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Critical Service Encounters: The Employee's Viewpoint

Mary Jo Bitner¹; Bernard H. Booms²; Lois A. Mohr³

¹ Arizona State University · ² Business Program, University of Washington-Tacoma. · ³ Georgia State University

In service settings, customer satisfaction is often influenced by the quality of the interpersonal interaction between the customer and the contact employee. Previous research has identified the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in service encounters from the customer's point of view; this study explores these sources in service encounters from the contact employee's point of view. Drawing on insights from role, script, and attribution theories, 774 critical service encounters reported by employees of the hotel, restaurant, and airline industries are analyzed and compared with previous research. Results generally support the theoretical predictions and also identify an additional source of customer dissatisfaction—the customer's own misbehavior. The findings have implications for business practice in managing service encounters, employee empowerment and training, and managing customers.

DOI

10.1177/002224299405800408

Volume

58 (4)

Pages

95-106

Language

en

Export

BibTeX

Sources

crossref