In this paper, we develop a conceptual model for assessing student satisfaction with universities and the likelihood of students recommending their institutions to other prospective students. Student satisfaction is conceptualised as a mediator between resources and capabilities and recommendation. The resources and capabilities that contribute to student satisfaction are identified as teaching, learning, technology, library, student services and student orientation. The resource needs of local and international students are compared. The data are analysed through path modelling, which results in a holistic perspective of the relationships. The findings suggest that more resources are required to satisfy local students than foreign students-that is, that local students perceive a larger pool of resources to be important for their satisfaction while foreign students appear to require a smaller pool. The implications of the study for university administrators are discussed and areas for future research are suggested.
Considers the role of non‐verbal communication in consumers’ evaluation of service encounters. Non‐verbal communication has been extensively studied in the psychology and psychotherapy disciplines and has been shown to have a central effect on participants’ perceptions of an event. As services are essentially interpersonal interactions it follows that non‐verbal communication will play a major part in service evaluation. Uses an experimental methodology based on video scenarios to demonstrate the effect of this type of communication on consumers. The results indicate significant differences in respondents’ reactions to the scenario according to the non‐verbal behaviour of the service provider.
Superior customer service has always been recognized as a source of competitive advantage. But as the economic environment becomes more challenging, as switching costs become lower, and many service brands are experiencing difficulties, there is a compelling need to focus upon the quality of the customer experience in order to maintain competitive positioning. This is particularly important in those circumstances where services fail. Drawing upon the notion of the customer as a cocreator of his/her own service experience, this article examines the role of a specific set of customer resources referred to as emotional intelligence (EI) in shaping customer response to a specific set of circumstances: service failure. The results show that the level of EI does predict consumer responses to service failure in terms of customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Customer EI is identified as an important consideration for service managers in understanding how customers respond to service failure and service recovery efforts. These results highlight the need for managers to consider EI as a discriminating customer variable in circumstances where emotions and emotional management are prevalent. This innate individual resource needs to be recognized in more generalized service research involving interpersonal interaction, negotiation, and conflict resolution.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to operationalise and measure the effects of negative customer engagement (CE) in conjunction with positive CE. Both valences are explored through affective, cognitive and behaviour dimensions, and, in relation to the antecedent of involvement and outcome of word-of-mouth (WOM). It also explores the moderating influence of service context by examining engagement within a social service versus a social networking site (SNS). Engagement with the dual focal objects of a service brand and a service community are also examined.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modelling is used to analyse 625 survey responses.
Findings
Involvement is a strong driver of positive CE, and positive CE has a strong effect on WOM. These findings are consistent across the “brand” and “community” object, suggesting positive CE is mutually reinforced by different objects in a relationship. Positive CE is also found to operate consistently across the service types. Involvement is a moderately negative driver of negative CE, and negative CE is a positive driver of WOM. These relationships operate differently across the objects and service types. Involvement has a stronger inverse effect on negative CE for the social service, diverging from assumptions that negative CE is reflective of highly involved customers. Interestingly, negative CE has a stronger effect on WOM in the social service, highlighting the active and vocal nature of customers within this service context.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to quantitatively measure positive and negative valences of engagement concurrently, and examine the moderating effect of dual objects across contrasting service types.
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