Preferential treatment in the service encounter

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine reactions when customers in service encounters receive preferential treatment (i.e. something extra in relation to other customers). The examination is conducted in a social context that allows the customer to compare what he or she receives with what other customers receive. The main effect variables are perceived justice and customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental method is employed to examine the effects of providing customers with preferential treatment. The study involves four treatment groups with various combinations of receiving or not receiving preferential treatment. Findings – Customers perceived preferential treatment as relatively unjust. This was true for customers who received the preferential treatment and for those who did not. However, customer satisfaction among those receiving preferential treatment was enhanced, thus signaling that preferential treatment affects perceived justice and satisfaction differently. In addition, different contexts for receiving preferential treatment (i.e. receiving it alone or sharing it with another customer) produced different levels of customer satisfaction. Originality/value – The extant research on preferential treatment has failed to acknowledge that this treatment often occurs in the presence of several customers, which is likely to evoke perceptions of justice. At the same time, extant research on perceived justice in service situations has mainly focussed on service failures as antecedents of justice perceptions. This study attempts to extend theory on both preferential treatment and perceived justice in service-encounter settings.

Loyalty program rewards and their impact on perceived justice, customer satisfaction, and repatronize intentions

“…However, as noted by Söderlund et al (2014), there is a possibility that there are also spill-over effects from prolonged exposure to preferential treatment stemming from several firms' marketing activities-particularly for those who are under-rewarded. Given that those who are under-rewarded in supplier-specific encounters feel less fairly treated, it is possible that their perceptions of justice in society at large are influenced-which in turn may have a negative impact on their perceptions of general trust.…”

“…To accomplish this, we created a measure with items adopted from Beugré and Baron (2001) and Carr (2007) covering both distributive justice and what they refer to as systemic justice, a global justice perceptions construct. Global justice items of this type appear in the distributive justice measure used in Blodgett et al (1997) and Söderlund et al (2014) used similar items to examine perceived (distributive) justice in a service encounter context. The measure comprised six items referring to the behavior of the (male) sales associate, and they were scored from 1 (do not agree at all) to 10 (agree completely): "The decisions he made were fair", "Fairness seems to be an important object for him", "He delivers good outcomes for all customers regardless of who they are", "He is consistent in his dealings with all customers", "He treats all customers in a balanced way", and "He tries to meet all customers' needs fairly" (Cronbach's alpha ¼.95).…”

“…Yet we assume that justice perceptions are easily evoked also in situations in which strangers make comparisons of resource allocation outcomessuch as in service encounters occurring in the presence of other customers (cf. Söderlund et al, 2014).…”

Watching Others Receive Unearned Superior Treatment: Examining the Effects on Tourists Who Receive Less Than Their Peers

“…Therefore, another option is to reduce inter-customer comparison opportunities (e.g., by using queuing systems, thereby allowing each individual tourism service encounter to become more or less private). It should be noted, however, that inter-customer comparisons could also take place without any other customer being present at the same time and place as a focal customer; the rapid growth of social media, in which many customers share service experiences, facilitates a customer's ability to make comparisons with others (Söderlund et al 2014). Needless to say, it would be hard for the firm to restrict such comparison opportunities.…”

Perceived Exploitation in Quality Discrimination

“…does not) receive-judge the offering firm's behavior as unfair (Söderlund et al 2014). Yet, different outcomes are not a necessary condition for a consumer to evaluate a firm's behavior as unfair.…”