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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of customer deference to service providers in service encounters, and articulate its chief antecedents, experiences and consequences. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in Thailand, using critical incident technique. A total of 253 subjects share their experiences of being “deferential” (i.e. “kreng-jai” in Thailand) during everyday service encounters. Findings The findings indicate that in cultures in which the cultural norm (i.e. kreng-jai) is to be considerate of others, customers often become deferential of the service provider during service encounters, especially when customers perceive that the service provider’s well-being is compromised. However, customer deference involves aversive feelings which lead customers to devise coping strategies and avoid future contact with a company. Research limitations/implications Using a specific cultural norm, the findings challenge prior finding that people from collectivist culture are more likely to tolerate and be satisfied with service encounters, and document the role of previously unexamined customer-related factors in driving satisfaction in ordinary service encounters. Practical implications The findings recommend service providers to preempt customers’ deference by establishing and communicating the role and acceptable behaviors, managing physical distance with customers, and monitoring customer non-verbal behavior and facial expressions to detect the customers’ true feelings. Originality/value No prior research has comprehensively examined the phenomenon whereby consumers seek to benefit service providers at the expense of their own well-being. This study demonstrates that customer deference degrades customer satisfaction even in ordinary service encounters.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of customer deference to service providers in service encounters, and articulate its chief antecedents, experiences and consequences. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in Thailand, using critical incident technique. A total of 253 subjects share their experiences of being “deferential” (i.e. “kreng-jai” in Thailand) during everyday service encounters. Findings The findings indicate that in cultures in which the cultural norm (i.e. kreng-jai) is to be considerate of others, customers often become deferential of the service provider during service encounters, especially when customers perceive that the service provider’s well-being is compromised. However, customer deference involves aversive feelings which lead customers to devise coping strategies and avoid future contact with a company. Research limitations/implications Using a specific cultural norm, the findings challenge prior finding that people from collectivist culture are more likely to tolerate and be satisfied with service encounters, and document the role of previously unexamined customer-related factors in driving satisfaction in ordinary service encounters. Practical implications The findings recommend service providers to preempt customers’ deference by establishing and communicating the role and acceptable behaviors, managing physical distance with customers, and monitoring customer non-verbal behavior and facial expressions to detect the customers’ true feelings. Originality/value No prior research has comprehensively examined the phenomenon whereby consumers seek to benefit service providers at the expense of their own well-being. This study demonstrates that customer deference degrades customer satisfaction even in ordinary service encounters.
and Nigel P. FIELD 2)2) Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, U.S.A.62 Thai and 56 U.S. college students were examined on altruism and helping behavior. Thai-Buddhist culture has traditionally taught the importance of prosocial behaviors. Participants were administered the Self-Report Altruism (SRA) Scale, a specially developed projective measure (Altruism Apperception Test) and an indepth interview. Thais scored significantly higher than U.S. subjects on the SRA Scale (p < .001), and manifested a greater tendency to both offer altruistic projections on the AAT (p < .001) and report that they would personally help in such situations (p < .001). An exploratory, mediational analysis performed on the interview data of a subset of participants revealed that Thais appealed to religion as a reason for helping significantly more than Americans (p < .001), while Americans specifically mentioned religion was not a reason significantly more than Thais (p = .002). Findings suggest a relationship between socio-cultural-religious values and prosocial behavior in that Thai-Buddhist-affiliative-collectivistic society appears more altruistically-oriented than the American relatively more areligious achievement or individualistic-based society. Recommendations are that further studies be conducted to support the validation of the projective measure and explore the possible influence of the spirituality and individualism-collectivism constructs.
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