The Service Encounter in Retail Stores of Today - a Different Moment of Truth?

The interaction between the customer and the service provider is often described to have a significant influence on whether the customer regards a service encounter a positive or negative experience (e.g., Gronroos, 2000). However, our knowledge on how to induce the experiences sought by customers in various service encounters is scarce. Using the Critical incident technique (e.g., Flanagan, 1954; Bitner et al., 1994), this paper intends to develop our knowledge on what sort of experiences customers of today look for during the service encounter in retail stores, as well as how the physical surroundings contribute in the inducement of these experiences.

Citation:

Kristina Backstrom and Ulf Johansson (2005) ,"The Service Encounter in Retail Stores of Today - a Different Moment of Truth?", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, eds. Karin M. Ekstrom and Helene Brembeck, Goteborg, Sweden : Association for Consumer Research.