The "Give-The-Service-Customer-Special-Treatment-Approach": What Happens When Other Customers Are Present in the Same Service Encounter?

This study assesses the effects when customers either receives less (under-reward), the same (equity-reward), or more (over-reward) service quality in relation to other customers present in same service encounter. Our results show that the over-reward did not produce more customer satisfaction and not higher levels of repatronage intentions than did the equity- reward. The under-reward, however, produced less satisfaction and less repatronage intent than both equity-reward and over-reward. And in a transparent service encounter, one customer’s over-reward is another customer’s under-reward. Our results therefore problematize the notion of “the special treatment” in service encounters comprising several customers.

Citation:

Magnus Söderlund and Peter Gabrielson (2011) ,"The "Give-The-Service-Customer-Special-Treatment-Approach": What Happens When Other Customers Are Present in the Same Service Encounter?", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 380-384.