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Integrated Approach for Evaluation of Service Quality in Multistage Sequential Utilitarian Service Process
Abstract
Purpose
In the context of sequential multistage utilitarian service processes, the objective of this paper is to develop and validate propositions to study the impact of service quality (SQ) perceptions developed in intermediate stages along with the impact of service gestalt characteristics, such as peak and end experiences, on quality perception at each stage and on overall quality perception (OSQ). The cascade phenomenon (interdependency between process stages) is considered in the evaluation of OSQ perception of customer, who experiences service through a series of planned, distinct, and partitioned sequential stages.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, a conceptual framework is used to evolve the propositions. Subsequently, propositions are tested in 3 different utilitarian service context wherein Customer’s survey was conducted for feedback on attributes at each stage, summary perception evaluations of each stage, and overall service quality evaluation of multistage process. Peak experiences, considered for OSQ evaluation, were defined by a suitable statistical technique. Ordinal logistic regression (OLR) with nested models is the technique used for analyzing the data.
Findings
This work reveals significant cascade effect of summary evaluation of intermediate stages on the subsequent stage. Peak customer experience (negative or positive) is observed to be marginally significant on intermediate stage as well as overall service quality evaluation. In addition, overall service quality is observed to be influenced by summary perception evaluations of intermediate stages, which leads to better model adequacy. Finally, among all the stages, end stage performance is observed to have significantly impact on the overall multistage service quality.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that in view of the cascade effect of intermediate stages, managers need to allocate resources to ensure that all stages are performing at an adequate level instead of only focusing on improving peaks and end effects of customer experiences. The proposed approach is easy-to-implement and suitable for evaluating SQ and OSQ in varied multistage sequential utilitarian service environment.
Originality/value
An integrated approach for evaluation of service quality in sequential multistage utilitarian service processes is proposed from the perspective of cascade effect of intermediate stages as well as peak and end effects on overall service quality perception.
... In identifying problems, there is a need to understand whether changes in, for example, customer satisfaction (Söderlund and Julander, 2003), service quality (Roy and Mukherjee, 2018) or service failures (Tseng, 2021) are indicative that something is wrong in the process and thus needs improvement. It has been suggested that some "problems" are mere misinterpretations of deviations from a desired performance due to failure to consider the presence of variation (Shewhart, 1931;Deming, 1989). ...
... To gain knowledge about process variation, there is a need to understand how a process varies over time, short-and long-term (Ojasalo, 2019), and what causes this variation (Yang et al., 2015). Roy and Mukherjee (2018) state that traditional service research focuses too much on customers' experience of the finished service process and suggest that more knowledge about variation could be gained by studying intermediate stages, peak experiences as well as end experience. Some suggested causes of variation in service are factors belonging to the customer, such as preferences, expectations and level of cooperation with a service provider, as well as factors belonging to the service provider, such as knowledge, method and efforts (Söderlund and Julander, 2003;Yang et al., 2015). ...
Purpose
How do organisations know which problems are worthy of their attention? Despite good intentions, many attempts to solve problems fail. One reason for this failure might be because of attempts to solve non-problems or to solve problems with insufficient means, a concept proposed by Deming as tampering. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a definition of tampering, outline what is currently known about possible practical implications of tampering and to suggest how to extend this knowledge by proposing an agenda for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
To fulfil the purpose, a narrative literature review was conducted.
Findings
Through this review, common aspects of what constitutes tampering are identified and the following definition is proposed: Tampering is a response to a perceived problem in the form of an action that is not directed at the fundamental cause of the problem, which leads to a deterioration of the process or the process output. In addition, recommendations are generated regarding how tampering manifests itself in practice and why tampering occurs. These recommendations could be studied in future research.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that suggests a revitalisation of tampering. The results presented in this paper form the basis for continued studies on how tampering in organisations can be understood, managed and prevented.
... For instance, industry experts have studied the relevance of quality attributes such as the SERVQUAL model (Jadayil et al., 2020;Parasuraman et al., 1988Parasuraman et al., , 1994Roy & Mukherjee, 2018) and Gronroos service quality model (Grönroos, 1988;Grönroos, 2001;Salim et al., 2019), which proposes that a firm can achieve operational performance by enhancing technical quality, functional quality, and corporate image. ...
Models of perceived service quality traditionally have measured consumers’ expectations of a service provider before a service encounter and used these preencounter expectations, along with service performance, to predict and explain consumers’ perceptions of service quality. However, there exists considerable evidence suggesting that consumers’expectations continuously change during a service encounter. The present study proposes a real-time updating (RTU) model of perceived service quality that accounts for the intraencounter changes in consumers’ expectations. The article presents experimental data that demonstrate support for the RTU model and suggest that updated expectations are better predictors of perceived service quality than are preencounter expectations or service delivery. These findings suggest that consumers’ perceptions of service quality are heavily based on updated expectations; therefore, intraencounter management of consumers’expectations is deserving of increased attention from researchers and practitioners.
Empirical evidence from two cases was examined and provides support for the presence
of a service bullwhip effect. Quantitative and qualitative case data were used to explore how this effect
manifests itself in services, the distinctive drivers of the bullwhip effect in services, and the managerial
actions that can either trigger or mitigate these bullwhip effects. In total, eight propositions are
developed and three types of characteristics that potentially make the bullwhip effect worse in services
than in manufacturing are identified: the destabilizing effects of manual rework in otherwise
automated service processes; the omission of accurate and timely data on rework volumes upstream in
the chain, pointing at future bullwhip effects downstream; and the lack of a supply-chain mindset
within the various departments jointly responsible for delivering
The purpose of this research is to answer the question: how can a new service development (NSD) program in the financial services industry be managed? More specifically, this research has two objectives: to explore the stages in the NSD process; and to explore how customer input may be obtained in the various stages of the development process. After a review of the new product development literature, the case study methodology involving in-depth interviews with managers and their customers is described. Analysis of the data showed that there were ten stages in the NSD process, and whether those stages were managed linearly or sequentially was a function of the size of the firm. In addition, how NSD managers obtained customer input in each stage, was uncovered. Implications for NSD managers include which stages to concentrate on, and how to capture customer input.
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to describe and apply a new three-step approach to prioritizing service attributes in formulating quality-improvement strategies. In particular, the paper seels to demonstrate the value of impact range-performance analysis (IRPA) and impact-asymmetry analysis (IAA) in prioritizing quality attributes for improvement.
Design/methodology/approach – The proposed new analytical framework is developed and presented. Data from a survey on satisfaction with airport passenger services are then used to demonstrate the proposed approach. Improvement priorities are derived using a three-step analytical framework.
Findings – This paper raises several conceptual issues concerning importance-performance analysis (IPA). In particular, the study contends that direct and indirect measures of the “importance” of an attribute are not measuring the same construct.
Practical implications – Managers who use IPA to prioritize the improvement of service attributes might obtain misleading recommendations. In particular, managers should be aware that the impact of an attribute on overall customer satisfaction can vary significantly with different levels of performance of that attribute.
Originality/value – The study proposes a revised approach to IPA in which the traditional measure of “attribute-importance” is replaced by a measure of the range of attribute-impact on overall customer satisfaction (RIOCS). Moreover, a new analysis provides detailed information on asymmetric relationships between attribute-level performance and overall customer satisfaction (OCS).
Existing models of intertemporal choice normally assume that people are impatient, preferring valuable outcomes sooner rather than later, and that preferences satisfy the formal condition of independence, or separability, which states that the value of a sequence of outcomes equals the sum of the values of its component parts. The authors present empirical results that show both of these assumptions to be false when choices are framed as being explicitly defined sequences of outcomes. Without a proper sequential context, people may discount isolated outcomes in the conventional manner, but when the sequence context is highlighted, they claim to prefer utility levels that improve over time. The observed violations of additive separability follow, at least in part, from a desire to spread good outcomes evenly over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A multistage system refers to a system consisting of multiple components, stations or stages required to finish the final product or service. Multistage systems are very common in practice and include a variety of modern manufacturing and service systems. In most cases, the quality of the final product or service produced by a multistage system is determined by complex interactions among multiple stages—the quality characteristics at one stage are not only influenced by local variations at that stage, but also by variations propagated from upstream stages. Multistage systems present significant challenges, yet also opportunities for quality engineering research. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief survey of emerging methodologies for tackling various issues in quality control and improvement for multistage systems including modeling, analysis, monitoring, diagnosis, control, inspection and design optimization.
Transcendent customer experiences (TCEs), which have aspects of flow and/or peak experience, can generate lasting shifts in
beliefs and attitudes, including subjective self-transformation. With data from a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental field
experiment we examine the impact of TCEs on customers’ integration in a brand community. Because TCEs are highly desirable
and valued for their own sake, customers value marketing activities they perceive as instrumental to them. This study demonstrates
that a TCE in the context of a marketer-facilitated consumption activity can strengthen a person’s ties to a brand community,
delivering a particularly strong form of brand loyalty.
Vector smoothing is used to extend the class of generalized additive models in a very natural way to include a class of multivariate regression models. The resulting models are called ‘vector generalized additive models’. The class of models for which the methodology gives generalized additive extensions includes the multiple logistic regression model for nominal responses, the continuation ratio model and the proportional and nonproportional odds models for ordinal responses, and the bivariate probit and bivariate logistic models for correlated binary responses. They may also be applied to generalized estimating equations.
This article explores the provision of extraordinary hedonic experiences on commercial, multiday river rafting trips in the Colorado River basin. White water river rafting provides a dramatic illustration of some of the complex features of delivering an extraordinary experience. Multiple methods were employed over two years of data collection to articulate the lived meaning of this experience from both the guides' and the consumers' perspectives. Robust quantitative measures were developed from rich qualitative data. Participant observation and interview data enriched the interpretation of quantitative results. Experiential themes of personal growth and self-renewal, ''communitas,'' and harmony with nature are evidenced across the data; they evolve and are woven together over the course of the trip. Together they are significant in explaining overall satisfaction. There is a complex relationship between client expectations and satisfaction. The narrative of the ratting experience rather than relationships between expectations and outcomes is shown to be central to its evaluation. Implications for other services and consumption activities are discussed.
One of the defining characteristics of services is the existence of some form of contact between the customer and the service firm during the service production process. In the 1980s, customer contact (CC) became an important dimension in virtually all service taxonomies. Its importance to perceived service quality (SQ) was also recognized, but the direct linkage between CC and SQ was difficult to determine without an operational definition of CC. In 1995, Kellogg and Chase addressed this issue and developed an empirically derived operational measure of contact. In this paper, we employ the Kellogg/Chase measures as the basis for a conceptual model linking the CC dimensions of communication time and intimacy with SQ. We assert that ‘desirable’ levels of these contact dimensions do exist and present hypotheses as to the nature of their relationship. We report results from an empirical study undertaken in a hotel environment which support the existence of such desirable contact levels. Managerial implications and future research are also discussed.
This paper advances our theoretical understanding with regard to the online customer experience in a utilitarian context. The aim of this research is to understand if there is a need for online customer support during search for information and services on business support websites. In contrast to previous studies highlighting time distortion as part of the optimal customer experience, the findings of this research illustrate that customers are time conscious during a utilitarian search with the perceived length of time spent on the website influencing the customer experience. Additionally, the perceived length of time spent on the website influences the need to seek online customer support. The outcomes of customers requiring online customer support in relation to the customer experience have been established. The findings provide key managerial implications for economic development agencies and online business support providers on the requirement of online customer support and insight into the time conscious nature of customers in relation to the online customer experience.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative importance of dimensions of experience value in four different hedonic- and utilitarian-dominated services.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed hypotheses are tested by an experimental design. Altogether, four different service experiences, taking place during a tourist weekend trip, were studied using a scenario-based approach. In total, 938 members of a nationally representative online panel in Sweden participated in the research.
Findings
Both hedonic and utilitarian value dimensions are present for the different experiences. However, the structures of the value dimensions differ between hedonic- and utilitarian-dominant services. Surprisingly, functional value and value for money influence satisfaction most for both categories of services.
Research limitations/implications
The design of the experiment allowed the authors to test different experiences within the same travel setting. The paper shows that all services include both hedonic and utilitarian elements, indicating awareness of what attracts tourists during the whole process of experiencing a journey. Findings suggest that further studies on different hedonic- and utilitarian-dominant firms within the different tourism service categories should be performed.
Originality/value
Theoretically, the paper only partly confirms the two structures of consumer service value, hedonic and utilitarian, revealed in earlier studies. The paper also reveals that functional value affects satisfaction more strongly in both hedonic- and utilitarian-dominant services. Several explanations for this are suggested. For the tourism industry to enhance experience value and tourist satisfaction, they should, therefore, focus on delivering functional value during the stay and probably more on emotional value in attracting visitors to travel. Results of the paper reveal that services are a part of a continuum between what is mostly utilitarian at the one end and mostly hedonic at the other end.
Service delivery often involves a series of events or stages of exchange between a service provider and its customer. At each stage, performance can meet, exceed, or fall below the customer's expectations. This article contributes to the literature by examining how the patterns of distribution (frequency, timing, proximity, and sequence) of service failures and delights affect customers' perceptions of service quality. The authors propose a conceptual model based on mental accounting principles derived from prospect theory and develop a series of research propositions to explicate the links between distribution patterns of service failures/delights and service quality perceptions. The study integrates prospect theory with service encounter research and provides a comprehensive theory-driven platform for exploring the impact of various service failure and delight distribution patterns. In addition, it offers important managerial implications for service design and resource allocation regarding when, how often, how close, and in what order delights and failures should take place to maximize gains from delights and minimize losses from failures.
One of the defining characteristics of services is the existence of some form of contact between the customer and the service firm during the service production process. In the 1980s, customer contact (CC) became an important dimension in virtually all service taxonomies. Its importance to perceived service quality (SQ) was also recognized, but the direct linkage between CC and SQ was difficult to determine without an operational definition of CC. In 1995, Kellogg and Chase addressed this issue and developed an empirically derived operational measure of contact. In this paper, we employ the Kellogg/Chase measures as the basis for a conceptual model linking the CC dimensions of communication time and intimacy with SQ. We assert that `desirable' levels of these contact dimensions do exist and present hypotheses as to the nature of their relationship. We report results from an empirical study undertaken in a hotel environment which support the existence of such desirable contact levels. Managerial implications and future research are also discussed.
Researchers in several academic disciplines have investigated the effect of the sequence of pleasure and pain on the customer in service, experience, or healthcare-related interactions. Specifically, past research from psychology, behavioral economics, and other related fields suggests that the sequence effect can significantly impact a customer's overall impression of a service interaction. In this article, we test the influence that the sequence of discrete events separated by several days or weeks plays on customers’ assessment of service bundles. If the relative importance of the sequence effect for discrete bundles is known, then a service designer and event scheduler can optimize and develop a better sequence of interactions for the customers, leading to higher satisfaction, loyalty, and repurchase. Using an extensive multi-year ticket purchase database from a world-renowned performing arts venue, we develop and test econometric models to predict season ticket subscription repurchase. The estimated models show that sequence effects do indeed play a significant role in determining customer repurchase of subscriptions. These results have important implications for effective service design and capacity planning for a wide range of service industries. This article suggests both managerial implications and future research opportunities related to sequence effects in service operations.
This article deals with the effects of inconsistent performance during the service encounter on judgments of service quality and purchase intentions. The service management literature has emphasized strong starts and consistent performance throughout the encounter, asserting, for example, that the service bookends should be performed at the same level of quality. In this study, the authors found that an improvement in performance during the encounter produced more favorable evaluations than when there was a decline in performance or when there was consistent but average performance. The results here also indicate that overall judgments of quality and purchase intentions are driven more by the performance of the final event in the encounter than by the initial event regardless of the trend in performance. The managerial implication is that the beginning of the encounter might not be as important as previously thought and that a buildup to a strong ending results in higher perceived service quality.
Many multistage service operations exhibit the cascade property, where performance at one stage is statistically correlated with performance at the preceding stage. Prior research on multistage services has analyzed each process stage independently or in an additive manner. Increased emphasis on Six Sigma initiatives in services has rekindled interest in the use of control charts to monitor and control service processes. This study examines the cause selecting control chart as a methodology to monitor and identify potential problem areas in an actual cascade service process and compares the diagnostic capability of the cause selecting chart to that of a traditional Shewhart chart. A grocery store whose parent company was implementing efficient consumer response (ECR) serves as the research context. This study models the grocery store as a two-stage cascade process and uses operating data from the store to construct a cause selecting chart and a traditional Shewhart chart for the front-end operation. Analysis of the two charts reveals that the cause selecting chart outperforms the traditional control chart as tool for signaling unusual variation in performance at the front-end stage. The analysis demonstrates that service managers can receive misleading or erroneous information from traditional control charts if the service process being monitored is a cascade process.
Subjects were exposed to two aversive experiences: in the short trial, they immersed one hand in water at 14 °C for 60 s; in the long trial, they immersed the other hand at 14 °C for 60 s, then kept the hand in the water 30 s longer as the temperature of the water was gradually raised to 15 °C, still painful but distinctly less so for most subjects. Subjects were later given a choice of which trial to repeat. A significant majority chose to repeat the long trial, apparently preferring more pain over less. The results add to other evidence suggesting that duration plays a small role in retrospective evaluations of aversive experiences; such evaluations are often dominated by the discomfort at the worst and at the final moments of episodes.
Briefly describes five current debates in the service quality
literature. One debate, of importance to operations academics and
managers, is the identification of the determinants of service quality.
Seeks to investigate whether there are some quality determinants that
are predominantly satisfiers and others that are predominantly
dissatisfiers. The analysis is based on 579 anecdotes, from personal
account customers of a major UK bank, collected using the critical
incident technique. The study's main findings are that the predominantly
satisfying determinants are attentiveness, responsiveness, care and
friendliness; and the dissatisfiers are integrity, reliability,
responsiveness, availability and functionality. Responsiveness is
identified as a crucial determinant of quality as it is a frequent
source of satisfaction, and the lack of it is a major source of
dissatisfaction. Contrary to the existing literature, shows that the
causes of dissatisfaction are not necessarily the obverse of the causes
of satisfaction and, furthermore, that reliability is predominantly a
source of dissatisfaction not satisfaction.
Intuitions relating to outcomes extended over time are examined. Utility integration is proposed as a normative rule for the evaluation of extended episodes. In Experiment 1, subjects explicitly compared aversive experiences of varying durations. By several measures, disutility was a marginally decreasing function of episode duration, even for experiences that were thought to become increasingly aversive. This pattern is a qualitative violation of the integration rule. In Experiment 2, subjects made global evaluations of a hypothetical person's aversive experiences, on the basis of a series of subjective ratings of discomfort made at periodic intervals. The results showed an extreme sensitivity to improving or deteriorating trend and a striking neglect of duration. The final moments of an extended episode appear to exert a strong influence on the overall judgment. This leads to violations of monotonicity when adding some moments of moderate pain reduces judgments of global aversiveness.
How do people create overall evaluations for experiences that change in intensity over time? Wharules' do they use for combining such dierent intensities into single overall evaluations? And what factors in¯uence these integration rules? This paper starts by examining the relationship between the patterns of experi-ences over time and their overall evaluations. Within this framework, we propose and test the idea that the rules for combining such experiences depend on whether the experiences are perceived to be composed of single or multiple parts (i.e. con-tinuous or discrete). In two experiments we demonstrate that an experience's level of cohesiveness moderates the relationship between its pattern and overall evaluation. The results show that breaking up experiences substantially reduces the impact of patterns on overall evaluations. In addition, we demonstrate that continuously measuring momentary intensities produces a similar eect on this relationship, causing us to speculate that providing continuous intensity responses causes subjects to self-segment the experience.
This study investigates the effects of cultural conditioning, product type, and benefit claim type on attitudes and brand personality perceptions among consumers from a society that is more culturally conditioned towards utilitarian consumption (Shanghai, China) and an economy that is less culturally conditioned towards utilitarian consumption (Singapore). Our findings reveal that consumers in Shanghai preferred ads promoting utilitarian rather than hedonic products. They also rated brands of utilitarian products as more sophisticated, competent, exciting, and sincere than hedonic products. No such difference was observed among Singaporeans. These consumers preferred hedonic over utilitarian products but did not perceive them as being different from utilitarian products in terms of brand personality. Theoretical and managerial implications are forwarded, together with directions for future research.
This paper examines the link between a supplier's marketing and service operations and its business customers' subsequent repatronage behavior. We develop a dynamic model of service contract renewal for an individual firm, at the contract level, recognizing interdependencies among service contract renewal decisions due to the firm's purchase of multiple contracts from the same supplier. The decision to renew a service contract is modeled as a function of service quality and price, where service quality is measured by the supplier's service operations metrics over time. By incorporating longitudinal data about the supplier's service operations, this study investigates how average service levels, variability in service levels (especially extreme outcomes), and timing of service delivery influence firms' service contract renewal decisions. The study context is support services for high-technology systems in business markets in Germany and the United Kingdom, where service operations metrics over time typically have skewed distributions. Firm behavior is represented by a binary choice model at the contract level, estimated as a binary response model with a complementary log-log link function incorporating random intercepts. The study shows that a firm that has a few extremely favorable experiences for a given service contract is more likely to subsequently renew that service contract, after controlling for average service levels. Firms weigh recent experiences (i.e., within the past year)--rather than earlier experiences--when deciding whether or not to renew, so the timing of service experiences may be critical to the survival of buyer-seller relationships. Overall, the study suggests that models of customer retention should incorporate the extent, variability, and timing of a supplier's service delivery over time at the contract/product level.
This article described three heuristics that are employed in making judgements under uncertainty: (i) representativeness,
which is usually employed when people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event A belongs to class or process
B; (ii) availability of instances or scenarios, which is often employed when people are asked to assess the frequency of a
class or the plausibility of a particular development; and (iii) adjustment from an anchor, which is usually employed in numerical
prediction when a relevant value is available. These heuristics are highly economical and usually effective, but they lead
to systematic and predictable errors. A better understanding of these heuristics and of the biases to which they lead could
improve judgements and decisions in situations of uncertainty.
Understanding the contribution of marketing to economic and social outcomes is fundamental to broadening the focus of marketing. The authors develop a comprehensive model that integrates the impact of service quality and service satisfaction on both economic and societal outcomes. The model is validated using two random samples involving intensive health services. The results indicate that service quality and service satisfaction significantly enhance quality of life and behavioral intentions, highlighting that customer service has social as well as economic outcomes. This is an important finding given the movement toward recognizing social and environmental outcomes, such as emphasized through triple bottom-line reporting. The findings have important implications for managing service processes, for improving the quality of life of customers, and for enhancing customers' behavioral intentions toward the organization.
Two experiments documented a phenomenon of duration neglect in people's global evaluations of past affective experiences. In Study 1, 32 Ss viewed aversive film clips and pleasant film clips that varied in duration and intensity. Ss provided real-time ratings of affect during each clip and global evaluations of each clip when it was over. In Study 2, 96 Ss viewed these same clips and later ranked them by their contribution to an overall experience of pleasantness (or unpleasantness). Experimental Ss ranked the films from memory; control Ss were informed of the ranking task in advance and encouraged to make evaluations on-line. Effects of film duration on retrospective evaluations were small, entirely explained by changes in real-time affect and further reduced when made from memory. Retrospective evaluations appear to be determined by a weighted average of "snapshots" of the actual affective experience, as if duration did not matter.
This article focuses on the effect of the perceived cohesiveness of experiences, whether composed of single or multiple parts, on their overall hedonic evaluations. Four experiments demonstrate the effects of partitioning on decision makers’ evaluation of extended experiences. First, patterns (i.e., improving vs. deteriorating trends) strongly influence how experiences are evaluated. Second, increased partitioning of an experience reduces the effect of the overall trend and results in more equal weighting of its parts. Third, breaking experiences at strategic points (i.e., local maxima and minima) influences the overall evaluation of experiences as well as the prediction of their future levels. These results suggest that components of sequences are evaluated similarly to the way whole sequences are evaluated and that experiences composed of multiple components are evaluated relatively more on the basis of their individual intensity and less based on their overall pattern.
Combining experiences over time: the effects of duration, intensity changes and on-line measurements on retrospective pain evaluations
Gestalt characteristics of experiences: the defining features of summarized events
Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases