Exploring customer service experience equity on the customers’ behavioral intention in tourism industry

Author(s):  
Nor Aida Abdul Rahman

The growing interest in Halal tourism activity represents a prolific lens for scholars and practitioners in the tourism arena to study its concept, its role, and its potential to affect the sustainability of Halal tourism industry. The success of tourism industry is highly dependent on traveler experience with respect to customer service, experience, facilities, comfort, and delight. The notion of Halal tourism is connected and geared to the adoption of Islamic principles and practice in all aspect of tourism activities such as in Halal hotel, Halal restaurant, Halal spa, Halal package tour, Halal transportation, Halal warehouse, and Halal retail. Halal tourism market reached USD 181 billion in year 2018 and is expected to grow every year. The number of Muslim travelers to Southeast Asian countries has rapidly increased as Southeast Asia (SEA) is known as a dynamic environment with a total Muslim population around 240 million.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasin Sahhar ◽  
Raymond Loohuis ◽  
Jörg Henseler

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the practices used by service providers to manage the customer service experience (CSE) across multiple phases of the customer journey in a business-to-business (B2B) setting.Design/methodology/approachThis study comprises an ethnography that investigates in real time, from a dyadic perspective, and the CSE management practices at two service providers operating in knowledge-intensive service industries over a period of eight months. Analytically, the study concentrates on critical events that occurred in phases of the customer journey that in some way alter CSE, thus making it necessary for service providers to act to keep their customers satisfied.FindingsThe study uncovers four types of service provider practices that vary based on the mode of organization (ad hoc or regular) and the mode of engagement (reactive or proactive) and based on whether they restore or bolster CSE, including the recurrence of these practices in the customer journey. These practices are conveniently presented in a circumplex typology of CSE management across five phases in the customer journey.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper advances the research in CSE management throughout the customer journey in the B2B context by showing that CSE management is dynamic, recurrent and multifaceted in the sense that it requires different modes of organization and engagement, notably during interaction with customers, in different phases of the customer journey.Practical implicationsThe circumplex typology acts as a tool for service providers, helping them to redesign their CSE management practices in ongoing service and dialogical processes to keep their customers more engaged and satisfied.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to infuse a dyadic stance into the ongoing discussion of CSE management practices in B2B, in which studies to date have deployed only provider or customer perspectives. In proposing a microlevel view, the study identifies service providers' CSE management practices in multiple customer journey phases, especially when the situation becomes critical.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuqin Wei ◽  
Tyson Ang ◽  
Nwamaka A. Anaza

PurposeCrowding in service environments is a constant concern for many firms due to the negative consequences it has on consumers and companies alike. Yet, scant empirical research exists on firm-generated initiatives aimed at improving customer service experiences in crowded situations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information, a managerially actionable variable, influences social interactions (in the form of customer social withdrawal and citizenship behavior) and service experience.Design/methodology/approachTwo experimental studies were conducted using an extended service context.FindingsThis research demonstrates that receiving information about crowds in advance results in heightened social withdrawal, which improves customer service experience. However, providing consumers with a platform to share crowding information increases customers’ citizenship behavior toward service employees and other customers, which, in turn, improves customer service experience.Practical implicationsFor extended service encounters (e.g. air travel) where social interactions are inevitable, companies should encourage customers to share their real-time experiences with other customers in hopes of creating more positive social interactions (e.g. citizenship behavior) within the crowded environment.Originality/valueExisting investigations of crowding stem from an overemphasis on the physical and atmospheric aspects of the environment by treating crowds as a “fixture” in the servicescape, rather than as “active participants” involved in the crowding environment. While the mere presence of crowds alone has negative effects, this research takes it a step further by examining interactions among and between customers and service employees within the crowded service environment.


Author(s):  
Kijpokin Kasemsap

This chapter presents the utilization of optimization techniques in the hospitality and tourism industry; the perspectives on customer service and customer service teams; customer service and service leadership; customer service behavior in the travel industry; the overview of customer experience; customer experience, customer satisfaction, and service quality in the airline industry; customer experience and budget hotel in the hospitality industry; the issues with customer orientation; and the relationship between customer orientation and service innovation in the hotel industry. Optimization techniques are the essential approaches to many real-world problems, and can be applied to promote the performance of hospitality and tourism industry regarding customer service, customer experience, and customer orientation. The chapter argues that enhancing customer service, customer experience, and customer orientation through optimization techniques has the potential to increase organizational performance and reach strategic goals in the hospitality and tourism industry.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (10) ◽  
pp. 2387-2417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Patti ◽  
Maria M. van Dessel ◽  
Steven W. Hartley

Purpose How can customer service be so bad in an era when companies collect endless data on customer interactions? The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the important challenge of elevating customer service delivery by providing guidelines for when and how to select optimal measures of customer service measurement using a new decision framework. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a comprehensive, multi-dimensional review of extant literature related to customer service, journey mapping and performance measurement and applied a qualitative, taxonomic approach for model development. Findings A process model and customer journey mapping framework can facilitate the selection and application of appropriate and relevant customer service experience metrics to enhance customer service experience strategies, creation and delivery. Research limitations/implications The taxonomy of customer service metrics is limited to current publicly and commercially available metrics. The dynamic nature of the customer service environment necessitates continuous updates of the model and framework. Practical implications Selection of customer service performance measures should match relevant stages of the customer journey; use perception-based, operational and outcome-based metrics that track employee and customer behaviours; improve omni-channel measurement; and integrate data-sharing and benchmark measurement initiatives through collaboration with customer service communities. Originality/value A reimagined perspective is offered to the complex challenge of measuring and improving customer service, providing a new decision-making framework for customer service experience measurement and guidance for future research.


2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1058-1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Tynan ◽  
Sally McKechnie ◽  
Stephanie Hartley

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 618-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamsanandini Umasuthan ◽  
Oun-Joung Park ◽  
Jong-Hyun Ryu

Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess the comparative influence of two empathy dimensions (cognitive and emotional attributes) on emotional service experience and behavioral intention among business and leisure hotel guests. Studies relevant to empathy dimensions are relatively scarce in tourism and hospitality. Design/methodology/approach The current study reviewed the concepts of empathy, and empirically compared perceptions of empathy attributes between the two groups. The survey was intended to examine how well the hotel employees emotionally handle hotel guests’ incidents or inquiries related to any discomforts through personalized attention. The data were collected from 330 hotel guests who had actually complained about service failures while staying at the hotel during the record-breaking summer of 2013 in terms of number of visitors to Jeju. An active empathetic listening (AEL) tool has been taken to measure the hotel guest’s cognitive views and behavioral intentions, as well as emotional empathy measures under the empathic concern and emotional contagion. Findings The results revealed that empathetic dimensions strongly influenced the service experiences of hotel guests. While the emotional service experience of business guests was almost completely determined by the cognitive empathy, the emotional service experience of the leisure guests was mainly governed by the emotional empathy. Practical implications These outcomes suggest that the empathetic services through a “purpose of visit”-oriented manner might enhance the guest’s overall emotion positively. Originality/value According to the prior literatures and empirical findings in hospitality and tourism, empathy can be seen as subscale in SERVQUAL instrument. This paper focus on insights of empathy dimensions, and it was revealed that the interaction of both the cognitive and emotional dimensions of empathy conjointly determines the overall emotional service experience and intention of hotel guests.


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