Generating positive word‐of‐mouth in the service experience

Outline

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Conceptual Development
• Relationship Benefits and Functional Quality
• H1. Confidence Benefits Are Positively Related to Functional Quality.
• H2. Special Treatment Benefits Are Positively Related to Functional Quality.
• H3. Social Benefits Are Positively Related to Functional Quality.
• Relationship Benefits and Technical Quality
• H4. Confidence Benefits Are Positively Related to Technical Quality.
• H5. Special Treatment Benefits Are Positively Related to Technical Quality.
• H6. Social Benefits Are Positively Related to Technical Quality.
• Relationship Benefits and Relationship Quality
• H7. Confidence Benefits Are Positively Related to Relationship Quality.
• H8. Special Treatment Benefits Are Positively Related to Relationship Quality.
• H9. Social Benefits Are Positively Related to Relationship Quality.
• Technical, Functional and Relationship Quality and Word-of-Mouth
• H10. Functional Quality Is Positively Related to Word-of-Mouth.
• H11. Technical Quality Is Positively Related to Word-of-Mouth.
• H12. Relationship Quality Is Positively Related to Word-of-Mouth.
• Research Method
• Measures
• Statistical Procedures
• Reliability and Validity of Measures
• Results
• Discussion and Conclusions
• Limitations and Future Research
• References

Discussion and conclusions

The findings of this study highlight the important role relationship benefits play in driving customer perceptions of service quality and in particular technical and functional service quality. We found that while confidence and social benefits increase perceptions of both functional and technical quality, special treatment benefits serve to reduce the customer’s perception of quality. As confidence benefits reduce anxiety and increase confidence in the service provider’s ability to deliver on its promises and social benefits reflect the emotional aspect of relationships, such as personal recognition, (Gwinner et al., 1998) it is not surprising that these benefits drive perceptions of service quality. Special treatment benefits, on the other hand, are the most tangible of the benefits customers receive from service firms (Gwinner et al., 1998), and pertain to benefits such as price breaks for customers with an established relationship (Gwinner et al., 1998). The negative effect these benefits have on service quality perceptions may be a result of consumers feeling that the provision of extra benefit such as a price break may result in a lower level of service provision. That is, customers may think that the provider will “cut corners” thus reducing quality as a way of making up any lost revenue due to providing the customer with a special price deal or other similar benefit. Managers aiming to increase quality perceptions would be better off providing customers with enhanced confidence and social benefits than special treatment benefits. Given that the direct costs associated with providing these types of benefits are likely lower than providing special treatment benefits, understanding these effects represents a significant advantage for managers.

A closer examination of the findings of this study indicates that confidence benefits have a larger effect on functional and technical quality than social benefits. It would seem that managers wanting to increase quality perceptions would benefit more from enhancing confidence than social benefits. This may be because confidence benefits are more cognitively oriented serving to diminish risk associated with the purchase and help the customer frame their service expectations. Social benefits, on the other hand, tend to be more emotional referring to personal recognition and familiarity, which are not quite as important in driving quality perceptions.

Focusing on the effect of relationship benefits on perceptions of relationship quality, a similar pattern emerges in so far as confidence benefits are the key driver of relationship quality perceptions. Managerially, these findings highlight the critical role confidence benefits play in driving perceptions of service and relationship quality. Firms should thus pay careful attention to providing customers with these types of benefits as a basis of their relationship marketing activities. Social benefits are also important in terms of driving service quality perceptions and should also be a part of any relationship building activity if the goal is to increase service quality perceptions.

Special treatment benefits on the other hand do not appear to be useful in creating quality perceptions; rather these benefits serve to reduce the customer perception of functional and technical quality and do not have an effect on relationship quality. Managers would be wise to focus their attention away from special treatment benefits.

Word-of-mouth is arguably one of the most important factors in the success of service firms. The ability to identify predictors of WOM behavior is of great important to service providers. Our study specially examined this issue to identify the effect of relationship benefits on perceptions of service and relationship quality and the subsequent impact of these constructs on WOM behavior. The findings clearly show that improving functional service quality or how the service is delivered has an impact on WOM behavior. Somewhat surprisingly, technical quality does not seem to be a driver of WOM behavior. This may be because technical quality relates more to the intangible and difficult to assess components of service provision where as functional quality or the way in which the service is delivered is much easier for consumers to evaluate and thus comment on and make recommendations on. For example, customers would find it much easier to comment on whether a medical service ran on time than on the expertise and qualification of their medical practitioner. While functional quality influences WOM behavior it is relationship quality that has the largest effect on such behavior. It would seem that the more committed both parties are to the relationship, the more trustworthy a provider is in the eyes of the customer. As such, the more positive the customer’s feelings are towards the provider and the service received, the more likely the customer is to engage in positive WOM behavior.

Interestingly, both functional and relationship quality reflect the “softer” more emotive aspects of service provision and these factors play an important role in generating WOM behavior, a bit more so for relationship quality. Technical quality on the other hand which reflects the “harder” more objective side of service provision does not appear to influence the customer’s intentions to encourage, recommend or say positive things about the service provider.