Liana Victorino

Can Customers Detect Script Usage in Service Encounters? An Experimental Video Analysis

Service scripts are predetermined guides for employees to follow when delivering service to customers. Some services require employees to strictly follow a script, whereas others use scripts more flexibly, if at all. Extant research regarding service scripts in the domain of service operations has mainly addressed the topic from more of a process view as a control mechanism for the encounter but minimal research has examined customer perceptions of scripted service. The authors examine a pivotal first question, which is if customers can detect different approaches to script use. To answer the question, the authors conducted a video experiment of face-to-face service encounters in the hospitality industry. The results indicate that customers can detect degrees of script use across both standardized and customized encounter types. This work serves as initial empirical evidence that customers are indeed capable of detecting subtleties in scripting approaches in different service situations and supports that script level is an important service design construct for research. Furthermore, the authors highlight the use of a video experiment as an innovative methodology for assessing customer perceptions of intangible aspects to services in a realistic setting. One implication of this study is that managers need to assess the impact that different script levels have on customer perceptions of various service performance measures. Managers should also consider the effect script detection has on customer perceptions of the service experience and service brand to assure their script approach aligns with the organization’s service strategy.

The role of coordinated marketing-operations strategy in services : Implications for managerial decisions and execution

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of a coordinated marketing and operations strategy in goods and service producing business organizations. Customer engagement and co-production are imperative service delivery considerations, and therefore an aligned marketing and operations strategy is essential for the formulation, development, and effectiveness of managerial decisions especially for service sector firms. Design/methodology/approach – The authors present arguments in support of this papers primary objectives by reviewing past research that have introduced theoretical frameworks, empirical support and applications in support of the close coordination between marketing and operations strategy. The paper then describes how the inter-relationship between marketing and operations strategy impacts several managerial decisions. Findings – The paper discusses several different types of managerial decisions within goods and service producing firms that require active interaction b...

Scripting Employees An Exploratory Analysis of Customer Perceptions

Because customers can recognize when hospitality firms are employing service scripts, an examination is in order to determine how customers perceive scripted service. This article assesses customer perceptions of scripted service encounters with both content analysis and quantitative analysis of more than 2,000 open-ended customer responses to a survey addressing service scripts. The study found both task- and treatment-related implications for customer reactions to scripted service. Customers’ overall sentiment toward scripting is more positive when they are focusing on task-related outcomes, but their comments turned more negative when they considered treatment-related implications, particularly when they detected employee insincerity in regard to the script. Management should consider these findings carefully because customers in this survey gave more notice to treatment-related issues than they did to task-related outcomes for the scripted service. A key implication is that managers may wish to reserve tight scripting for simple services for which efficiency is valued, such as hotel check-in or seating guests in a restaurant. For more complex services, scripts should be flexible, and managers should seek employee buy-in so that they are internalizing the script elements, rather than merely “surface acting.”

Service operations: what’s next?

The purpose of this paper is to present exciting and innovative research questions in service operations that are aligned with eight key themes and related topics determined by the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) Service Operations Expert Research Panel. By offering a good number of such research questions, this paper provides a broad range of ideas to spur conceptual and empirical research related to service operations and encourage the continued creation of deep knowledge within the field, as well as collaborative research across disciplines that develops and incorporates insights from service operations.,Based on a Delphi study, described in the companion article, “Service Operations: What Have We Learned?,” the panel identified eight key research themes in service operations where leading-edge research is being done or has yet to be done (Victorino et al., 2018). In this paper, three or four topics within each theme are selected and multiple questions for each topic are proposed to guide research efforts. The topics and questions, while wide-ranging, are only representative of the many ongoing research opportunities related to service operations.,The field of service operations has many interesting research topics and questions that are largely unexplored. Furthermore, these research areas are not only increasingly integrative across multiple themes within operations but often transcend functional disciplines. This creates opportunities for ever more impactful research with a greater reach throughout the service system and suggests that service researchers, regardless of functional affiliation, can contribute to the ongoing conversation on the role of service operations in value creation.,Leveraging the collective knowledge of the JOSM Service Operations Expert Research Panel to expand on the research themes generated from the Delphi study, novel questions for future study are put forward. Recognizing that the number of potential research questions is virtually unlimited, summary questions by theme and topic are also provided. These questions represent a synopsis of the individual questions and can serve as a quick reference guide for researchers interested in pursuing new directions in conceptual and empirical research in service operations. This summary also serves as a framework to facilitate the formulation of additional research topics and questions.

Service operations: what have we learned?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify research themes in service operations that have great potential for exciting and innovative conceptual and empirical work. To frame these research themes, the paper provides a systematic literature review of operations articles published in the Journal of Service Management (JOSM). The thorough review of published work in JOSM and proposed research themes are presented in hopes that they will inspire impactful research on service operations. These themes are further developed in a companion paper, “Service operations: what’s next?” (Field et al., 2018). Design/methodology/approach The JOSM Service Operations Expert Research Panel conducted a Delphi study to generate research themes where leading-edge research on service operations is being done or has yet to be done. Nearly 700 articles published in JOSM from its inception through 2016 were reviewed and classified by discipline focus. The subset of service operations articles was then further categorized according to the eight identified research themes plus an additional category that primarily represented traditional manufacturing approaches applied in service settings. Findings From the Delphi study, the following key themes emerged: service supply networks, evaluating and measuring service operations performance, understanding customer and employee behavior in service operations, managing servitization, managing knowledge-based service contexts, managing participation roles and responsibilities in service operations, addressing society’s challenges through service operations, and the operational implications of the sharing economy. Based on the literature review, approximately 20 percent of the published work in JOSM is operations focused, with earlier articles predominantly applying traditional manufacturing approaches in service settings. However, the percentage of these traditional types of articles has been steadily decreasing, suggesting a trend toward dedicated research frameworks and themes that are unique to the design and management of services operations. Originality/value The paper presents key research themes for advancing conceptual and empirical research on service operations. Additionally, a review of the past and current landscape of operations articles published in JOSM offers an understanding of the scholarly conversation so far and sets a foundation from which to build future research.

The Sequence of Service: An Affect Perspective to Service Scheduling

Research from the behavioral sciences offers many insights into how customers perceive the sequence of service and how these perceptions influence their decision-making and evaluation of the customer experience. This chapter offers a comprehensive literature review of foundational behavioral research that can help inform service scheduling practice. Topics covered include the peak effect and the following sequence effects: peak placement including an early peak versus a delayed peak, trend, spread, end, and duration. An affect perspective is taken to understand how customers respond to these different service scheduling strategies. Two studies that have examined affect-based service scheduling and applied temporal decision theory are also described to illustrate how these behavioral insights can be leveraged when scheduling the customer experience.