The Efficacy of Facial Expression in Determining Emotions Associated with Cross-Cultural Service Failures

Service failures are often accompanied by negative customer emotions. The appropriate response to the customer by the firm depends on the ability of the service employee to interpret these emotions accurately. This ability to accurately interpret the emotional expression of customers is important because of the fact that 70-95% of dissatisfied customers do not verbally complain. It becomes even more important when customers and service providers are from different cultural backgrounds. We report on an experiment conducted where we tested 153 respondents’ (frontline service employees from East Asian and Anglo cultures) ability to recognise the emotions of customers (also from Asian and Anglo cultures) that had experienced a service failure

An Investigation of Cognitive, Emotional and Negative Behavioural Responses to Service Recovery Strategies

Despite the best intentions of service providers and organisations, service delivery is rarely error-free. While numerous studies have investigated specific cognitive, emotional or behavioural responses to service failure and recovery, these studies do not fully capture the complexity of the services encounter. Consequently, this research develops a more holistic understanding of how specific service recovery strategies affect the responses of customers by combining two existing models—Smith & Bolton’s (2002) model of emotional responses to service performance and Fullerton and Punj’s (1993) structural model of aberrant consumer behaviour—into a conceptual framework. Specific service recovery strategies are proposed to influence consumer cognition, emotion and behaviour. This research was conducted using a 2x2 between-subjects quasi-experimental design that was administered via written survey. The experimental design manipulated two levels of two specific service recovery strategies: compensation and apology. The effect of the four recovery strategies were investigated by collecting data from 18-25 year olds and were analysed using multivariate analysis of covariance and multiple regression analysis. The results suggest that different service recovery strategies are associated with varying scores of satisfaction, perceived distributive justice, positive emotions, negative emotions and negative functional behaviour, but not dysfunctional behaviour. These finding have significant implications for the theory and practice of managing service recovery

The role of emotions in service customer decision-making

This chapter explains how customers make purchase decisions and how these decisions are influenced not only by the service marketer but also by the customers own emotions. While decision-making is described from the perspective of purchasing services rather than purchasing goods, we challenge the traditional notion that customers make informed, rational and well-thought-out decisions. Rather customers are often driven by subjective feelings such as emotions. We present evidence of how these emotions influence the behavior of customers, their attitudes and evaluation of the service, as well as final decision-making processes

Developing case-based dramatised videos as teaching resources

This chapter presents a reflection of the development of dramatized video cases as a resource for use in teaching marketing. It explains the benefits of developing and the pitfalls with making this sort of interactive media. The benefits of using dramatized video scenarios as a teaching resource are: a) they facilitate problem based learning; b) they provide the student with a realistic view of the ethical decisions that are faced by marketing managers, and c) they keep the class learning at the same pace. The development of a multi-platform format means that the videos can be streamed into lectures and tutorial groups, published as streaming content on Web based platforms such as Blackboard and/or downloaded onto students’ cell phones and iPods. However, the problems associated with developing this sort of resource are the cost and time required to make a high quality and credible dramatized case study

The effect of service employees’ accent on customer reactions

Purpose - The primary objective of this article is to investigate customer reactions to service employees with accents that differ from a non-native accent taking into account customer emotions. Design/methodology/approach - This article reports on a study with a 2 (accent of service employee: Australian or Indian) [1] 2 (service employee’s competency: competent or incompetent) [1] 2 (customer’s affective state: positive or negative) between-subject experimental design to uncover the effects of service employees’ accent on customers’ reactions. Findings - The findings revealed that hearing a service employee with a foreign accent was not enough on its own to influence customer responses. However, when the service employee is incompetent or the customer was in a negative affective state, a foreign accent appeared to exacerbate the situation. Research limitations/implications - While the findings indicate that accents are used a cue for customers to evaluate service employees, further research should also take service types, service outcomes, customer-service employee relationships, customers’ ethnic affiliation and ethnocentrism into consideration when examining the effect of accents. Practical implications - Service managers need to be aware that accents will exacerbate perceptions of already difficult service situations. Providing competent service will help breakdown stereotypes and improve the acceptance of diversity at the customer- employee interface. Originality/value - This article contributes to the service literature about service attributes and is particularly relevant to economies such as the USA, Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia where immigrants are a large part of the service work force