Critical Service Encounters: The Employee's Viewpoint

TLDR

Customer satisfaction in service settings is largely shaped by the quality of interpersonal interactions, and prior research has identified sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction from the customer’s perspective. The study investigates service encounter satisfaction and dissatisfaction from the contact employee’s perspective. The authors analyzed 774 critical service encounters reported by employees in the hotel, restaurant, and airline industries, applying role, script, and attribution theories and comparing results to prior studies. The analysis confirmed theoretical predictions and revealed that customer misbehavior is an additional source of dissatisfaction, offering implications for employee empowerment, training, and customer management.

Abstract

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.