Research: Creating positive service encounters

Paper (1989) by: Andrew Lockwood and Peter Jones. Source: https://doi.org/10.1177/0010880489029004.

I have read the paper so you don't have to. The 5 biggest lessons that teach you about the essence of hospitality, tourism and leisure management.

The success of service encounters is determined by many human variables, including the motives, goals, attitudes, perceptions, and social competences of both the service provider and the customer involved in the exchange.

In their employee training, many hospitality firms focus only on the service provider's side of the encounter, overlooking the importance of the customer's part in the interaction.

Managers can't be present at every service encounter, so their only direct control of such interactions is through selection and training of employees and through marketing to customers to influence their expectations. However, managers can exert indirect controls designed to improve service.

The framework in which the service encounter occurs, the roles employees play, the scripts employees use when interacting with guests, the design of the service-delivery system, and the effect of the organizational culture on the service encounter.

Interactions with hotel personnel are the experiences guests remember most when they leave your property.

These variables will determine the level of success of the encounter, in terms of the customer's satisfaction and the degree of stress experienced by the service provider.

• Personal characteristics - There are some characteristics that seem to persist from one interaction to another. These include individuals' need for dominance or dependence, their need for warmth or aggression in interpersonal encounters, their introversion or extraversion, and their degree of self-esteem. These core characteristics dictate an expected range of behaviors.
• Perceptions - Judgements about status, age and personality have a strong influence on the service interaction.
• Social competence - An interaction between people skilled in social interaction will be far different from an interaction between less socially competent individuals.
• Needs and objectives - A task will provide the initial motivation for the encounter. Once the encounter is initiated, however, other motivating forces, such as the need for protection, support, and guidance [...] will come into play.

The characteristics of the service encounter are well documented:

1. The interchange takes place in the context of a work environment.
2. The participants in the exchange are fulfilling roles that are clearly defined and well understood.
3. The encounter often requires temporary suspension of the status enjoyed by the parties concerned.
4. The purpose of a service encounter directs the interchange.

The actual content of the service encounter can be controlled to some extent by addressing common difficulties service providers encounter in fulfilling their roles.

• Role ambiguity - Customers or service providers who don't know the script can upset the service performance.
• Role conflict - The guest's expectations might not correspond with company policies that the employee is obliged to follow.
• Role overload - When several customers are demanding attention simultaneously, or when the service employee has to perform several different tasks at once.
• Role incompatibility - When [employees] are assigned tasks that are incompatible with their talents and personality.
• Multiple-role conflict - The employee may have several roles to fulfill that are, in some sense, contradictory. For instance, receptionists often serve both as welcomer and cashier, requiring them to be warm and supportive in one situation and efficient and businesslike in the next.

This strategy is based on script theory, which asserts that interaction in a specific setting or context will result in the emergency of key words and phrases that both participants recognize and use.

A simple example of a service-encounter script would be a set of stock phrases used by a telephone receptionist.

If the manager decides to use the script approach, he or she has a range of alternatives.

• The manager may develop a very specific script for employees to follow and train service providers to use it effectively. This approach is often used in the fast-food sector.
• Another approach is to define the goals of each type of service encounter very precisely so employees have a clear picture of what they are to accomplish and then allow employees to use their own words in the context of each encounter. Employees can be trained in communication and interpersonal skills to enhance their ability to handle this more flexible type of script.
• An alternative that lies between these extremes is an established script that provides a range of responses from which employees can choose. The Disney corporation uses this type of script.

Prescribed, detailed scripts are most appropriate when the social competence of the staff is low, speed is an important part of the customers' expectations, the exchange must be accurate, and customers seek a secure, reliable interaction.

Employees who are bound by a prescribes script may adopt impersonal, automatic behavior, belying the warm, friendly phrases of the prescribed script and giving the customer the impression that employees at that operation are insincere and uncaring. In addition, employees who are trained to use a prescribed script are not prepared to handle the customer who deviates from the expected response.

Personalized scripts are most appropriate in situations when there is a complex interchange between the service provider and the customer, when customers seek individual attention from the service provider, and when service providers are socially competent.

When employees are left to make up their own scripts within the guidelines established by management, an inexperienced employee or one with limited social competence might deliver a lower level of service than the hotel of restaurant would like to provide.