Service Equity, Satisfaction, and Loyalty: From Transaction-Specific to Cumulative Evaluations

Perceived equity is a key psychological reaction to the value that a service company provides. Yet equity research has focused on a customer’s satisfaction with relatively well-defined service episodes or transactions. The authors argue and show that equity plays a very different role in affecting customer loyalty as one moves from transaction-specific to cumulative evaluations. Whereas equity is an important driver of transaction-specific satisfaction, equity is more of a post-satisfaction evaluation when modeling cumulative satisfaction. The research also demonstrates the superiority of cumulative evaluations toward explaining service loyalty and providing a balanced view of loyalty drivers. The results have important implications for how equity, satisfaction, and loyalty are modeled and managed in a service context

Competing through innovation: Let the customer judge!

Although customers are the final judges of innovations, their opinions on firms’ innovations are rarely listened to. In this article, we developed a novel model for examining the antecedents and consequences of perceived firm innovativeness. We argue that when customers cognitively register changes in the value creation introduced by a firm, they perceive the firm as more innovative and, consequently, more attractive than its competitors. Using two waves of data from nationally representative samples (1,293 and 1,583 responses), we developed measures for examining changes in value creation that firms introduce and customers can perceive. We tested our theory by applying structural equation modeling to data from a nationally representative sample (5,812 responses). We found that firms that introduced changes affecting value proposition, value actualization, and interaction space were perceived as more innovative and more attractive than their competitors. Surprisingly, changes in relationship experience are negatively associated with perceived innovativeness and contribute to lower relative attractiveness in the market. One explanation is that firms introduce relationship innovations to safeguard future cash flows, which customers do not necessarily see as innovative.publishedVersio

The Clock is Ticking—Or Is It? Customer Satisfaction Response to Waiting Shorter vs. Longer than Expected During a Service Encounter

Customer waits are commonplace in retail settings. To develop efficient wait management strategies, retailers need insights into how customers respond to waiting during service encounters. An intuitive insight supported by extensive research is that a longer wait duration decreases customer satisfaction. However, the same wait duration might have different effects on customers depending on whether it is shorter or longer than what customers expected. To address this question, we draw upon the research on time value and predict asymmetry in the customer satisfaction response to waiting shorter versus longer than expected: Though the clock is often said to be ticking, waiting longer than expected leads to a minor decrease in satisfaction, whereas waiting shorter than expected substantially increases satisfaction. We provide evidence for this asymmetric effect across three studies and identify two boundary conditions: if the source of the expectation is external (e.g., wait time estimate provided by the retailer) or if the wait is much longer than expected. Overall, our research encourages retailers to put the customer response to waiting into perspective: Customers will tolerate waiting longer than expected, up to a certain point.acceptedVersio

Affective Computing in Marketing: Practical Implications and Research Opportunities Afforded by Emotionally Intelligent Machines

After years of using AI to perform cognitive tasks, marketing practitioners can now use it to perform tasks that require emotional intelligence. This advancement is made possible by the rise of afective computing, which develops AI and machines capable of detecting and responding to human emotions. From market research, to customer service, to product innovation, the practice of marketing will likely be transformed by the rise of afective computing, as preliminary evidence from the feld suggests. In this Idea Corner, we discuss this transformation and identify the research opportunities that it oferspublishedVersio

Hvordan balansere mellom digitale og sosiale innovasjoner

Ledere som ønsker at deres bedrift skal være relevant og attraktiv, må bedre balansere forholdet mellom to innovasjonsstrategier: digitalisering av kundefronten og innovasjoner forankret i samfunnsansvar. Sistnevnte kaller vi sosiale innovasjoner. For ledere fortoner dette seg som et valg mellom å sette søkelys på innovasjoner som er til bedriftens beste, gjennom å digitalisere kundeløsninger, eller å gi oppmerksomhet til innovasjoner som er sosiale, miljø- og samfunnsnyttige. Sagt på en annen måte: Hvilke innovasjoner bidrar mest til å øke kundelojaliteten og dermed kundebasens økonomiske verdi? I denne artikkelen belyser vi problemstillingen med utgangspunkt i virksomhetenes viktigste interessentgruppe – kundene. Vi har intervjuet mer enn 10 000 kunder av norske bedrifter. Tallenes tale er klar: Sosiale innovasjoner er tre ganger så viktige som digitale i sin samvariasjon med opplevd innovasjonsevne, relativ attraktivitet og kundelojalitet. Samtidig viser resultatene at digitalisering kan være en svært viktig forutsetning for å lykkes med sosiale innovasjoner. En bedrift som vil oppnå vekst i omsetning og lojale kunder, bør derfor ikke stoppe ved digitalisering av kundeopplevelsen, men bruke de mulighetene digitalisering gir til å skape sosiale innovasjoner som bidrar gir positive bidrag til miljø og samfunn. I artikkelen belyser vi også ulike innovasjonsorienteringer som vi finner blant bedrifter og virksomheter, om de er digitalt eller sosialt forankret. Til slutt diskuterer vi hvilke ledelsesmessige implikasjoner de ulike orienteringene gir.Hvordan balansere mellom digitale og sosiale innovasjoneracceptedVersio

Behavioral Disinhibition Can Foster Intentions to Healthy Lifestyle Change by Overcoming Commitment to Past Behavior

To curb the trend towards obesity and unhealthy living, people may need to change their entire lifestyle to a healthier alternative, something that is frequently perceived to be problematic. The present research, using a large, representative community sample, hypothesized and found that a key factor responsible for why people do not intend to change lifestyles is a sense of commitment to past behavior. However we also found that the contribution of commitment was attenuated for individuals with a stronger tendency for behavioral disinhibition thus underscoring the "bright side" of this individual difference characteristic that traditionally has been mainly associated with impulsive and indulging behavior. Overall, the present findings add to our understanding of factors inhibiting and promoting healthy behavior change

How do you feel today? Managing patient emotions during health care experiences to enhance well-being

Health care customers (patients) experience heightened emotions due to high stakes from risks to life, health, and well-being. Understanding and managing emotions during service experiences is an important area of inquiry because emotions influence customer perceptions, future intentions and behaviors. Yet despite its significance, research focusing on the impact of emotions on customer experiences remains fragmented, lacking a theoretically based conceptual framework. The authors attempt to fill this gap by addressing two important research questions contextualized in health care: (1) How can health care organizations better understand patient and family emotions during health care experiences? and (2) How should health care organizations use this understanding to design and better manage patient experiences to enhance patient well-being? The authors propose a new theoretically based framework on emotional responses following triggering events to enhance outcomes. Recommendations designed to enhance health care customer well-being are provided, as are directions to guide future work

Teknologi eller personlig service: Hvordan påvirkes kundenes lojalitet?

Det er veldokumentert at bruk av teknologi kan redusere kostnader, men få studier har sett nærmere på teknologiens innvirkning på forbrukernes atferd. I denne studien anvender vi en anerkjent modell fra tjenestemarkedsføringen i en teknologikontekst. Vi belyser hvordan etablerte relasjoner mellom variablene kundetilfredshet, emosjonell (affektiv) og rasjonell (kalkulativ) tilknytning samt lojalitet blir påvirket av at tjenesten leveres gjennom bruk av teknologi versus gjennom personlig service. Vi presenterer to alternative perspektiv på teknologiens rolle. Det første perspektivet er basert på antagelsen om at teknologi forandrer alt, og at relasjonene mellom variablene som leder til lojalitet, blir fullstendig forandret. Det andre perspektivet innebærer at teknologi ikke er annet enn hvilken som helst kontekst, og at den rollen teknologi spiller for forbrukernes atferd, kun er indirekte gjennom allerede eksisterende drivere av lojalitet. En tverrsnittsstudie gjennomført i banknæringen viser at teknologi ikke forandrer alt. Den klassiske oppfatningen av hvordan kundene evaluerer tjenester samt årsakene til lojalitet, finnes igjen i teknologikonteksten. Interessant nok ser det ut til at teknologi ikke har en direkte effekt på lojalitet, men at teknologiens rolle er indirekte og mediert gjennom kundens tilknytning til serviceleverandøren. Imidlertid er det den affektive tilknytningen som synes viktig når kundens lojalitet til serviceleverandøren formes

Modeling Equity, Satisfaction and Loyalty

The link between customer satisfaction and loyalty has had a tremendous impact on managerial decision-making and academic works over the years. Despite the lack of empirical research supporting this link, its existence seems to be assumed, independent of place and time. Across customer loyalty studies, however, the achieved explained variance in the customer loyalty construct is typically rather low, indicating other possible explanations than customer satisfaction to account for customers’ loyalty to service providers. At the same time, we observe that customers’ demands are changing at an increasingly high pace; customers now expect to interact with service providers in a multitude of ways simultaneously, posing new challenges to service managers striving to establish and maintain a loyal customer base. Triggered by marketing’s shift in focus from a transaction to a relationship orientation, this development has further escalated due to the rapid infusion of new technology into service industries, demonstrating as such the need to explore alternative determinants of customer loyalty in various situations. In the literature, alternative determinants or intervening variables have been classified as intra-psychological, contextual or situational factors; in this dissertation, we investigate such alternative determinants and intervening variables in order to explain customer loyalty in various situations. The overall research objective of the dissertation has been, then, to gain insight into the consequences for customer satisfaction and loyalty modeling of these rapidly changing customer demands, to develop models accordingly, and to test these models empirically. Our approach resulted in five studies conducted in different service industries, with data collected through the Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer survey and related research projects