What are the three 3 key players involved in a service encounter that shape the outcome of any encounter?

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Comment Card aim to improve the service
Improving customer service?
Encounter Cascade
Types of Service Encounters

Within this portfolio report, it’ll cover the importance of customer encounters with employee and consumer relationships, furthermore the report will show the positives and negative impacts of the fast food experience and how things can be improved I the long term.

Company in order to impress customers by its service is not easy to achieve. It is difficult to provide single service to different group of consumers. The service encounter has been defined as ‘a period of time during which a consumer directly interacts with a service’ (Shostack, 1985). Some scholars said that service encounters usually is interpersonal exchange between customers and service providers and these interpersonal exchanges can strongly influence customers; satisfaction. There are a lot of elements found at a service encounter may affect the customer’s service experience ultimately. A service encounter is that period of time during which the customer and the service firm interact in person over telephone or through other media (Shostack 1985). Essentially, a service encounter has been defined as a social interaction involving one human being interacting with another (Czepiel et al.1985). Given the high degree of person-to-person inter action and, quite frequently the absence of an exchange of tangible goods, the service encounter becomes a critical component of service quality. There are three key players involved in a service encounter that shape the outcome of any encounter: the service firm which sets policies and guidelines; the employees who enact the policies of the firm; and the customer who seeks to satisfy a range of needs and wants. Propose several service encounter dimensions on the basis of which a service encounter can be assessed. These dimensions and their subcategories differ depending on whether it is the customer or the firm doing the assessment. From the customer’s view, the service provider’s perceived competence (expertise), listening skills and dedication are likely to be key in assessing the service received. From the employee’s view, customer courtesy, efficiency in terms of getting the transaction completed and personal (employee) satisfaction are likely to be key in the assessment process.

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It is probably true to say that service encounters are alike in that they have certain common distinguishing characteristics; however, due to the dynamic nature of human interactions, every encounter differs to some degree. Many service encounters have been considered in isolation in that they have been considered outside a broader context. Often when researchers consider service encounters, they merely think about individual events rather than connections between them. While much research has focused on discrete service encounters, more recent studies have examined multiple service encounters, or sequences of events. For example, Verhoef et al. (2004) approached the service encounter as a sequence of events. In particular, they tested a model on how events contribute to an overall evaluation of a sequence of events and found that while the average performance during the encounter is important, peak performances are critical for satisfaction formation.

My service experience at Wok Chinese fast food restaurant my first encounter with customer service team wasn’t the most pleasant, few employees lacked any high level mannerism that’s required in the fast food restaurant business. Nothing impressive about the food itself the likely hood of returning is borderline zero. The restaurant however did have form of entertainment, Karaoke is not what I expected as entertainment, the employees had many technical issues with the equipment, more indications on the service quality of the fast food restaurant. Also, the decoration of the eating place has been drawn a bad attention, for instance, crimson wall painting and delicate mild, and it makes clients feel uncomfortable. The service from staffs isn’t barely professional and the experience in general was bottom tier. The restaurant was relatively busy however I didn’t see any staff helping or looking to assist any customers which an indicator the service is relatively poor. The waiter that brought my food didn’t bother returning to ask if wanted anything else and judging by facial expression, he’s no longer smiling or showing no deep acting in any shape or form. The employees looked rather frustrated after having heated discussion with the manager, likely hood has attitude completed switched due to that conversation. Only positive which I included in the appendix was they gave me free gift items before I left, the manager surface acting indicated he wanted me to leave the restaurant happy with the service, unfortunately that wasn’t at the case.

Service relationships are characterized by means of employees personal understanding of one another a records of earlier interaction and an expected future In a provider relationship, a consumer is willing to characteristic a hit encounter to the man or woman provider issuer’s internal characteristics, in the case of my service experience the staff failed to make that interaction that they wanted to build a loyal relationship with a regular consumer. Due to the lack of deep acting and employees showing borderline no interest as a customer, it was a distraught feeling to overcome in the moment. however external elements could’ve played a part as the staff really lacked in surface acting during my period at the fast food restaurant, in addition when my waiter publicly had a loud discuss which looked very intense, perhaps this falls under employee dealing with other external factors affecting performance furthermore there may be normally a lack of intimacy and familiarity among the employee and consumer; accordingly fulfillment is frequently brushed off as resulting from external elements (‘it become an clean process’), while failure is associated with internal elements (‘the employees lack of interest). Provider relationships are costly to develop, as extra personnel time must be dedicated to looking after man or woman customers. As a result, service relationships are rare as compared to carrier encounters. But, given the benefits of multiplied patron loyalty that can result from relationships, Gutek et al. (1999). This is clear indication on the magnitude and importance of building instant rapport with consumers, in this case the employees and restaurant won’t be seeing me return again.

Comment Card aim to improve the service

Improving customer service?

The way forward on improving the biggest issue the poor level of customer service and interaction is being able to understand the meanings of hospitality and deep/surface acting. Something that requires polishing. Furthermore the employees must tender to the customers on a regular bases during in meal moments where their assistance might be required instant, members of staff entirely cut off helping customers at times. More frequent checks on customers are vital in restaurant chain.

Within this report of the reflection of fast food restaurant, the key areas that were critically covered were the importance of customer encounters and service, what role they play and how they influence revenue for the restaurant. (Schostack) covered the vital role customer to employee encounters and that plays vital part of the customers entire experience, lastly valid ways of improving the customer service and encounters with consumers and ways to maintain surface/deep acting.

Chapter 7The Service Encounter

From the customer’s point of view, the most vivid impression of service occurs in the service encounters or “Moment Of Truth,” when the customer interacts with the service firm. This is the foundation to “Satisfaction of Service Quality” — it is where the promises are kept or broken. The concept of service encounter was put forth by Richard Norman, taking the metaphor from Bull Fighting. Most services are results of social acts, which take place in direct contact between the customer and the service provider. At this stage the customer realizes the perceived service quality.

Every “Moment of Truth” is Important — according to Scandinavian Airlines, each one of their 10 million customers come in contact with 5 employees. Thus the airlines say there 50 million moments of truth — each one is managed well and “They prove they are the BEST”.

Encounter Cascade

The encounter cascade refers to a series of encounters right from the time a customer comes to take the service. The encounter cascade can be important as any encounter can be critical, as it determines customer satisfaction and loyalty. If it’s the first interaction of the customer then the initial interaction will be the first impression. So, these interactions have to be given importance, as they are critical and influences customer’s perception of the organization. For example, a customer calling for the repair service may switch to some other company if he is put on hold for a long time or even treated rudely. Even if the technical quality of that firm is superior, the firm may not get a chance to prove themselves in front of the customer. When the customer has had many interactions with firm, each encounter will be important as it will create a combined image of that firm. Many positive experiences will give an image of “high quality” and many negative experiences will represent a bad image. Combination of positive and negative interactions will leave the customer confused about the quality.

It is suggested that not all encounters are equally important in building long-term relations. For every organization, certain encounters can act as a key to customer satisfaction. For example, in a hospital context, a study of patients revealed that encounters with the nursing staff were more important in predicting the customer satisfaction. As it is rightly said “one bad apple can ruin the whole basket of apples.” The same applies in this too; one negative encounter can drive the customer away, no matter how many encounters had taken place in the past. So a firm has to give a lot of importance to such encounters.

However some encounters are more critical. For example, a customer who has been using a bank for nearly 15 years is quite happy with the service. He has a huge deposit and many accounts. One fine morning, when he comes out of the bank the watch man asks 5$ for parking charges of his car. He goes inside the bank and informs the clerk at the counter, who directs him to the officer. The officer directs him to the Manager, who says he is helpless as this is a new policy of the bank. The customer who was so happy with the bank services decides to close all his accounts.

Types of Service Encounters

A service encounter occurs every time a customer interacts with the service organization. There are three general types of service encounters – remote encounters, phone encounters, and face-to-face encounters. A customer may experience any of these types of service encounters, or a combination of all three in his/her relations with a service firm.

Remote Encounter: Encounter can occur without any direct human contact is called as Remote Encounters. Such as, when a customer interacts with a bank through the ATM system, or with a mail-order service through automated dial-in ordering. Remote encounters also occur when the firm sends its billing statements or communicates others types of information to customers by mail. Although there is no direct human contact in these remote encounters, each represents an opportunity for a firm to reinforce or establish perceptions in the customer. In remote encounter the tangible evidence of the service and the quality of the technical process and system become the primary bases for judging quality. Services are being delivered through technology, particularly with the advent of Internet applications. Retail purchases, airline ticketing, repair and maintenance troubleshooting, and package and shipment tracking are just a few examples of services available via the Internet. All of these types of service encounters can be considered remote encounters.
Phone Encounters:- In many organizations, the most frequent type of encounter between a customer and the firm occurs over the telephone is called as phone encounter. Almost all firms (whether goods manufacturers or service businesses) rely on phone encounters in the form of customer-service, general inquiry, or order-taking functions. The judgment of quality in phone encounters is different from remote encounters because there is greater potential variability in the interaction. Tone of voice, employee knowledge, and effectiveness/efficiency in handling customer issues become important criteria for judging quality in these encounters.
Face-to-Face Encounters: A third type of encounter is the one that occurs between an employee and a customer in direct contact is called as Face-to-Face Encounter. In a hotel, face—to—face encounters occurs between customers and maintenance personnel, receptionist, bellboy, food and beverage servers and others. Determining and understanding service equality issues in face—to—face context is the most complex of all. Both verbal and non-verbal behaviors are important determinants of quality, as are tangible cues such as employee dress and other symbols of service (equipment’s, informational brochures, physical settings). In face—to—face encounters the customer also play an important role in creating quality service for herself through his/her own behavior during the interaction. For example, at Disney theme parks, face-to-face encounters occur between customer and ticket-takers, maintenance personnel, actors in Disney character costumes, ride personnel, food and beverage servers, and others. For a company such as, IBM, in a business-to-business setting direct encounters occur between the business customers and salespeople, delivery personnel, maintenance representatives, and professional consultants.

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