Role of affective forecasting in customers’ hotel service experiences

Purpose Research on the role of affective forecasting in hotel service experiences is in its infancy, and several crucial questions remain unanswered. This study aims to posit that affective forecasting is a significant antecedent of customers’ affective reactions during a hotel stay. The authors investigate how customers’ service quality expectations influence their affective forecasting and how customers’ affective forecasting before an upcoming hotel service experience influences their affective reactions during the hotel service experience. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data through online questionnaires distributed among 634 US adults who had stayed at a hotel within the past month. Findings The results show that: service quality expectations influence affective forecasting; affective forecasting influences affective reactions; service quality expectations influence perceived service quality, thereby influencing affective reactions and affective reactions and service quality perception influence electronic Word-Of-Mouth intentions. Practical implications The study suggests that hotel managers should identify what hotel performance attributes customers value most and depict how these attributes elicit positive affective reactions in advertising to influence customers’ purchase decisions. Originality/value This is one of the few studies to investigate the antecedents and consequences of affective forecasting in hotel service experiences.

Influence of emotions displayed by employees during service recovery

Purpose While research evidences how customers’ emotions can influence their consumer experience, understanding of how employees’ displayed emotions affect the customer service experience is more limited. Drawing on affect transfer theory, the authors test for the mediating role of attitude towards the employee, which is proposed to mediate the effect of employees’ displayed emotion on customers’ satisfaction with recovery. As service recovery entails a critical service experience in which emotions can easily rise, this paper aims to highlight the pivotal role of employee-displayed emotions during service recovery. Methodology A scenario-based experiment in the context of an airline service failure recovery (3 × 2 between-subjects design) manipulates frontline employees’ emotions (anger vs happiness vs no specific emotion) and the quality of the solution (bad vs good). Findings Employees’ displayed emotions directly affect attitude towards the employee and indirectly affect service recovery satisfaction. Moreover, attitude towards the employee is affected more by the employee’s displayed emotion when the solution offered is bad compared to good. Practical implications Employees’ emotions displayed during service recovery can enhance or damage service recovery strategies. Employees should control for negative emotions in the case of service failure, especially when unable to provide a good solution. Originality Emotions displayed by employees can influence the customer’s service recovery evaluations. There is an interesting interaction between the quality of the solution and employees’ displayed emotions. Additionally, the mantra of “service with a smile” may not be valid in the case of service recovery: rather, employees should avoid displaying negative emotions.

Exploring the ecotourism service experience framework using the dimensions of motivation, expectation and ecotourism experience

This study explores the ecotourism service experience framework by analysing ecotourists’ motivations and expectations, as well as the dimensions of ecotourism experiences. A total of 51 ecotourists were interviewed in person at ecotourist lodges in Lower Kinabatangan, Malaysia. Interview responses were analysed using thematic analysis, and a multi-data triangulation was carried out to identify key service experience dimensions guided by the co-creation concept. Findings reveal that motivations and expectations of ecotourists are connected to the dimensions of ecotourism experiences. Several findings reveal that key dimensions include ‘wildlife’, ‘nature/environment’ and ‘experiences driven from ecotourism activities’ (such as riverboat cruises and jungle trekking). Based on the interviews, these dimensions can be further interpreted and conceptualised as ‘education’, ‘aesthetic’, ‘escape’ and ‘entertainment’, similar to the four realms of experience in the experience economy model by Pine and Gilmore (1998 , 1999) . Hence, an ecotourism service experience framework, comprising both tangible and intangible elements, is proposed as a sound and practical approach to understanding ecotourism service experiences. This study offers empirical evidence and an innovative approach by identifying the ecotourism service experience dimensions and exploring a relevant framework, which was previously neglected. Ecotourism operators should utilise the four identified service experience dimensions to stage unique ecotourism experiences and enhance destination attractiveness and competitiveness. Experiential marketing can capitalise on these dimensions as innovative selling points and attract ecotourists, thus providing practical value in marketing ecotourism destinations.

Introducing a sensemaking perspective to the service experience

PurposeMost recent service experience research considers customers as sensemakers and sensemaking as a focal process in experience construction. Despite this, the sensemaking theory engendered in organization studies has not been applied in the quest for an in-depth understanding of the service experience. This study introduces a sensemaking perspective to the service experience and develops a conceptualization of how customers construct their experiences cognitively through sensemaking.Design/methodology/approachThe service experience literature is dominated by a focus on firms implementing service experiences for customers. This study, in contrast, investigates service experience and its formation from the customers' viewpoint: how service experiences are formed as a part of customers' everyday life and sensemaking processes instead of under service providers' control.FindingsService experience is characterized as a mental picture – a collage of meanings created by a customer through the sensemaking processes. A sensemaking framework that characterizes service experience formation and its four seminal dimensions, including the self-related, sociomaterial, retrospective and prospective sensemaking, is introduced.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the service literature by introducing a new theoretical lens through which the service experience concept can be investigated and reframed.

Implementation of the Center for Patient Safety in a home care service: experience report

Objetivo: descrever a implementação do Núcleo de Segurança do Paciente em um serviço de atenção domiciliar. Método: relato de experiência acerca da implantação do núcleo de segurança do paciente em serviço de atenção domiciliar situado em Fortaleza, Ceará. Realizado no período de janeiro a dezembro de 2017. Foram descritos os processos e a implementação do protocolo visando a cultura de segurança do paciente. Resultados: o membro executor do núcleo de segurança foi composto por um enfermeiro inicialmente, mas contou com a participação dos membros gestores e coordenadores de diferentes áreas para a implementação, compondo assim uma equipe multiprofissional. Para realização dos fluxos foram realizadas reuniões semanais, com discussões em grupo acerca do processo de implementação e regimento interno. Além disso, foram levantadas as fragilidades identificadas no serviço e o plano de ação com os protocolos básicos para cada área de atendimento. Conclusão: o estudo permitiu conhecer os processos e os fluxos realizados por um serviço de atenção domiciliar para implementação do núcleo de segurança do paciente, visando um cuidado com qualidade, executado de forma padronizada e segura por todos os profissionais envolvidos no serviço.

Impact of Salesperson Behaviour on Customers Equity in Super Market

Service marketing focuses on service encounter stimuli, such as the servicescape, employee interactions, the core service, and other customers. The studies that have focused on other customers’ role as a social component of the service environment have led to the development of a comprehensive measure of other customer perception. Thus, based on the social impact theory, attraction theory and the theory of uniqueness, the study analysed the effect of Other Customer Perception (OCP), Need for Uniqueness (NFU and their interaction on service experience and revisit intention by employing a scenario-based quasi-experimental research design with a sample of 127 job holder postgraduate management students using convenient sampling technique. The study employed MANOVA GLM model and concludes that while the impact of consumers’ perceptions of other customers’ similarity does influence service experience of the customers, demonstrating that not only the restaurant itself, but also the entities in the surrounding network such as other customers have an impact on service experience and their revisit intention. Therefore, other customer effect, which works as a basis for service experience and revisit intention, should not be neglected when designing the surroundings in restaurant settings.

The effect of other customer perception and need for uniqueness on service experience and revisit intention

Service marketing focuses on service encounter stimuli, such as the servicescape, employee interactions, the core service, and other customers. The studies that have focused on other customers’ role as a social component of the service environment have led to the development of a comprehensive measure of other customer perception. Thus, based on the social impact theory, attraction theory and the theory of uniqueness, the study analysed the effect of Other Customer Perception (OCP), Need for Uniqueness (NFU and their interaction on service experience and revisit intention by employing a scenario-based quasi-experimental research design with a sample of 127 job holder postgraduate management students using convenient sampling technique. The study employed MANOVA GLM model and concludes that while the impact of consumers’ perceptions of other customers’ similarity does influence service experience of the customers, demonstrating that not only the restaurant itself, but also the entities in the surrounding network such as other customers have an impact on service experience and their revisit intention. Therefore, other customer effect, which works as a basis for service experience and revisit intention, should not be neglected when designing the surroundings in restaurant settings.