Service encounter problems: which service providers are more likely to be blamed?

Abstract

Looks at unmet customer expectations in service delivery associated with service encounter problems. Problematic service encounters are compared to those which were problem free. Four services were evaluated by customers – legal consultation, hair stylist, film processing and retail store. These services covered a range of both process and outcome tangibility. Expectations, perceptions and the “gaps” between them were used to evaluate service quality across a range of service encounters. If problems were reported, customers were asked to evaluate three attribution factors: who was at fault for the problem, could it have been prevented and could it occur in future service encounters. These findings indicate that when there is a service encounter problem, and that service has some level of intangibility, unmet customer expectations are significantly greater than in services with some level of tangibility. Suggests how service providers might prevent customer perceptions of service quality from significantly diverging from customer expectations in these situations.