European Journal of Marketing
Service behaviors that lead to satisfied customers Kathryn Frazer Winsted

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To cite this document: Kathryn Frazer Winsted, (2000),"Service behaviors that lead to satisfied customers", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34 Iss 3/4 pp. 399 - 417 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560010311920 Downloaded on: 16 September 2014, At: 19:29 (PT) References: this document contains references to 72 other documents. To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 5472 times since 2006*

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Kathryn Frazer Winsted, (2000),"Patient satisfaction with medical encounters – a cross#cultural perspective", International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 11 Iss 5 pp. 399-421 Göran Svensson, (2006),"New aspects of research into service encounters and service quality", International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 17 Iss 3 pp. 245-257 Göran Svensson, (2006),"The interactive interface of service quality: A conceptual framework", European Business Review, Vol. 18 Iss 3 pp. 243-257

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Service behaviors that lead to satisfied customers
Pace University, New York, NY
Keywords Services marketing, Consumer behavior, Service quality, Customer satisfaction
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Service behaviors

Kathryn Frazer Winsted

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Abstract Examines service provider behaviors that influence customer evaluation of service encounters. Develops a list of service provider behaviors relevant to customer evaluation of a service encounter. Examines performance of these behaviors in specific restaurant and medical transactions. Then examines the relationship between performance of each behavior and encounter satisfaction. Behaviors are grouped, using factor analysis from consumer surveys, into three dimensions: concern, civility, and congeniality. Each is defined using multiple behavioral measures. Measures include concepts not widely addressed in current services literature, including conversation, respect, genuineness, attitude, and demeanor. These dimensions and constituent behaviors provide a framework for future research and service training and management.

Services account for more than half of gross domestic product in the USA and many European countries (US Department of Commerce, 1997) and for over one-fourth of world trade (Keegan, 1995). The service encounter, or interaction between a service provider and customer, has received much recent attention in the marketing and management literature (Murray et al., 1996; Price et al., 1995; Chandon et al., 1997; Dobni et al., 1997). However, we still know relatively little about the specifics of how consumers evaluate encounters. While much research has been done to better understand the components of service quality and the service encounter, little research has systematically explored what these components really mean to the consumer in terms of actual behaviors of service delivery personnel (Boulding et al., 1993). SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988) would imply that a service provider should be courteous, empathetic, and helpful (among other things). However, they do not offer any insight into what this means to consumers, that is, what consumers want waiters, doctors, tellers and other service providers actually to do. Understanding these critical behaviors is the focus of this research and is key to the ability of service providers to deliver service encounters that will lead to satisfied customers. The objectives of this research are: first, to identify behaviors that consumers use to evaluate service encounters (i.e. the personal interaction component of service transactions); second, to see which of these behaviors are related to encounter satisfaction in two different industries; and third, to identify factors indicated by these behaviors. To accomplish these objectives, the research was conducted in four stages. In stage one, we identify dimensions currently discussed in the literature. Stage two uses an openended exploratory survey to identify behaviors relevant to evaluation of service encounters, using the previously identified dimensions as a guide.

European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 3/4, 2000, pp. 399-417. # MCB University Press, 0309-0566

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Stage three employs a detailed transaction-specific survey to examine the relationships of these behaviors with satisfaction in specific medical and restaurant transactions. Stage four analyzes the transaction-specific data to identify groupings of key behaviors into factors and tests the power of these factors to predict satisfaction. Need to better understand how consumers evaluate performance Parasuraman et al. (1991) found that, while reliability of service provision was most important in meeting customer expectations, the process dimensions related to personal interaction were most important in allowing companies to exceed these expectations. While reliability was needed to compete, the encounter dimensions were what allowed companies to excel and potentially ``dominate the competition'' (p. 47). Yet, despite widespread recognition of the importance of the encounter in building customer franchises, there is still much more we need to learn (Price et al., 1995; Turner and Pol, 1995). Service providers need to have a better understanding of the attributes customers use to judge their performance in service encounters (Bowers et al., 1994; Peyrot et al., 1993). While Parasuraman et al.'s (1985, 1988) SERVQUAL scale has provided very helpful insight regarding the dimensions of service quality, service literature since the time of their studies indicates that much confusion still exists about the meanings and relatedness of some of the constructs identified (cf. Carman, 1990; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Boulding et al., 1993). To effectively manage service encounters, managers need to develop operational definitions of constructs based on the behaviors of service delivery personnel, and to specify levels of appropriate performance (Bowers et al., 1994). Despite many calls for development of behavioral measures to better define the meaning of good service (Bowers et al., 1994; Luthans and Davis, 1990; Knutson et al., 1990), operationalization of service dimensions to date has been primarily through experimental manipulation or use of single, direct measures. There has been little effort to fully conceptualize and measure the behavioral components of encounters (Malhotra et al., 1994). Some studies (Boulding et al., 1993; Mittal and Baldasare, 1996; Chandon et al., 1997; Dobni et al., 1997) make strides forward in service encounter analysis by using multiple behavioral measures. However, the measures are generally informally derived and are often forced to fit SERVQUAL or other preconceived dimensions. Bitner et al. (1990) make great contributions by identifying behaviors that serve as critical incidents leading to very satisfactory or very unsatisfactory service encounters. This research extends their work by examining behaviors associated with everyday evaluation of service encounters in two industries and examining how these behaviors group together. Need for industry-specific and cross-industry analysis The SERVQUAL scale (Parasuraman et al., 1988), while widely used in many industries, has also been widely criticized as too generic and not applicable,

or only partially applicable, in some industries (Boulding et al., 1993; Carman, 1990). Conversely, some industry-specific studies have been done to better understand the service encounter and service quality in just one industry (Andaleeb and Baser, 1994; Bowers et al., 1994; Hall, 1996). Little research has been done, though, to compare and contrast the importance of different components of the service encounter across industry (Bitner et al., 1990). When an instrument originally designed to be used in this study was pretested, respondents said they could not answer questions about behavioral indicators of service encounter dimensions without first knowing what type of service encounter they were considering. This preliminary finding suggests that consumers do not think about service encounters as general, but instead think of encounters as industry-specific and evaluate encounters differently for different industries. To examine possible differences between industries, two industries were selected for this study that are both highly interactive but are quite different on many dimensions. This research focuses on consumers' encounters with waiters or waitresses in a sit-down restaurant and encounters with doctors or nurses. These encounters are common encounters that many experience frequently. They are similar in many ways. Both industries represent ``people businesses'' (Parasuraman et al., 1991) that demand high levels of interaction. Research has shown that in both the restaurant and medical industries, the interaction with the service provider has a substantial impact on customer satisfaction with the service provided (John, 1991; O'Connor et al., 1992; Stevens et al., 1995). These are industries where customer satisfaction is critical to building a customer franchise (Plymire, 1991; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Strasser et al., 1995), and word-of-mouth recommendations are crucial. It has been estimated for these industries that loyal customers' outreach role is equal to two or three times their own value as customers due to word-of-mouth networking (MacStravic, 1995; Winston, 1988). These characteristics make both of these industries prime candidates for service encounter analysis and improvement. A doctor's office and a restaurant are services that also differ in many ways. A doctor is viewed as a professional, while a waiter is seen more as unskilled or generic labor (Hill and Motes, 1995). A waiter has higher contact with physical goods (Lovelock, 1980) as part of service provision than a doctor. Doctors generally have a formal and longer-term relationship with patients (Bitner et al., 1990), and communication patterns and customer problems are more complex with a doctor (Bitner et al., 1990; Danaher and Mattsson, 1998). A doctor is likely to provide service with higher customer ego involvement (Solomon et al., 1985), and a doctor generally has more discretion in meeting individual customer needs (Lovelock, 1983). Medical services also tend to be evaluated more using credence attributes, while restaurants are more likely to be evaluated based on experience attributes (Zeithaml, 1981). Doctors generally are perceived as having higher criticality and involving more risks (Ostrom

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and Iacobucci, 1995). These differences lead us to expect many differences between how consumers evaluate a restaurant encounter and how patients evaluate an encounter with a doctor. Stage one: initial exploration of service encounter dimensions As noted previously, this study was conducted in four stages to meet the three different objectives of the research. The methods used for each step are discussed separately by stage below, together with related findings for each stage. The first stage of this research involved a thorough review of the services literature to develop a practical and theoretical framework for identifying behaviors used for service evaluation. Examining the services marketing and management literature (based on an electronic search for articles on service encounters and service quality, as well as sources identified in the bibliography of relevant articles), we identified eight dimensions likely to be relevant to customers' evaluation of service encounters. We included any constructs that were implied in the literature to have significant impact on customer satisfaction with service encounters, focusing on the interactive components of service delivery. Dimensions were selected to provide a framework for identifying behaviors. Because our goal was to identify a pool of many behaviors used in service encounter evaluation, an attempt was made to cover all appropriate concepts in order to elicit as many potentially relevant behaviors as possible. Focus groups were also held with groups of college students to determine if any dimensions were missed in the initial literature review. Two dimensions (authenticity and formality) were identified first in the focus group sessions, then explored in the literature. The dimensions selected were authenticity, caring, control, courtesy, formality, friendliness, personalization, and promptness. Each is discussed very briefly below: (1) The role of authenticity or ``natural feeling'' (Hochschild, 1983, p. 3) of service providers' behavior is under-researched in the services marketing and management literature, but its importance to the service encounter is addressed by several authors (Deighton, 1992; Grove and Fisk, 1983; Hochschild, 1983; Lockwood and Jones, 1989; Romm, 1989). Others have examined the related concepts of sincerity and trust (Crosby et al., 1990; Goodwin and Frame, 1989; Surprenant and Solomon, 1987). (2) Caring is part of the empathy dimension of SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988) and also has been addressed by numerous other authors in the service encounter literature (Bitran and Hoech, 1990; Bowers et al., 1994; Brown and Swartz, 1989; Goodwin and Frame, 1989; Surprenant and Solomon, 1987). Caring is described primarily as showing an interest in the customer (Brown and Swartz, 1989; Schneider, 1980), paying attention to the customer (Bitner et al., 1990), and part of respecting the customer (Bitran and Hoech, 1990).

(3) Perceived control is another dimension discussed in the service encounter literature as important to satisfaction with an encounter (Bateson, 1985; Bateson and Hui, 1992; Bitran and Hoech, 1990; Klaus, 1984; Silpakit and Fisk, 1985). Bateson (1985) discusses three types of control important to a service encounter: behavioral control (ability to control a threatening situation, flexibility), cognitive control (ability to reduce stress), and decisional control (a choice in the solution of outcomes or goals). Bateson and Hui (1992) discuss control as customer dominance versus helplessness. (4) Courtesy is discussed in virtually every study of the service encounter either by itself or as contributing to another construct (Bateson and Langeard, 1982; Bitner et al., 1990; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Goodwin and Smith, 1990; Chandon et al., 1997; Wels-Lips et al., 1998). In their 1989 study, Brown and Swartz (1989) found courtesy to be the dimension most often mentioned first as an important criterion for evaluating personal services. Courtesy is included as part of the assurance dimension of SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988), but a study by Carman (1990) found courtesy to be a separate dimension of service quality. (4) Formality incorporates the concepts of social distance (Goodwin and Frame, 1989; Houston and Gassenheimer, 1987), role deference (Stewart, 1972), form of address (Goodwin and Smith, 1990) and ritual (Stewart, 1972). It is under-researched in the services marketing literature, but it is found by Goodwin and Frame (1989) to be a significant factor in evaluation of the service encounter. (5) Friendliness usually comes up in the discussion of other variables (Goodwin and Frame, 1989; Goodwin and Smith, 1990) and sometimes as a separate variable in evaluation of an encounter (Fiebelkorn, 1985; Surprenant and Solomon, 1987). Ostrom and Iacobucci (1995) used friendliness as one of the elements of service that they manipulated, calling it one of the key attributes distinguishing services from goods. Surprenant and Solomon (1987) found friendliness to be one of two major factors (with competence) influencing satisfaction with bank tellers. (6) Personalization of service has been found to have a positive impact on encounter evaluation (Brown and Swartz, 1989; Schneider, 1980; Surprenant and Solomon, 1987). Bitner et al. (1990) discuss a similar construct they call customization, and individualized attention is included as part of the empathy dimension in SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Personalization is discussed as including ``recognition of a customer's uniqueness'' (Surprenant and Solomon, 1987, p. 87), use of a customer's name (Goodwin and Smith, 1990; Schneider, 1980), and responding to customer needs (Brown and Swartz, 1989). It is part of what Chandon et al. (1997) call the ``interactivity'' dimension.

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(7) Promptness, the speed and efficiency of a transaction, is addressed by many authors as an important element in evaluating a service encounter (Bateson and Langeard, 1982; Solomon et al., 1985; Taylor, 1994). It is often presented as a dimension that consumers perceive as traded off with personalization (Lovelock, 1983; Mars and Nicod, 1984; Surprenant and Solomon, 1987; Sutton and Rafaeli, 1988). Promptness or timeliness is a key component of the responsiveness dimension in SERVQUAL. Stage two: behavior identification The second stage of this research sought to better understand service encounter evaluation by identifying a large pool of behaviors related to consumers' evaluation of service transactions. The eight dimensions identified in stage one were not assumed to be the definitive dimensions used by consumers to evaluate encounters. Instead, they were used simply to help elicit from consumers behaviors likely to be related to service encounter evaluation. The literature provides very little information regarding specific behaviors associated with service encounters. Therefore, we designed a behavior identification questionnaire (Q1) to generate behavioral measures related to various aspects of a service encounter. The questionnaire was administered to 156 students studying in the USA. Most were business undergraduate students with a mean age of 25. Q1 sought to generate a wide variety of indicators through open-ended questions like: ``What things would a doctor do if he or she were being courteous or polite?'' For each of the eight dimensions identified in stage one, questions were asked with both positive and negative valence (e.g. ``How would a rude doctor behave?'' is also included). Some questionnaires focused on behaviors of doctors, while others focused on the same behaviors for waiters. We received 4,000 total answers (behaviors) in response to these open-ended questions. These were coded to achieve some parsimony and grouping of like answers but to retain enough variety to ensure the richness suggested by Churchill (1979). A student assistant assigned codes to the responses. These were then reviewed and further consolidated by the author for increased parsimony, resulting in a total of 448 codes. For each construct, responses were then sorted by frequency of times a behavior was mentioned. Every behavior mentioned by three or more people for a single dimension on Q1 (an arbitrary limit designed to cull down the large number of factors to a more workable number) was considered a potential measure and included in the next phase of the study. When indicators were direct opposites (e.g. smiled and did not smile), we generally retained only one (either positive or negative) to keep the number of indicators manageable. We took care, though, to retain some positive and some negative indicators and to retain some opposites (four) as a test for internal consistency. A total of 137 behaviors met the criteria and were selected for the next stage of analysis. Churchill (1979, p. 68) and others stress the importance

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of starting with a large pool of potential indicators, retaining items with ``slightly different nuances of meaning'', and later refining these measures using purification techniques. Over 60 percent of the behaviors identified were suggested as indicators for more than one of the eight dimensions. For example, smile was suggested as an indicator of authenticity, caring, courtesy, formality, friendliness, and personalization. Although frequently discussed as distinct dimensions in the services literature, the eight dimensions identified are clearly not separate and distinct in the minds of consumers responding to this survey. Between 25 and 60 behaviors were generated for each of the originally defined dimensions, but only three to 12 of these indicators for each (depending on the dimension) were mentioned uniquely for just one dimension. This suggests that these behaviors might group differently than expected in the minds of consumers and might help to identify new and different dimensions than those suggested by the current services literature. Interestingly, while pretesters of the original indicator development questionnaire said they could not answer the questions unless an industry was specified, 87 percent of the behaviors were mentioned for both the medical and restaurant industries. Twelve of the 137 behaviors were suggested only for waiters and six were mentioned only for doctors. The others were all identified for both. Stage three: relationships to satisfaction The third research objective was to examine how individual behaviors are related to consumer satisfaction in the two industries studied. With this aim, we designed a behavior analysis questionnaire (Q2) to measure perceived levels of each of the 137 behaviors and encounter satisfaction in specific medical or restaurant transactions. We received 304 usable responses to the medical questionnaires and 424 usable responses to the restaurant questionnaires (identical except for the service type identified) for a total of 728 respondents with a mean age of 22. The questionnaires were administered to undergraduate students in a classroom setting, so response was virtually 100 percent. Each respondent was prequalified as having had either a medical or restaurant encounter within the previous two months. Each response was then further qualified after the survey was completed using various tests for internal consistency. Q2 asked students in the USA to recall a recent visit to a doctor or restaurant and to report level of agreement (using a seven-point Likert scale with 7 indicating total agreement) with statements regarding the 137 different behaviors of the doctor or waiter (e.g. the server made a lot of eye contact with me). The questionnaire also asked respondents to rate their levels of satisfaction with the encounter. We used six questions to measure satisfaction, including semantic differential scales addressing feelings, pleasure and satisfaction (Crosby et al., 1990), a need-disconfirmation item (Westbrook and

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Oliver, 1991), a decision-regret item (Westbrook and Oliver, 1991), and a global faces scale showing different facial expressions (Churchill and Surprenant, 1982). For each of the two industries, we examined the relationship of the level of each behavior (based on level of agreement with each behavior statement) with encounter satisfaction. After the global faces satisfaction measure was removed from the satisfaction scale due to low item-total correlation, the remaining five-measure encounter satisfaction construct is unidimensional and has reliability (Cronbach's alpha) of 0.95. When correlation (using Pearson's rho statistic) was computed for each of the behaviors with satisfaction, we discovered that in both the medical and restaurant industries, approximately 90 percent of the behaviors (123) were significantly correlated with satisfaction at p < 0.01. To form a more manageable set of indicators, and to attempt to identify the most important behaviors, we selected only those behaviors which correlated at greater than 0.50 with encounter satisfaction for further analysis. This narrowed the behaviors to 78 (57 percent) for the restaurant industry and 63 (46 percent) for the medical industry. Those behaviors most highly related to satisfaction (correlating at higher than 0.50 with encounter satisfaction and henceforth referred to as ``key behaviors'') were virtually identical in both industries. The main difference was that there were 15 more key behaviors in the restaurant industry than in the medical industry. Fifty-nine behaviors (94 percent of key behaviors in the medical industry) were identified as key behaviors in both industries. These overlap behaviors, along with correlation levels with satisfaction in each industry, are included as Table I. Behaviors identified as key in only one of the two industries are included as Table II. Positive behaviors depicting those actions service providers need to take to achieve satisfied customers are depicted first. These are followed by negative behaviors that service providers must avoid to keep customers from being dissatisfied (each of these items was reverse-scored, then correlated with satisfaction). While there clearly is vast similarity between the behaviors that determine satisfaction in these two industries, there are some differences in the level of relationship with satisfaction and in a few of the behaviors identified. For the medical encounters, the top three behaviors (in terms of correlation to satisfaction) were caring (0.78), sincere (0.76) and pleasant (0.75). For the restaurant encounters, the behaviors most related to satisfaction were being careful (0.77), attentive (0.76), and pleasant (0.75) (see Table I). Clearly, it is very important to satisfaction in both industries that service providers be pleasant. Beyond that, emotional issues like caring and sincerity seem more important for doctors, while caretaking issues like being careful and attentive are more important for waiters. This is supported by the behaviors unique to each industry, with those on only the medical list focusing on authenticity issues, and those for only the restaurant focusing more on speed and responsiveness (see Table II).

Medical Positive behaviors Answered all of my questions Anticipated my needs Was very attentive Was very available when needed Treated me carefully Seemed to care about me Made me feel comfortable Was very competent Considered what I had to say Talked with me Was very courteous to me Was very enthusiastic Made a lot of eye contact with me Was friendly Seemed natural and genuine Seemed happy and cheerful Was helpful to me Seemed to be very honest Asked me how I was Seemed very intelligent Seemed interested in me and my needs Was nice to me Was very knowledgeable Listened to what I had to say Seemed to have good manners Was very personable Acted in a personal way Was very pleasant Worked to resolve any problems Was very professional Responded to my needs quickly Acted in a relaxed manner Respected me Used facial expression that made him or her seem very sincere Sincere body language Was sincere Engaged in small talk Smiled a lot Granted my special requests Took the time to perform his or her services Was very understanding Was very warm Negative behaviors Was very abrupt Seemed distant Was annoyed with me Acted arrogantly 0.61 0.52 0.71 0.55 0.62 0.78 0.74 0.64 0.53 0.60 0.65 0.54 0.52 0.66 0.66 0.61 0.68 0.53 0.57 0.62 0.67 0.74 0.55 0.58 0.65 0.73 0.71 0.75 0.60 0.58 0.63 0.55 0.61 0.69 0.53 0.76 0.50 0.50 0.53 0.60 0.68 0.66 0.58 0.68 0.56 0.54

Restaurant

Service behaviors

0.54 0.65 0.76 0.67 0.77 0.65 0.73 0.66 0.55 0.54 0.70 0.67 0.56 0.70 0.66 0.69 0.69 0.58 0.55 0.65 0.68 0.72 0.59 0.57 0.73 0.69 0.65 0.76 0.60 0.60 0.67 0.56 0.58 0.70 0.59 0.69 0.51 0.58 0.55 0.65 0.73 0.71 0.55 0.63 0.54 0.51 (continued)

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Table I. Correlations of behaviors with satisfaction (behaviors correlated higher than 0.50, significant at p 0.01)

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Medical Had a bad attitude Provided bad service Seemed to be interested in business only Seemed distracted Ignored me Did not provide complete service Indifferent Displayed no sense of humor Did not look me in the eyes Did not smile at me Acted rudely toward me Was very stiff Treated me as a number 0.58 0.59 0.55 0.59 0.56 0.57 0.55 0.58 0.61 0.61 0.53 0.58 0.62

Restaurant 0.60 0.68 0.59 0.66 0.59 0.63 0.61 0.63 0.58 0.63 0.57 0.62 0.66

Table I.

High correlations only for medical Positive Explained what I did not understand Negative Had a fake smile Seemed phoney or fake Acted very programmed 0.53 0.58 0.54 0.56

High correlations only for restaurant Positive Checked back on me to see how I was doing Used language that was very clear The timing of the services provided was oriented to my needs Joked around Information about any delays was provided Moved quickly Used very polite language Quickly attended to me Greeted me right away Quickly served me Responded to my comments Negative Acted impatiently with me Provided incorrect service Seemed insecure Used facial expressions that suggested lack of genuineness Moved slowly Did not ask any questions Had a fake smile Treated me roughly

0.62 0.50 0.60 0.51 0.54 0.55 0.55 0.67 0.61 0.63 0.51 0.51 0.55 0.51 0.60 0.59 0.55 0.55 0.58

Table II. Correlations of behaviors with satisfaction (behaviors correlated higher than 0.50, significant at p 0.01)

Stage four: service encounter dimensions The last research objective was to identify and analyze the factors or dimensions defined by the behaviors that are highly correlated with encounter satisfaction and to test their ability to predict satisfaction. The original intent of the research was to perform factor analysis for each industry and then compare

and contrast the results. However, since the behaviors highly correlated with satisfaction are almost identical for the two industries, a single factor analysis was instead performed for both industries to avoid redundancy and to allow for improved generalizability. The 59 behaviors, correlated over 0.50 with encounter satisfaction in both the medical and restaurant industries (see Table I), were entered into a principal components factor analysis. Oblique rotation was used and all items not loading 0.50 or above on any factor were removed. Items were also removed if reliability of the factor would be improved without them. This analysis resulted in three service encounter dimensions (concern, congeniality, and civility) defined by 34 behavioral measures (see Table III). All factors have reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient) of greater than 0.90 (see Table IV). When the factor scores for each factor are regressed together on satisfaction, nearly three-quarters of the variance in encounter satisfaction is 0.000), and the sum scores for each factor are all explained (R2 = 0.74, p highly correlated with encounter satisfaction (with the lowest at 0.65). When satisfaction is divided into low satisfaction (scores of 1 to 3) and high satisfaction (scores of 5 to 7), the sum scores for the factors entered together into a discriminant analysis can correctly classify 96 percent of cases (see Table IV). The first dimension, which we have called concern, by itself explains over half the variance in satisfaction and has a Pearson's correlation coefficient with satisfaction of 0.79. In a discriminant analysis, it correctly predicts satisfaction level for 93 percent of cases (see Table IV). This dimension includes 20 behaviors. It combines elements of the empathy, assurance, and responsiveness dimensions of SERVQUAL, the concept of authenticity discussed earlier, and some additional concepts that are not well addressed currently in SERVQUAL or other service literature. It also captures well three of four service encounter dimensions identified by Chandon et al. (1997): perceived competence, listening, and dedication. Some items that would probably be considered part of assurance in SERVQUAL are included through such descriptions as ``seemed very intelligent'' and ``was very knowledgeable'' (important for waiters and waitresses, as well as for doctors). Caring or empathy is included through behaviors like ``seemed to care about me'', ``asked me how I was'', ``seemed interested in me and my needs'', ``was helpful to me'', ``made me comfortable'', ``was very understanding'', ``was very attentive'', ``considered what I had to say'' and ``treated me carefully''. Responsiveness is indicated through behaviors such as ``anticipated my needs'' and ``was very available when needed''. All of these behaviors exhibit concern or caring about the customer or patient. A closely related concept included in this construct is that of respect (``respected me''). This correlates with satisfaction at 0.61 and 0.58. Respect is a very important concept covered at length in the popular literature, but virtually ignored in the academic services literature. Authenticity or genuineness is another underresearched concept included in this dimension through indicators

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Factor/measures Concern Was very knowledgeable Seemed very intelligent Was helpful to me Seemed to care about me Anticipated my needs Talked with me Asked me how I was Treated me carefully Seemed interested in me and my needs Was sincere Was very understanding Seemed to be very honest Was very attentive Made me feel comfortable Acted in a personal way Seemed natural and genuine Considered what I had to say Was very available when needed Respected me Was very warm** Civility Acted arrogantly* Had a bad attitude* Acted rudely toward me* Was annoyed with me* Ignored me* Seemed distracted* Was very abrupt* Did not smile at me* Did not provide complete service* Congeniality Smiled a lot Was very enthusiastic Seemed happy and cheerful Was very warm** Used facial expression which made him or her seem sincere Notes: * Reverse-scored items; ** Included in two factors

Factor loading 0.91 0.85 0.83 0.81 0.79 0.79 0.77 0.77 0.76 0.75 0.75 0.72 0.72 0.70 0.69 0.68 0.67 0.61 0.59 0.55 0.92 0.89 0.86 0.83 0.78 0.68 0.66 0.56 0.53 0.73 0.65 0.63 0.54 0.50

Table III. Service dimensions with factor loadings (loadings ! 0.50)

like ``was sincere'', ``seemed to be very honest'' and ``seemed natural and genuine''. This concept of genuineness that seems so important to consumers in this research has received significant attention in the social psychology literature as important to consumers (Hochschild, 1983), but has received very little attention in the marketing services literature. Clearly, these attributes warrant more attention in the service encounter literature. Perhaps the most interesting of the behaviors included in this factor is conversation or ``talked with me''. (``Engaged in small talk'' also correlated at a

Factor Concern Civility Congeniality All factors
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Alphaa 0.97 0.93 0.92

Eigen-value 18.57 2.27 1.64 R2 = 0.74 (p 0.000)d

Percent of variance 56.3 6.9 5.0

Correlation with satisfactionb 0.79** 0.65** 0.70**

Percent correctly classifiedc % 93 93 92 96

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Notes: a Scores listed are the Cronbach's alpha coefficient test for reliability; b Correlation statistics are for sum scales for each factor correlated with satisfaction; c This refers to the cases correctly classified as high or low satisfaction using discriminant analysis; d R2 refers to variance explained in a regression analysis of all of the factors on encounter satisfaction; ** Significant at p 0.01

Table IV. Analysis of factors

level higher than 0.50 with satisfaction in both industries and loaded on this factor, but it was removed from the analysis because it did not contribute to the reliability of the factor.) There is little written about the role of conversation in the service encounter. Small talk is mentioned as a component of personalization by Surprenant and Solomon (1987), but has otherwise received little attention. Communication is included as a component of perceived service quality by Parasuraman et al. (1985), and John (1991) discusses a dimension called ``communicativeness'' as influencing patient satisfaction with a doctor. However, these focus on explaining and information exchange, not small talk and general conversation. These conversation attributes seem closely related to relationship-seeking by customers as described by Parasuraman et al. (1991). They discuss the importance of building trust as a way of strengthening relationships and say that ``open, regular, two-way communication paves the way for trust'' (p. 40). These attributes also could be related to what Mohr and Bitner (1991) call ``mutual understanding'' that most customers seek. A concept that Graham and Sano (1989) call ``non-task sounding'' also is similar to the conversation concepts identified in this research. While some of this non-business conversation goes on in the USA, it typically is not given as much attention in business encounters as it is in other countries (Graham and Sano, 1989; Harris and Moran, 1990). It is not directly addressed in any current models of service quality or in studies examining the service encounter. These attributes warrant more attention. Perhaps related to conversation and also to personalization is ``acted in a personal way'', another of the behaviors included in the concern construct. Interestingly, the other behaviors expected to indicate personalization, like name usage and remembering the customer, are not as highly related to satisfaction as the behaviors retained in the model. The second highest amount of variance is explained by a dimension that we have called civility. The civility dimension focuses on ``not negative'' behavior,

European Journal of Marketing 34,3/4 412
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i.e. basic minimally acceptable or civil behavior. It suggests that there are a variety of behaviors that service delivery personnel must avoid in order to provide ``adequate'' service (Parasuraman et al., 1991) and to protect against customer dissatisfaction. These behaviors represent what Wels-Lips et al. (1998) call ``dissatisfiers''. If any of these negative behaviors are exhibited by service providers, service may dip below what Zeithaml et al. (1991) call the customer's zone of tolerance, below which the consumer will be dissatisfied with service rendered. Numerous studies have shown that consumer satisfaction with service is more sensitive to negative performance than to positive performance (Mittal and Baldasare, 1996). This construct has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.93 and is highly and significantly correlated with encounter satisfaction at 0.65 (p 0.000). It correctly predicts satisfaction level for 93 percent of cases in a discriminant analysis (see Table IV). (While method variance has sometimes been suggested to cause reversescored factors to load together, these factors loaded together even when not reverse-scored.) The nine items also work together well conceptually and are each highly related to satisfaction. Behaviors in the civility construct relate primarily to attitude (``had a bad attitude'', ``acted arrogantly'', ``was annoyed with me''), courtesy (``acted rudely toward me'', ``was very abrupt'', ``did not smile''), and attention (``ignored me'', ``seemed distracted'', ``was indifferent''). A third construct, congeniality, consists almost entirely of things related to the service person's positive attitude, sunny temperament, and warm personality. The five behaviors that make up this construct are ``smiled a lot'', ``was very enthusiastic'', ``seemed happy and cheerful'', ``had a sincere expression'', and ``was very warm''. The construct has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.92 and is highly correlated with satisfaction at 0.70 (p 0.01). It predicts satisfaction level correctly for 92 percent of cases in a discriminant analysis (see Table IV). Very little is written in the service literature about the importance of congeniality (attitude and demeanor) in service delivery, though the concepts are touched on in some articles (Andaleeb, 1998; Proctor and Wright, 1998). This construct clearly warrants more attention in the literature. These behaviors, together with those in the concern construct, represent behaviors needed for service providers to surpass expectations and build customer franchises (Parasuraman et al., 1991). (It is interesting to see that, while we want our service providers to be ``genuine and natural'', we also want them to be ``happy and cheerful''. Service provision is tough if you're having a bad day!) Implications, limitations and research directions This research supports the notion that many of the behaviors important to consumers in evaluating service encounters are the same across different types of service encounters (at least within highly interactive service settings). In both the medical and restaurant industries, customers want service providers to demonstrate concern and competence, to be congenial, and to be civil. Specific behavioral measures are developed by this research

for each of these dimensions, allowing service managers to more clearly interpret and implement these dimensions in service provision. The three dimensions identified explain nearly three-quarters of the variance in encounter satisfaction in a regression analysis, and successfully predict satisfaction level in more than 95 percent of cases in a discriminant analysis. These numbers suggest that successful implementation of these behaviors by service personnel could be a very useful tool for service providers to ensure customer satisfaction and retention. These constructs and the behaviors identified support Goleman's (1995) concept of the importance of ``emotional intelligence''. It is crucial for service providers to be skilled in managing their emotions. We show some behaviors that have not been addressed substantively in previous service literature to be very highly correlated with customers' satisfaction with service encounters and to function as important elements in the three key dimensions of the service encounter. They provide direction for future research on service encounters and customer satisfaction in a service setting. Concepts warranting further research include conversation, respect, authenticity or genuineness, components of attitude and demeanor, and those negative attitudes and behaviors that trigger dissatisfaction. Clearly the use of a student sample limits the generalizability of the findings, as students represent only a subset of consumers for the two industries studied. The study also looks at only two industries and one country (the USA). Further research should be done to test the appropriateness of the dimensions and behaviors identified in this paper in other industries, in other cultures, and with other types of consumers. This research presents a framework and measurement scales for examining and measuring service encounter components in the restaurant and medical industries in the USA. Clearly this research is exploratory in nature and needs further inquiry and validation. However, the findings from this research provide a foundation and a measurement base for future research regarding services and the service encounter. They also provide a cross-industry look at the service encounter, and indicate that there are many more similarities than differences in the behaviors that are important to consumers across different industries. The findings provide operational detail, through the behavioral measures, with substantial managerial relevance to services marketers. This article develops scales with specific behavioral measures that can be used by managers to analyze employee behavior and customer satisfaction in the medical and hospitality industries and other high interaction businesses. Exit interviews should be conducted immediately following service encounters to examine links between these behaviors and service encounter satisfaction. The scales can then be refined as necessary for individual service settings. Findings of customer surveys using these scales can then be used in training and employee evaluation programs.

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67. Barbara SantichHospitality and Gastronomy: Natural Allies 47-59. [CrossRef] 68. Anne M. Smith. 2006. A cross-cultural perspective on the role of emotion in negative service encounters. The Service Industries Journal 26:7, 709-726. [CrossRef] 69. 2006. The Importance and Performance Analysis of Service Encounter Quality by Types of Restaurants. Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 35:8, 1076-1087. [CrossRef] 70. Roediger Voss, Thorsten Gruber. 2006. The desired teaching qualities of lecturers in higher education: a means end analysis. Quality Assurance in Education 14:3, 217-242. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] 71. Professor Göran Svensson, Adel I. El‐Ansary. 2006. Marketing strategy: taxonomy and frameworks. European Business Review 18:4, 266-293. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] 72. Haiyan Hu, Cynthia R. Jasper. 2006. Social cues in the store environment and their impact on store image. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 34:1, 25-48. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] 73. Sally Kernbach, Nicola S. Schutte. 2005. The impact of service provider emotional intelligence on customer satisfaction. Journal of Services Marketing 19:7, 438-444. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] 74. Roger Bennett, Anna Barkensjo. 2005. Relationship quality, relationship marketing, and client perceptions of the levels of service quality of charitable organisations. International Journal of Service Industry Management 16:1, 81-106. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] 75. Alison M. Dean. 2004. Links between organisational and customer variables in service delivery. International Journal of Service Industry Management 15:4, 332-350. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] 76. Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur, Yi-Chun Lin. 2004. Promoting service quality in tourist hotels: the role of HRM practices and service behavior. Tourism Management 25:4, 471-481. [CrossRef] 77. J.Enrique Bigné, Luisa Andreu. 2004. Emotions in segmentation. Annals of Tourism Research 31:3, 682-696. [CrossRef] 78. Veronica Liljander, Jan Mattsson. 2002. Impact of customer preconsumption mood on the evaluation of employee behavior in service encounters. Psychology and Marketing 19:10, 837-860. [CrossRef] 79. John WalkerChapter Two ELT service and student satisfaction 25-39. [CrossRef] 80. Relational Dynamics and Outcomes in Small and Large Service Organizations 363-375. [CrossRef]

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