Exploring the impact of customer feedback on the well-being of service entities

Abstract

IntroductionMarketing in general and services in particular have been blamed for damaging, disregarding, and maltreating consumer's well-being in a multitude of ways; either by having a patronizing style of service delivery, or by underserving groups in needs (Fisk, 2009). As a result, the Transformative Service Research (TSR) movement began. Emerging at the intersection of transformative consumer research and service research (Anderson et al., 2013), TSR is defined as "service research that centers on creating uplifting changes and improvements in the well-being of individuals (consumers and employees), families, social networks, communities, cities, nations, collectives, and ecosystems" (Ostrom et al., 2010, p. 6). Due to the direct and dialogic interaction between the service company and the customer, this dynamic nature of services presents substantial transformative potential (Anderson et al., 2010). Anderson et al. (2013) present a framework illustrating how interaction between service entities and consumer entities influences the wellbeing of both. Service entities include employees, processes, offerings, organizations, and service sectors, while consumer entities comprise individuals, collectives, and the ecosystem (Anderson et al., 2013). Therefore, when any consumer entity interacts with any service entity, during a value-creation process, potential well-being outcomes are generated for both parties such as access, health, life satisfaction, harmony, power, respect, support, and happiness (Anderson et al., 2013).In light of the above, we propose that customer feedback generated during a value creation process, can have potential well-being outcomes on service and consumer entities. According to Lusch and Vargo (2006), "conversation and dialogue" (p. 413) is one of the four building blocks of a company's strategic marketing direction. Customer feedback, a particular type of "conversation and dialogue", allows companies to listen to customers to understand what it is that they value in the company (Vargo and Lusch, 2008). Previous research has proposed various important outcomes of customer feedback management, such as: assistance in performance assessment, facilitation of organizational learning (Babbar and Koufteros, 2008), improvement of overall service quality , better decision making (Bitner et al., 1994) and generation of competitive advantage (Lusch et al., 2007). However, the impact of customer feedback on the service entities' well-being remains an overlooked area.Adopting a TSR approach, this study aims to address this gap by exploring the impact of customer feedback on the well-being of service entities. Moreover, inspired by the objectives of TSR to "create uplifting changes and improvements in the well-being" (Ostrom et al., 2010, p. 6), the importance of positive customer feedback is stressed. Positive customer feedback is a highly under-researched topic. Most previous research has approached customer feedback from a negative lens, focusing on the impact of 3 customer complaints, dysfunctio...

Developing a deeper understanding of positive customer feedback

“…In this regards, Baron and Warnaby (2011) found that soliciting positive feedback produces valuable information for improving services. Furthermore, personal PCF contributes to the creation of more productive and happier FLEs (Nasr et al, 2014). Similarly, customer empathy was found to act as a qualifier of social interaction by nurturing alignment of feelings and thoughts and creating smooth and harmonious interactions (Gremler and Gwinner, 2008).…”

Relationship Intention and Length of Customer–Firm Associations in Two Emerging Markets

“…Customer feedback can be positive or negative: positive feedback shows firms their strengths as perceived by customers, whereas negative feedback (mostly complaints) is a source to identify problem areas that should be improved (Wirtz, Tambyah, & Mattila, 2010). Customers with higher relationship intentions engage in positive feedback (Nasr, Burton, Gruber, & Kitshoff, 2014) and risk the possible adverse consequences of negative feedback (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009) to display customer citizenship behavior (Liu & Matilla, 2015). Customers with high relationship intentions are subsequently more prone to provide feedback than customers with low relationship intentions (Kumar et al, 2003).…”

When good news is bad news: the negative impact of positive customer feedback on front-line employee well-being

“…Moreover, a number of studies show that employee outcomes are correlated with customer outcomes in the service sector (Yoon and Suh, 2003). Therefore, it is not surprising that most of the customer feedback received by service companies has FLEs as the main subjects and recipients (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2010;Nasr et al, 2014).…”

“…Thus, TSR calls for studies that uncover and analyze the aspects of the service encounter that have the potential to affect the well-being of FLEs. Nasr et al (2014), drawing on positive psychology and positive organizational behavior theory, identified Positive Customer Feedback (PCF), exchanged during a service encounter, as having a transformational potential and a positive impact on the well-being of FLEs. However, Wood et al (2010) reviewing positive feedback and well-being, noted that: "no research has examined whether there might be a negative side associated with gratitude" (p. 13).…”