Bernard H. Booms’s research while affiliated with University of Washington Tacoma and other places

In service settings, customer satisfaction is often influenced by the quality of the interpersonal interaction between the customer and the contact employee. Previous research has identified the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in service encounters from the customer's point of view; this study explores these sources in service encounters from the contact employee's point of view. Drawing on insights from role, script, and attribution theories, 774 critical service encounters reported by employees of the hotel, restaurant, and airline industries are analyzed and compared with previous research. Results generally support the theoretical predictions and also identify an additional source of customer dissatisfaction-the customer's own misbehavior. The findings have implications for business practice in managing service encounters, employee empowerment and training, and managing customers.

In service settings, customer satisfaction is often influenced by the quality of the interpersonal interaction between the customer and the contact employee. Previous research has identified the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in service encounters from the customer's point of view; this study explores these sources in service encounters from the contact employee's point of view. Drawing on insights from role, script, and attribution theories, 774 critical service encounters reported by employees of the hotel, restaurant, and airline industries are analyzed and compared with previous research. Results generally support the theoretical predictions and also identify an additional source of customer dissatisfaction—the customer's own misbehavior. The findings have implications for business practice in managing service encounters, employee empowerment and training, and managing customers.

The service encounter frequently is the service from the customer's point of view. Using the critical incident method, the authors collected 700 incidents from customers of airlines, hotels, and restaurants. The incidents were categorized to isolate the particular events and related behaviors of contact employees that cause customers to distinguish very satisfactory service encounters from very dissatisfactory ones. Key implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.

The service encounter frequently is the service from the customer's point of view. Using the critical incident method, the authors collected 700 incidents from customers of airlines, hotels, and restaurants. The incidents were categorized to isolate the particular events and related behaviors of contact employees that cause customers to distinguish very satisfactory service encounters from very dissatisfactory ones. Key implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.

This article presents results of a study which examined the structure of the travel and tourism distribution system, as well as the operations, motivations, and interactions of the intermediaries of that system. The study also explored the way the travel and tourism distribution system will operate in the future.

The effects of airline deregulation on the U. S. travel agency industry are examined in this article. In September 1981, after this article was submitted for publication, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) made its final decision on the pricing phase of the Competitive Marketing case. The CAB's final decision is a form of maximum tariffs as this article predicted it would be, and the details of the decision are the same as discussed under the heading Maximum Tariffs. The article traces the events leading up to this decision as well as the current status of other deregulation issues affecting travel agents and the travel distribution system.

The purpose of this paper is to outline some new managerial tools for the tourism industry. The thesis pursued here is that the managers of service operations face a number of challenges distinctly different from those encountered by managers of goods-producing activities; and therefore that tourism managers require management technologies designed for their special needs. Services and service delivery, i.e. service production, differ in their essential nature from goods and manufacturing processes. These differences are outlined and then the management implications and new insights for tourism are drawn out. These insights relate mainly to tourism operations management and the marketing of tourism.RésuméLe but de cet article est de présenter quelques nouveaux instruments pour gérer une entreprise touristique réussie. Le point de départ est que les directeurs des entreprises dans le secteur des services doivent faire face à des réalités bien différentes de celles qui dominent dans le secteur de la production des biens. Les directeurs dans l'industrie touristique ont besoin de méthodologies de gestion qui seraient inventées pour eux seuls. La production et la fourniture des services diffèrent par leur nature même de la manufacture et distribution des biens de consommation. On fait le bilan de ces différences et puis on dresse une liste des implications pour la gestion et pour la comprehension du phénomène touristique. Ces idées font la lumière principalement sur la gestion des opérations touristiques et sur le marketing du tourisme.