Enhancing Singapore travel agencies' customer loyalty: an empirical investigation of customers' behavioural intentions and zones of tolerance

Lobò, Antonio; Maritz, Alex; Mehta, Subhash C.

doi:10.1002/jtr.619

Cited by 24 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…A positive linear pattern such that there is no difference in the positive slope across different levels of the ZOT (e.g., Zeithaml et al 1996;Teas and DeCarlos 2004;Lobo et al 2007;Yap and Sweeney 2007), as shown in Figure A1.…”

Section: The Zone Of Tolerance (Zot)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Zone of Tolerance for Internal Customers in IT-Enabled Call Centers

Hsieh

Sharma

Rai

et al. 2013

Journal of Service Research

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Today, call-center employees' service encounters with external customers are extensively supported with modern information technology (IT). However, prior research on service quality and zone of tolerance (ZOT) focuses on external customers with little attention to how internal customers (e.g., service employees) respond to services provided by internal functions, particularly IT function that supports employees' IT use. Drawing on theory of administrative behavior and IT success literature, we conducted a study at a call center of a telecommunications firm and found that the impact of internal IT service quality (ITSQ) on employees' service quality (ESQ) to external customers, as well as on their satisfaction with and use of the deployed technology, exhibits a positive diminishing pattern as ITSQ increases from below to within to above the ZOT. We also found that ITSQ's impacts on ESQ and employees' satisfaction with technology change more dramatically around adequate service level (ASL) than desired service level (DSL). Finally, we show that call-center employees' satisfaction with technology partially mediates ITSQ's impact on ESQ. Besides adding to the service and IT literature, our findings suggest that managers should understand internal customers' different levels of expectations towards internal IT service and the differential performance impacts of those levels.Keywords: Call center, internal customers, internal services, service quality, zone of tolerance, theory of administrative behavior, IT success, IT-enabled service This is the Pre-Published Version.

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Section: The Zone Of Tolerance (Zot)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Zone of Tolerance for Internal Customers in IT-Enabled Call Centers

Hsieh

Sharma

Rai

et al. 2013

Journal of Service Research

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show abstract

“…Walker and Baker (2000) indicated that the concept of ZOT could offer managers useful information for improving service quality. Some scholars explored the ZOT theory from a managerial application perspective (such as Cook et al, 2003;Van Riel et al, 2003;Kettinger and Lee, 2005;Nadiri and Hussain, 2005;Cavana et al, 2007;Lobo et al, 2007). Yap and Sweeney (2007) suggested a moderating role for the ZOT in the quality-key outcomes relationship.…”

Section: Zone Of Tolerance Of Expectationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating City Bus Service Based on Zone of Tolerance of Expectation and Normalized Importance

Hu¹

2010

Transport Reviews

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Improving the quality of the city bus service is an important topic for public transportation management. One way of measuring this improvement is to measure the gap between the passengers' expectation and their perception. The expectation can be divided into desired service and adequate service, and the difference between these two is the tolerant zone of expectation. The present study has two purposes. The first is to propose a model for evaluating service quality based on the zone of tolerance of expectation (ZSQ). The second is to build an analytical framework for prioritizing attributes (NIZSQ, normalized importance-ZSQ analysis) through a quadrant analysis based on ZSQ and normalized importance. This research took the Taipei city bus service as an example. The data were collected by means of questionnaires. Statistical analysis was adopted to test the hypotheses. The result showed that the top two priorities for improvement are those attributes that are relevant to the interaction with the passengers, and the support from operations management.

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“…Gilbert and Gao (2005) examined the relationships between customer tolerance and customer experience, brand trust and customer emotions for travel agencies. Lobo et al (2007) used minimum and desired service expectations and the zone of tolerance to investigate the relationship between service quality and behavioural intentions. Cavana et al (2007) used the multi-expectation framework and zone of tolerance approach to evaluate passenger rail service quality.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Hotel Customers use a Multi-Expectation Framework in the Evaluation of Services? A Study in Cappadocia, Turkey

Yılmaz¹

2010

Tourism and Hospitality Research

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This study investigates whether hotel customers use a multi-expectation framework as a comparison standard in the evaluation of hotel services. The study sample consisted of two-star, three-star, four-star, and fi ve-star hotels in Nevs ¸ ehir, one of the major provinces of Cappadocia, Turkey. The evaluations of 241 respondents demonstrated that hotel customers use two types of expectations (desired and adequate) as a comparison standard in evaluating hotel services. The results also suggest that, in general, hotel customers have a narrow zone of tolerance between these expectations. Hotel customers have the narrowest zone of tolerance on the ' empathy ' dimension. It is concluded therefore that hotel customers are not likely to accept heterogeneity in hotel services, particularly in the area of ' empathy ' .

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Enhancing Singapore travel agencies' customer loyalty: an empirical investigation of customers' behavioural intentions and zones of tolerance

Cited by 24 publications

References 20 publications

Exploring the Zone of Tolerance for Internal Customers in IT-Enabled Call Centers

Exploring the Zone of Tolerance for Internal Customers in IT-Enabled Call Centers

Evaluating City Bus Service Based on Zone of Tolerance of Expectation and Normalized Importance

Do Hotel Customers use a Multi-Expectation Framework in the Evaluation of Services? A Study in Cappadocia, Turkey

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