Managing customer expectations in professional services

Ojasalo, Jukka

doi:10.1108/09604520110391379

Cited by 134 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(13 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

130

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Service quality can also be conceptualised as an evaluation or an attitude about a service (Bateson, 1995). Evaluating healthcare services can be difficult and the literature suggests that in professional services, customers have 'fuzzy' expectations about what they expect from service providers, and are often unsure whether services have met their expectations (Ojasalo, 2001). The patient has an active role as participant thereby helping to create the service, inferring that unless the patient does what health provider suggests then the service cannot be effectively delivered (Bitner, et al, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Service quality in alcohol treatment

Resnick

Griffiths

2011

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose -To evaluate service quality in a UK privately funded alcohol treatment clinic. Methodology -Data were gathered via interviews with two groups of participants using the SERVQUAL questionnaire. The first group comprised 32 patients and the second 15 clinic staff. The SERVQUAL instrument measures service quality expectations and perceptions across five service dimensions and identifies gaps between service expectations and perceptions of what was delivered. Findings -Patients' service quality expectations were exceeded on four of five dimensions. However, staff members felt services fell below expectations on four of five dimensions with the 'reliability' service dimension emerging as the common service element falling below expectations for both participant groups. It was concluded that achieving consistent service delivery and increasing empathy between staff and patients improves overall service quality perceptions. Research limitations -Relies on self-report methods from a relatively small number of individuals. Originality -There have been limited research studies measuring alcohol treatment service quality in the private sector

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Service quality in alcohol treatment

Resnick

Griffiths

2011

International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…such as "precise" or "realistic" expectations (Ojasalo, 2001). Furthermore, previous experience is recognized as a factor, for example, in "experience-based" expectations (Woodruff et al, 1983).…”

Section: How Responsibility and Expectations Are Currently Connectedmentioning

confidence: 99%

A conceptual foundation for expectations of corporate responsibility

Olkkonen

2017

CCIJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose -Ability to identify and meet stakeholder expectations is seen as imperative for succeeding in corporate responsibility (CR). However, the existing literature of CR communication treats expectations predominantly as positive constructions. The article addresses this positivity bias and offers insights for a more profound conceptual and empirical understanding of stakeholder expectations.Design/methodology/approach -The article presents findings from a targeted literature search and empirical illustrations from a thematic analysis of interview data with a focus on the media sector.Findings -The conceptual understanding of expectations is advanced by exploring positive (optimistic and hopeful), and negative (cynical and pessimistic) expectations. The empirical examples portray expectation analysis and how it becomes more complex when expectations turn negative.Research limitations/implications -The data is limited to one sector but implications are discussed with a wider lens to aid future studies in addressing expectations of CR with less positivity bias and, instead, with more conceptual and empirical precision. IntroductionThere is a wide-spread agreement in the literature of corporate responsibility that identifying and meeting stakeholder expectations and societal expectations is an important factor for succeeding in corporate responsibility (e.g., introductions to literature by Scherer and Palazzo, 2007;2011).More specifically, corporate responsibility is often explained as conformance to societal expectations or as anticipation of societal expectations (e.g., . Essentially, the value in fulfilling expectations of moral and ethical behavior is the trust and legitimacy it can generate (Adams et al., 2010). Trust, by definition, is based on positive expectations despite a possible risk (Lewicki et al., 1998;Rousseau et al., 1998).However, trust is not automatically generated by CR actions and by actively communicating (or Olkkonen: A conceptual foundation for expectations of corporate responsibility advertising) them-instead, efforts to communicate CR can backfire due to perceived hypocrisy, spin or lack of credibility (Waddock and Googins, 2014 Expectations as a forward-looking phenomenon are an area that can explain both the success and pitfalls of this negotiation as they set the frame for assessing CR efforts, their communication and future development. This article departs from this background.The article has a conceptual tone as it aims to investigate the details of expectations as a concept and how to approach expectations in empirical research. First, a targeted literature search in communication journals is presented to map the use of expectations in the current literature of CR communication. As will be discussed in the article, despite the wide circulation and use of expectations in the literature, the conceptual understanding of expectations tends to be narrow and biased in the sense that expectations are understood solely or, at least, predominantly as positive anticipations that ...

show abstract

“…Second and more importantly, it is necessary to understand the level of expectations that customers have for the service and its attributes as it is generally accepted that customers use their expectations of a service to determine whether the service received is of an acceptable level of quality. 5,10,11,12,13 Customers use their expectations as a standard to assess the quality of the service that they are using.…”

Section: Customer Expectations and Service Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Public leisure facilities: managing customer expectations

Robinson

2004

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Municipal E

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SynopsisThis paper examines the impact of customer expectations on the management of public leisure services, arguing that public leisure providers will need to shift their attention from the management of service quality, to focus on the management of customer expectations of their services.Improving the quality of public leisure services has been a goal for successive governments; quality management is inherent within both the Compulsory Competitive Tendering and Best Value frameworks that have impacted on public leisure services since the 1980s. As a result, the management of service quality has become an integral part of the service strategies of public leisure providers, leading to significant improvements in the quality of public leisure services. Associated with these improvements in service quality are raised expectations of these services.Customer expectations have not only required the use of quality initiatives, but have been subsequently further raised by quality management activities. This paper considers the impact of this, arguing that customer expectations are likely to rise to levels that make it financially unviable for public leisure managers to continue with a strategy of service improvement. It suggests that an alternative strategy of managing expectations may be more appropriate. This argument is set out by first, considering the effect of customer expectations on the management of public leisure services, second, discussing how these expectations are formed and consequently, how they can be managed. 3Moving from the management of quality to the management of customer expectations: the challenge for public leisure facility management.

show abstract

Managing customer expectations in professional services

Cited by 134 publications

References 19 publications

Service quality in alcohol treatment

Service quality in alcohol treatment

A conceptual foundation for expectations of corporate responsibility

Public leisure facilities: managing customer expectations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About