Robert Moore, Melissa L. Moore and Michael Capella
To empirically examine the development and influence that customer‐to‐customer interactions (CCI) have in a high personal contact setting.
Abstract
Purpose
To empirically examine the development and influence that customer‐to‐customer interactions (CCI) have in a high personal contact setting.
Design/methodology/approach
Using responses from patrons of different hair salons, the role that salon atmospherics had on the formation of CCI was assessed. Then, the relative influence of CCI on satisfaction with the firm, loyalty to the firm and firm word‐of‐mouth, in a model of service outcomes, was examined.
Findings
Results indicate that atmospherics do influence CCI, which in turn is a strong predictor of loyalty to the firm and positive word‐of‐mouth.
Research limitations/implications
Care should be taken when generalizing these findings to other service settings. It should be noted that all female respondents were generally more educated and had higher incomes than the general population.
Practical implications
This study suggests that positive perceptions of atmospherics will lead to positive CCI effects. If managers determine that they would like to enhance the quality of CCI, they should incorporate changes to the physical settings that enhance the type of interactions they desire.
Originality/value
In terms of how to assess CCI, the authors provide a simple four‐item scale which can be used by managers to assess the degree in which their customers interact and the effect that the interaction has on their experience.
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This study aims to provide service managers and researchers with a deeper understanding of the direct on-site interactions taking place between customers.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide service managers and researchers with a deeper understanding of the direct on-site interactions taking place between customers.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT), 284 incidents are analysed to develop a typology of how service customers experience direct on-site CCI.
Findings
The research reveals a wide range of CCI. A typology consisting of nine distinct categories of CCI emerged: (1) shared use space, (2) assigned space and possessions, (3) information provision, (4) assistance, (5) social conversations, (6) disrespectful attitude, (7) queuing discipline, (8) transaction efficiency and (9) undesired customers and ‘camouflaged customers’. These categories can accommodate a multitude of customer behaviours that impact, negatively or positively, on the service experience of other customers.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies could be conducted following a more inclusive research design capable of gaining CCI insights from employees and managers.
Practical implications
Practitioners can use the typology to systematically identify the full range of specific CCI behaviours affecting their businesses. It also assists them in the analysis and understanding of individual C2C (customer-to-customer) interactions. For academics the typology makes available a comprehensive framework to guide future research into CCI.
Originality/value
The study constitutes the first systematic attempt to classify direct on-site CCI across a wide range of services. The typology, unrestricted by any single-industry bias, is robust and conceptually broad, and therefore highly portable across service industries.
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Martin Fisk and Michael Willsher
The library of the British Museum (Natural History) [BM(NH)] is rightly regarded as one of the premier scientific libraries of the world. In its field it contains holdings of…
Abstract
The library of the British Museum (Natural History) [BM(NH)] is rightly regarded as one of the premier scientific libraries of the world. In its field it contains holdings of unpar‐alleled richness and depth, with a wealth of rare and original materials. The Department of Library Services (DLS) contains five specialist libraries ‐ Botany, Entomology, Zoology (including its subdepartment of Ornithology at the Zoological Museum, Tring), Palaeontology/Mineralogy and the General Library which contains multi‐disciplinary material. The specialist libraries themselves are responsible for sectional libraries each dealing with more specialised scientific applications, for example the Entomology Library has control over 22 sectional libraries, each under the day‐to‐day care of the research staff themselves, and situated in the scientists' own working area. Within these libraries DLS has holdings of some eight hundred thousand volumes; over twenty thousand serial titles (between nine and ten thousand current subscriptions); over seventy thousand maps; over 400,000 original watercolour drawings ‐ the third largest collection in the country.
Richard Nicholls and Marwa Gad Mohsen
This study aims to explore the relevance of customer age differences (CADs) in the context of customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) within various service domains. It provides a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the relevance of customer age differences (CADs) in the context of customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) within various service domains. It provides a thematic framework for understanding CAD-related CCI and critically identifies new directions for research into CAD-related CCI.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a narrative literature review approach, different perspectives in the literature on age differences and CCI are analysed towards highlighting and emphasising valuable new themes.
Findings
Three coherent domains: the desire for social contact; fellow customer behaviour; and social identity issues are identified to interconnect a fragmented diversity of literature. Many themes for future research directions in the study of CAD-related CCI are identified.
Research limitations/implications
Whilst a wide selection of literature sources are critically reviewed, the fragmented nature of the literature on age differences and CCI prevents the review covering all publications.
Practical implications
The paper provides service marketing managers and scholars with strategic CCI insights into better serving a diverse age range of customers. These insights will undoubtedly stimulate timely investigation of new avenues to enhance service customer compatibility and satisfaction in increasingly age-diverse societies.
Originality/value
This paper provides the first overview of a wide range of strategic considerations aimed at explaining the impact of CADs on CCI in service environments. Essentially, the paper elaborates opportunities and challenges in CAD-related CCI as critical themes for further investigations.
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Namin Kim and Moonkyu Lee
The purpose of this paper is to identify how the mere presence of other customers in a service encounter influences customers' evaluations of restaurant services.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify how the mere presence of other customers in a service encounter influences customers' evaluations of restaurant services.
Design/methodology/approach
Phenomenological interviews were used to reveal the dimensions of other customers and to develop hypotheses on the moderating variables that influence the effect of other customers. A scenario‐based experiment was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The analysis reveals that “other customers” is a multidimensional construct consisting of number, age, gender, appearance, attire, and public behavior. Also, the importance of each dimension varies according to situational variables such as evaluation stages (pre‐ versus post‐encounter stages), the context of a visit (task‐ versus recreational‐orientations), and the quality‐related risks (high versus low).
Practical Implications
The study provides a rationale for service providers to strategically manage their customers. It also gives guidelines of how customers should be “managed”.
Originality/value
The present study is meaningful in the sense that it is one of the first empirical studies which concentrated on the passive role (mere presence) of other customers in a service encounter. The dimensions of other customers and the moderating variables revealed are expected to stimulate further research in the area.
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Richard Nicholls and Marwa Gad Mohsen
The purpose of this study is to explore the capacity of frontline employees (FLEs) to provide insights into customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) and its management in service…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the capacity of frontline employees (FLEs) to provide insights into customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) and its management in service organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study used focus groups and semi-structured in-depth interviews with FLEs to investigate their experiences and reflections in dealing with CCI in a complex service setting in the UK.
Findings
FLEs are able to recall CCI encounters, both positive (PCCI) and negative (NCCI), with ease. They are capable of conceptualising and exploring complex nuances surrounding CCI encounters. FLEs can distinguish levels of seriousness of negative CCI and variations in customer sensitivity to CCI. FLEs vary in their comfort in intervening in negative CCI situations. Whilst FLEs draw on skills imparted in an employee-customer interaction context, they would benefit from CCI-specific training. Propositions are advanced for further empirical testing.
Research limitations/implications
The authors studied FLE views on CCI in a customer-centric service organisation in the UK. Future research should further address the FLE perspective on CCI in less service-driven organisations and in other countries. A wide range of themes for further research are proposed.
Practical implications
The insights presented will assist service managers to assess the CCI context of their own organisation and develop strategies and guidelines to support FLEs in detecting, understanding and responding to CCI encounters.
Social implications
The paper highlights and discusses the complexity of intervening in negative CCI encounters in socially inclusive service environments.
Originality/value
Based on FLE-derived perceptions of CCI, the paper contributes conceptually to CCI knowledge by identifying the existence of “concealed CCI”, distinguishing between gradual and sudden CCI intervention contexts and exploring the human resource development consequences of this distinction, with original implications for service management. The study also contributes to extending the scope of research into triadic service interactions.
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Olivier Furrer, Mikèle Landry, Chloé Baillod and Jie Yu Kerguignas
Negative customer-to-customer interactions (NCCI) occurring in physical service encounters can have a detrimental effect on a focal customer’s experience. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Negative customer-to-customer interactions (NCCI) occurring in physical service encounters can have a detrimental effect on a focal customer’s experience. This paper aims to explore how the interplay between the physical servicescape and the presence and behavior of other customers can lead to NCCI. Moreover, through an examination of customers’ responsibility attribution, the paper underlines the need for service organizations to manage this interplay.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors rely on a mixed approach with two studies grounded in the Stimulus–Organism–Response paradigm. In a preliminary quantitative study, the authors test a model of the effects of NCCI on customers’ attribution and behavioral outcomes using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Next, in a qualitative study, they collect and explore NCCI incidents in eight service industries relying on the critical incident technique (CIT).
Findings
When experiencing NCCI, customers attribute at least partial responsibility for their negative experience to the service provider. The findings of the CIT study reveal three interplay mechanisms leading to NCCI: when other customers’ behavior is triggered by the physical servicescape; when other customers’ behavior is incongruent with the behavioral norms set by the physical servicescape; and when the physical servicescape is altered by other customers’ misbehavior.
Originality/value
This paper provides a comprehensive, empirically grounded, understanding of the interplay between the physical and social servicescape, focusing on the presence and behavior of the other customers and its effect on the customer experience.
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Cheng-Yue Yin and Patrick Poon
This paper aims to examine the impact of other group members on the travel experiences of Chinese tourists participating in domestic package tours.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the impact of other group members on the travel experiences of Chinese tourists participating in domestic package tours.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the critical incident technique, usable responses were obtained from 253 tourists regarding the influence of other group members on their travel experiences in the same group package tour (GPT).
Findings
The results show that the travel experiences of Chinese tourists on a domestic package tour are affected by three general factors, namely, appearance, behaviors, and language of other group members.
Research limitations/implications
This research mainly involves samples of young tourists. The findings may not be able to generalize to elderly tourists. Future studies may involve samples from various age cohorts.
Practical implications
The findings offer new insights and directions for GPT operators and tour guides to improve tourism management and tourist experiences.
Social implications
This study contributes to tourism literature about customer-to-customer interaction by identifying the major categories of other customers’ characteristics or behaviors that may positively or negatively influence a GPT tourist’s travel experience.
Originality/value
This study enriches the existing literature by investigating the attributes of other group members that may affect the travel experiences of a domestic GPT participant. Tourism firms can formulate better strategies and staff training to enhance tourists’ travel experiences.
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Wei Wei, Yanyan Zheng, Lu Zhang and Nathaniel Line
Theme park experiences ubiquitously unfold in the presence of others. In acknowledgement of this important part of theme park consumption, this research set out to examine if…
Abstract
Purpose
Theme park experiences ubiquitously unfold in the presence of others. In acknowledgement of this important part of theme park consumption, this research set out to examine if other visitors help create an immersive environment and, in turn, memorable experiences for theme park visitors.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was distributed to 561 theme park visitors. Structural equation modeling (AMOS 26) was used for testing the hypotheses in the proposed framework.
Findings
Results of SEM analyses reveal the positive impact of perceived similarity on visitors' sense of immersion at theme parks and the memorability of the experience. In turn, memorable experiences further drive behavioral intentions (i.e., return intention and willingness to pay premiums).
Practical implications
The findings provide suggestions for theme parks to leverage customer-to-customer interactions in order to create immersive and memorable visitor experiences.
Originality/value
This research marks one of the first attempts to approach customer-to-customer interactions (CCIs) at theme parks by empirically examining the impact of the perceived similarity of others on focal visitors' emotions and experiences.
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Mahafuz Mannan, Nusrat Chowdhury, Priodorshine Sarker and Riasat Amir
The purpose of this study is to provide an insight into the crucial antecedents of customer satisfaction and revisit intention in the context of dining restaurants in a holistic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide an insight into the crucial antecedents of customer satisfaction and revisit intention in the context of dining restaurants in a holistic approach, taking Bangladesh as a unit of analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design was cross-sectional. Data were collected from 30 dining restaurants in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. The proposed model was tested using partial least square structural equation modeling with a sample size of 600 respondents.
Findings
The antecedents of customer satisfaction (i.e. service quality, food quality, atmospherics, other customers and perceived value/price) were found to have significant positive effects on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction and restaurant reputation were found to have significant positive effects on revisit intention, while variety seeking tendency was found to have a significant negative effect on revisit intention. Trust was found to partially mediate the customer satisfaction-revisit intention and restaurant reputation-revisit intention relationships.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to provide a holistic approach toward the crucial antecedents of customer satisfaction (i.e. service quality, food quality, atmospherics, other customers and perceived value) and revisit intention (i.e. customer satisfaction, variety seeking tendency, trust and restaurant reputation) in one structural equation model, and investigated their interrelationships in the context of dining restaurants. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has investigated the mediating role of trust between the customer satisfaction-revisit intention and restaurant reputation-revisit intention relationships in the context of dining restaurants. From a market-specific context, this the first study to investigate and link the examined variables in the context of Bangladeshi dining restaurants.