Michael A. McCollough

The Effect of Perceived Justice and Attributions Regarding Service Failure and Recovery on Post-Recovery Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality Attitudes

This research examines the impact of attributions regarding service failure and recovery on the relationship between satisfaction and service quality by studying a service failure in the hospitality industry resulting from overbooking. In addition, the impact of perceived justice on satisfaction and service quality is analyzed. Finally, the ability of superior recovery to completely mitigate the dissatisfaction resulting from low-harm service failure is addressed. In doing so, the relationship between satisfaction and service quality is clarified. Research hypotheses are critically evaluated through the use of a scenario-based experiment. Implications concern the ability of recovery to mitigate the harm caused by failure. Specifically, for managers in the hospitality industry, the study demonstrates a need to balance overbooking as a yield management tool against the need for organizations to assure service quality through reliability in their service products.

Guaranteeing Student Satisfaction: An Exercise in Treating Students as Customers

Service guarantees, formal promises made to customers about the service they will receive, are rarely offered in university classes. In this article, the authors report on their experience in guaranteeing the satisfaction of undergraduate students with the instructor’s performance. The rationale for, success of, and lessons learned from this pedagogical exercise are reviewed. In addition, detailed feedback from students gained through focus group interviews and a written student assignment regarding the guarantee is examined. General advice related to the guarantee is offered for instructors interested in guaranteeing their own performance.

Student Satisfaction Guarantees: An Empirical Examination of Attitudes, Antecedents, and Consequences:

In guaranteeing the satisfaction of undergraduate students with the instructor’s performance, Gremler and McCollough in previous studies reported that undergraduate studentsgen erally approve of the concept of offering a student satisfaction guarantee for a course. Although they provided both qualitative and quantitative measures of students’attitudes concerning the guarantee, left unresolved is how students’ attitudes toward the guarantee might possibly affect their attitudes toward their overall classroom experience, including their attitude of the instructor’s efforts, their own efforts, and their satisfaction with classroom learning outcomes. This research presents and empirically evaluates a student satisfaction guarantee model. Lessons learned have implications not only for student satisfaction guarantees but for service guarantees in general.

Emotional Labor and the Difficult Customer: Coping Strategies of Service Agents and Organizational Consequences

ABSTRACT While the service quality literature suggests the importance of courteous service agents, the emotional labor literature has shown that there are important negative personal consequences associated with emotional work requirements. In this study, a survey which evaluated employee responses to the emotional labor involved in serving difficult customers is detailed and significant consequences for the organization are considered. Some of these consequences have the potential to negatively impact several determinants of service quality.

A conceptual model and empirical examination of the effect of service guarantees on post‐purchase consumption evaluations

Empirically evaluates a model of service guarantees by addressing the impact of a service guarantee on consumers’ satisfaction evaluations. Proposes a model suggesting that the differentiating and signaling properties of a guarantee can influence service provider satisfaction and that a service guarantee may capitalize on the coproduction nature of services to increase consumer self‐satisfaction and overall satisfaction. Finds empirical support that a guarantee can influence post‐consumption evaluations, even in the absence of service failure and the guarantee being invoked, and therefore suggests that a service guarantee may influence consumer satisfaction even if the service is already highly reliable.

Service Encounter Emotional Value

ABSTRACT A model is developed that identifies individual and dyadic antecedents and outcomes for a construct we have named service encounter emotional value (SEEVal). Service encounter emotional value is defined as the net emotional value the customer experiences added to the net emotional value the service provider employee experiences. Individual cognitive and affective antecedents are identified. Emotional dyadic antecedents are identified and include rapport, emotional contagion, co-production of emotional labor, and relationship quality. The customer outcomes associated with SEEVal broadly include satisfaction, loyalty, and customer voluntary performance. Service employee outcomes include satisfaction, organizational loyalty, and organizational citizenship behaviors. We use existing research to logically support the model and the relationships therein. Fourteen propositions are developed and additional suggestions for future research are provided.

Implementing Total Quality Management in the Classroom by Means of Student Satisfaction Guarantees

Universities are increasingly turning to the principles of total quality management (TQM) in an attempt to improve quality and gain competitive advantage. Recent survey data, however, indicates that while many universities have been successfully applying TQM in support and administrative functions, TQM has not migrated into the classroom to any significant extent at many of these institutions. For TQM to have the desired impact, it must be extended to the core learning processes and be implemented in the classroom. This paper describes how student satisfaction guarantees can serve as a tool for implementing TQM principles in the classroom. The paper begins with a review of classroom-based applications of TQM. From this review, five basic elements are identified as comprising a classroom-based model of TQM. The paper then describes a student satisfaction guarantee used at one university and how this guarantee facilitates the introduction of the five core TQM elements in the classroom. Surveys and focus groups from students who have taken the guaranteed classes are used to illustrate the points made. The paper concludes with a discussion of the value added by these guarantees in the TQM implementation process and the potential challenges faced in using this approach to implementing TQM in the classroom.

Student Satisfaction Guarantees: An Empirical Investigation of Student and Faculty Attitudes1

This study reports on an exercise in guaranteeing the satisfaction of undergraduate students with the instructor’s performance. The guarantee was a modified version of that employed by McCollough and Gremler (1999) with the revisions intended to address some of the negative student perceptions they report. In addition to discussing revisions made to the guarantee, this study describes quantitative measures of the attitudes of both students and faculty about the student satisfaction guarantee. The results verify many of the findings of McCollough and Gremler’s qualitative study and suggest the revised guarantee is generally well received and adequately addresses concerns with McCollough and Gremler’s original guarantee.