the interactive nature of the performance of service encounters and the outcome of service quality offers opportunities to apply innovative research designs and alternative methodological approaches to future research problems in services.

Future research could focus on where and how the insights from other research disciplines can be used that have encapsulated teleological approaches from complexity sciences more sophisticated, and how this knowledge could be incorporated and applied in services.

The inclusion and consideration of teleological approaches from complexity sciences in the performance of service encounters and the outcome of service quality generates a series of managerial and research implications regarding the dynamics and complexity of the interactive nature in services.

The research opportunities into service quality and service encounters by applying teleological approaches from complexity sciences are extensive. They might also stimulate innovative analytical techniques that may generate important empirical findings, in extension, with relevant and valuable implications for practice in services. A maintained focus on multi‐disciplinary aspects of research may enhance contemporary research and practice of services.

This paper aims to explore the effect of employees’ state mindfulness, a short period of mindful presence, on the quality of the service they provide in a service encounter.

Three studies are conducted. A pilot study explores the relationship between state mindfulness and service encounter quality. Experiment 1 examines whether a 15-min mindfulness exercise results in an increase in service employees’ state mindfulness. Experiment 2 tests whether induced state mindfulness produces higher service quality and whether a reminding technique can prolong state mindfulness between service encounters.

The results demonstrate the following. First, that more mindful employees provide better service quality. Second, that a short, easily implemented, mindfulness exercise can reliably increase employees’ state mindfulness. Third, induced mindfulness has an impact on subsequent service quality in terms of reliability, assurance, empathy and responsiveness. These effects persist regardless of the service encounter structure (high vs low structure) or the degree of emotional labor involved (high vs low emotionally charged). Finally, the reminding technique developed as part of this research suggests that state mindfulness can be maintained between service encounters.

As simulated (programmed) customers are used, independent evaluators to assess service quality are used. Service providers in this study are college students; future field studies should consider a wider range of service providers. The research focuses on state mindfulness; exploration of trait mindfulness offers future research opportunities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to empirically examine the link between mindfulness and service quality. It shows that mindfulness can be induced, and through a reminding technique be maintained, and improve service quality across service interactions. This is a powerful finding for marketing managers, for it offers a new method to enhance service provision. Moreover, this research implies that the increase in service quality is likely to be accompanied by reduced job burnout: a double win for employees, employers and customers.

Service quality has been an active area of research during the last two decades. In this research, typically, service quality is considered from the viewpoint of the customer who is the recipient of the service, i.e. the “external customer”, and the research efforts have focused on identifying the dimensions of quality in this “external service encounter”. In the majority of these studies, “reliability” has been identified as the most prominent dimension among the various dimensions of the external service encounter. In recent times, researchers have also highlighted the importance of “internal customers” and the existence of an “internal service encounter”. The objectives of the research project reported here were: to investigate whether “reliability” is perceived as an important dimension in the internal service encounter as well, and, if so, to ascertain how service managers define “reliability” in the internal service encounter; and to examine whether the perceived importance of “reliability” in the internal service encounter varies with the type of the internal service encounter.

Literature review and manager interviews were used to ascertain the role and meaning of “reliability” in the internal service encounter and different types of internal service encounters. A field study in the health care industry was performed to examine whether the relative importance of “reliability” in the internal service encounter, vis‐à‐vis other dimensions, varies in different types of internal service encounters.

As with the external service encounter, “reliability” emerges as a key dimension in evaluating the quality of an internal service encounter. The meaning assigned to “reliability” in the internal service encounter is similar to that established for the external service encounter in that both focus on the accuracy of the outcome and dependability. A new dimension of “reliability” that became apparent was the need for flexibility, communication and problem‐solving support. This is probably due to the time‐consuming project nature of the internal service encounter, where the internal customer feels the need to be able to openly discuss its needs with the internal service provider and the latter's flexibility and patience in attending to these needs. The importance of “reliability” vis‐à‐vis other dimensions of internal service quality does vary with the type of internal service encounter.

The study and its findings highlight possible actions managers can adopt to improve the quality and effectiveness of a variety of internal service encounter types.

As research on the role of “reliability” as a dimension of internal service quality is rare, this paper presents a novel effort, i.e. a combination of various interpretations of “reliability” of the internal service encounter in the limited literature and views of managers of a large industry, to identify the role and meaning of “reliability” in the internal service encounter. There is no report in the literature of any previous efforts to investigate whether the importance attached by managers to “reliability” (as a factor of internal service quality) varies with the type of internal service encounter. The paper also proposes a novel typology for classifying internal service encounters.

The purpose of the study is to explore the impact of cultural values on perceptions of service encounter quality by examining the potentially mediating role of service encounter expectations.

A questionnaire was designed to collect data from 30 cosmetic clinic patients in Tehran, Iran. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the convergent and discriminant validity of the scales. Moreover, path modeling and bootstrapping were implemented using Smartpls 2.0 (M3) software to analyze the collected data and to assess the research model (Figure 1).

Cultural values have a significant impact on both expectations and perceptions of service encounter quality. Moreover, findings show that expectations of service encounter quality have an impact on perceptions of service encounter quality. The mediating role of service encounter expectations was confirmed.

There are additional issues that should be addressed about different aspects of service encounters in developing countries. Moreover, subcultures provide attractive context for service quality perception research; subcultures comprise a large consumer market having its own cultural values that future research could examine.

Healthcare service providers should understand the cultural values of patients that may differ by social demographic characteristics. Providing a service that enhances patient cultural values might enhance success in the plastic surgery market, because such surgery may assist one in gaining recognition and improving their relationships with others. Clinic managers should consider Iran as a developing country, with its considerable young population having modern self-oriented demands, should be a desirable market for cosmetics and beauty care products.

Using the concept of Schwartz’s basic human values model to assess consumers’ cultural values and its impact on service encounter quality was the study’s main contribution. Moreover, it is among few studies conducted in the cosmetic surgery industry in a developing country’s context.

This paper aims to discuss partitioning an air travel service encounter into touchpoints according to elements and phases, which are depth and breadth, respectively, using the conceptual framework of Le Bel. The empirical findings further the dialogue about the service encounter construct.

A total of 12 distinctive touchpoints within the joining and intensive phases of any air travel service encounter are reviewed for importance using travel purpose and nationality as segmentation variables. Respondents participated through an online questionnaire and face‐to‐face approach from a fieldworker; they were not engaged in an air travel service encounter at the time of the study. Data analysis includes descriptive statistics, independent sample t‐tests and paired sample t‐tests where the latter considered a named airline from the region.

The findings indicate touchpoints to be sufficiently distinctive that partitioning a service encounter provides opportunities for quality improvements directed at customer satisfaction outcomes. Notably, greater importance is typically given to the intensive phase touchpoints than those in the joining phases thus placing more emphasis on activities within service encounters' simultaneous production/consumption. Touchpoint preference is evident for travel purpose and passenger nationality segmentation criteria. When an airline is named, respondents appear more discriminating about touchpoint quality compared to those in generic service encounters.

Academically, partitioning strengthens the links between the service encounter construct and service quality and provides additional information beyond expectations‐perceptions results. Industry value is derived for practitioner marketers when distinctive touchpoints are taken from a partitioned service encounter providing opportunities for segmenting and targeting consumers accordingly.

Argues that the unidirectional measurement and evaluation of service quality in any specific service encounter is not enough in itself to understand the existing service quality between two actors in a dyadic service encounter. Therefore, a method is introduced for the express purpose of analysing the perceptual bi‐directionality of service quality in order to measure and evaluate the dynamics of service quality in dyadic service encounters.

The objective is two‐fold. The first is to describe contemporary and future penetration (i.e. analysis and understanding) in service encounter research. The other is to describe contemporary and future abstraction in service quality research.

The paper provides a conceptual discussion of new aspects of research into service encounters and service quality.

There are still flaws in the contemporary penetration of service encounters and the contemporary abstraction of the service quality construct.

Service encounters and service quality pertain not only to human interactions, but also to the interaction between individuals and self‐service technology. The new aspects of service encounters and service quality described here are restricted to the interaction between individuals. It is argued that an extended penetration of service encounters, and an extended abstraction of the service quality construct, taken together, provide great potential for future research opportunities in services marketing.

The aspects of penetration discussed here have the potential to provide a more sophisticated understanding of the complexity and dynamics of service encounters. The aspects of abstraction described here have the potential to contribute to a more sophisticated level of measurement of the service quality construct.

A two‐fold approach is suggested that goes beyond the current state of the art in terms of penetration of service encounters and abstraction of the service quality construct. This is likely to trigger and encourage innovative research designs and alternative methodological approaches to new research problems. This might also stimulate innovative analytical techniques that could produce groundbreaking research findings, with important implications for practice.