Understanding the Service Encounter

Introduction

Many organizational leaders can attest that employee engagement is a significant challenge which needs to be tackled to tap into the deep-seated potential required to propel an organization towards achieving its goals. A notable problem in several organizations is the presence of employees working below their potential, showing disengagement at work, and performing at levels which will only guarantee them pay checks at the end of the month or working period (Carter, 2019). The key factor that will catalyse employee engagement and achievement of organizational goals is emotional connection. Apart from employees, managers in the contemporary corporate environment focus on building emotional connections with customers. Irrespective of the industry, many organizational cultures are adopting a customer-centred focus . This is all due to the benefits that come with creating emotional bonds while developing working relationships with customers. Psychologically, and fundamentally, a customer is driven to buy something which they like (Davidson, 2018). Some of the associated benefits include customer loyalty and repeat business, both which result in the longevity and, eventually, prosperity of a business.

The aim of this report is to explore the different ways used by organizations in creating emotional connections between employees and customers. This will be done by a discussion of the basic theories that underpin the emotional connections, the critical service links between employees and customers, the service organization culture, engagement (in the form of expectations and attitudes held by customers and employees), and the service profit chain and human sigma. A conclusive paragraph shall be used to sum up the understanding of service encounter using emotional connection.

Main Theories and Principles

Various experts and specialists in organization behavior and culture have, over years, developed theoretical frameworks and principles which dictate the ways in which positive bonds can be instigated in the management of service encounter and service quality management. Some of these theories include the role theory, interdependency theory, and balance theory. One principle that shall be observed in accordance with this report is the stages of service encounter

Stages of Service Encounter

This involves conceptualization of the building of relationships with customers through three distinct stages of service experience. These stages include the pre-core , core and the post-core service encounters. The core service encounter involves the impression the customer gets when they are within the business premises and being offered the primary service of which they are in need. This stage is preceded by the pre-core service encounter which involves an organization’s effort to attract the client for engagement. It involves activities such as the customer’s review of information concerning the services being offered by an organization. The post core service encounter succeeds the core stage, which includes the impression developed by a customer and efforts made by the organization for their retention and increasing their future service experience (Voorhees, et al., 2017).

The Service Profit Chain and Human Sigma

The service profit chain is one of the main theories which explain the relationship between an organization’s customers, employees and their link towards the overall performance of an organization (Myrden, 2013). The service profit chain consists and integrated framework which suggests that employees who are satisfied can provide services at high quality exceeding the expectations that clients have. Employees can be satisfied through internal good HR practices and this in turn results in satisfied customers who would eventually become loyal towards the organization. In the long run, a firm’s performance will grow exponentially due to client advocacy and repurchase activities.

The Human Sigma focuses on the quality of employee-customer interactions (Fleming, et al., 2005). The human sigma mirrors the six sigma quality improvement techniques that are applied in manufacturing contexts – it is applied in the service industry. This approach highly considers the nature of emotional exchange between the employee and customer because the exchange has a more powerful effect than rational techniques such as six-sigma. As ways of capitalizing on the human sigma, organizations can try out transactional interventions like coaching, which are short-term in nature, and transformational interventions like altering processes of promotion and hiring, which are long-term in nature

Balance Theory

Fritz Heider developed the balance theory which suggests that cognitive consistency is a necessary drive towards having a psychological balance. This theory appeals to the changes in attitude and behaviour among people which can be applied in the understanding of consumer psychology. Taking the direction of consumer psychology, the balance theory suggests that consumers are driven to acquire perceived consistency while relating to a certain system (Woodside & Chebat, 2001). The consistency principle, in this case, is that people prefer consistency in their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. If they like an object, they will find consistency in an observer liking the same object.

To facilitate the understanding of this theory, a triad is presented which includes three elements; a person, observer and an object. The three elements relate to each other in two ways, in the form of unit and sentiment relations. A unit relation involves a person-object pair. A sentiment relation involves an observer and the remaining elements in the system. These relations can be either positive or negative. The consistency principle is maintained where the overall relation in the system is positive. In the case where the overall relation is negative, consumers are likely to change their feelings concerning a particular object/product.

Role Theory

This is a relational theory that considers the significance of roles in fulfilling specific functions. The roles give an individual a feeling of who they are and who they are becoming. In the context of an organization, every stakeholder has roles to fulfil and it would be impossible to achieve certain set goals without functional roles (Sluss & van Dick, 2011). Roles influence the behaviours and attitudes of stakeholders. Therefore, this theory is significant in explaining how roles are crucial towards emotional connection between employees and customers.

Interdependence Theory

This is a psychological theory that draws on the sociability nature of human beings. It holds that relationships between people are as meaningful as the people themselves. Situation structures which consist different variables like dependence, interest co-variation, and certainty of information are used in the understanding the characteristics of interdependence (Rusbult & Van Lange, 2008). For the purpose of this report, the social structure that will be used is the market, which involves a relationship between a customer and an organization where meaningfulness towards each other emanates from the variation of the nature of products and services being offered.

Critical Service Links between Employee and Customer

One critical aspect towards creating an emotional bond with customers is through flawless performance. Flawless performance can be acquired by ensuring that services are provided in a manner than no mistakes can be spotted. It is in the same logic as the ‘zero-defects’ principle in manufacturing. Flawless performance while offering services occurs in the core service encounter stage, where there a physical interaction between the customer and the relative organization’s representatives (Bitner, et al., 1994). According to the customer’s perspective, the core service encounter serves as a ‘moment of truth,’ because it is when they can approve that the firm’s services correlate with its promises.

An organization which has succeeded in using this critical service link in developing a strong emotional bond with its customers is Tomorowland. Basically, Tomorrowland is an event, native to Belgium which is a dance music festival (Voorhees, et al., 2017). Tomorrowland adopts a holistic perspective in delivering flawless performance that stretches through all the three stages of service experience. Unlike other dance festivals, Tomorrowland delivers an exciting experience which lasts a whole year, climaxing at a two-weekend show every July. Using social media, Tomorrowland uses a community known as the ‘People of Tomorrow.’ Materials, such as relevant videos, music and miscellaneous information, are constantly provided to this community on a frequent basis by managers of the event. Prior to the main event, members of the community are offered travel accommodation opportunities. A flawless performance is delivered during the main event using spectacular shows and events. This is followed by post-core service encounter in the forms of ‘detox day’ or ‘after-festival movies.’

Service Organizational Culture

Service organizations, through adopting the appropriate culture, can develop sustained emotional connection with client. Contemporary service organizations are adopting a customer centric culture where changes and strategies are made to enhance customer experience and satisfaction (Ngacha & Onyango, 2017). The concepts that have evolved together with customer centricity in service organizations include customer awareness, sensitivity and service. This is an advancement from the approach taken by traditional organizations, where managers perceived customers as means of increasing sales, and eventually profit; little concern was given to the customer’s tastes and preferences as long as they bought their products.

In the present day, service organizations are aware that, for them to be prosperous and beat competition in their industries, they would have to focus their attention on customers. Value is given to customers at an individual level, which contrasts the traditional perception of customers as a group. Performance metrics too have change from focusing on customer satisfaction alone, to including emotional value. Emotional value is attained by encouraging staff members to communicate and collaborate with clients (Krishna, 2019). Organizations with customer-centred culture tend to have traits of being integral and courageous, having a committed leadership, and equipping their staff with experts with great interpersonal traits.

On equipping their staff with experts possessing great interpersonal capabilities, organization work to train and educate their existing employees to adopt customer oriented behaviour (Hennig-Thurau & Thurau, 2002). This is because, it is believed that by having an employee who is well engaged and motivated in the workplace, customers’ needs are more likely to be fulfilled. In compliance with the role theory, training will equip the employees with necessary skills of understanding customer psychology and education will grant them knowledge and confidence necessary in making decisions which are more directed towards achieving a customer’s wishes and needs.

Engagement

This aspect in creating an emotional connection with customers focuses on the expectations and attitudes of customers and employees. Prior to achieving engagement goals, service organizations recognize the imperative nature of organizational culture in shaping employee behaviour. Once a customer oriented culture is adopted, employee engagement needs to be sought as it will determine the quality of performance and thus, the degree of emotional connection a client will have with the business. Managers have identified the necessity (Carter, 2019)of systemic collaboration as one of the ways of enhancing employee engagement . This type of collaboration needs to be functional to the extent of being part of the intrinsic organizational operations and processes of making decisions. Interpersonal skills can grow when employees collaborate in small teams using open channels of communication that allows knowledge, advice, and proactive ideas to be shared easily and in frequent manner. This collaboration will yield empathy among service employees that will be practically applied in not only their interactions with colleagues, but also the clients (Hanhan, 2018). The built empathy will help staff members to truly understand the ways in which customers want to be treated and the degree of personalization they prefer when having services delivered to them.

In this case, the balance theory comes into play. Service employees have a direct, non-mediated effect on the quality perceptions adopted by the client (Woodside & Chebat, 2001). According to the balance theory, the service employee is the person, and the service being offered by the organization is the ‘object.’ The customers are the ‘observers.’ The service employee and the service offered have a unit relation. Therefore, the existence of a positive unit relation, where an employee is well-engaged and is positively tuned to provide the service, will induce a positive sentimental relation from the customer. In some cases, customers will have negative valuation or feelings given towards a service offered, and this will represent a negative sentiment relation (Woodside & Chebat, 2001, p. 477). A balanced state exists in the triad when the overall multiplication of the signs in the relations is positive.

Conclusion

To sum, organizations in the present day are focusing on reinforcing emotional connection between employees and customers as a leverage to increased performance, longevity and success. Several theories which underpin the emotional connectedness of a firm’s employees and its customers include the role theory, balance theory, human sigma and service profit chain. Organizations yield emotional connection using flawless performance as a critical service links between customers and employees. A customer centered organizational culture is adopted by service organizations and customer engagement is deemed necessary through systemic collaboration which yields empathy necessary in understanding the needs and preferences of customers.

Bibliography

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