Tracy Meyer

Retail and Service Encounters: The Inter-Cultural Tourist Experience

This study explores consumer perceptions of inter-cultural retail and service encounters. Previous research has shown that culture influences perceptions of service received. This research builds on what is known with the use of a consumer ritual research framework that involves the use of a semi-structured, thick-description method to examine similarities to and differences from what is considered a typical tourist encounter. The themes identified provide evidence of a “culture cushion” that serves an insulating role in reducing the potential negativity relative to overall perceptions and evaluations of the experience.

Culture cushion: inherently positive inter‐cultural tourist experiences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a new measure called the “culture cushion” to account for the inherent positivity surrounding the inter‐cultural tourist experience.Design/methodology/approach – The first study involved the identification of items for the culture cushion construct and included a semi‐structured questionnaire and a panel discussion. The second study assessed unidimensionality and the convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of the culture cushion dimensions. Respondents were asked to answer questions about a specific international consumption experience and responded to scale items measuring the culture cushion construct.Findings – A two‐dimensional measure of culture cushion was found to predict satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Judgments were more positive when the encounter was novel relative to previous experiences.Research limitations/implications – Additional studies involving travel locations other than those used in this study should be con...

Age‐related reactions to a product harm crisis

Purpose – This article aims to examine differences between older and younger consumers in their reactions to a product harm crisis. Research suggests that motivational and cognitive changes due to aging might cause information to be differentially utilized. The authors use primary and secondary control influences on information processing to explain why older consumers perceive themselves as less susceptible to the threats associated with a product harm crisis. This has important implications in terms of blame attributions, and marketing variables of interest such as purchase intentions and negative word of mouth.Design/methodology/approach – Two studies were conducted in which participants were asked to read a short newspaper article about a product harm crisis and to respond to a series of questions. Participants were split into two groups based on age.Findings – The empirical findings indicate that, compared with younger consumers, older consumers perceive product harm crises as less threatening, place...

An examination of culture cushion: antecedents and consequences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the antecedents and consequences of an international tourist phenomenon known as the culture cushion. Design/methodology/approach – Using surveys, participants considered a specific international consumption experience and responded to culture cushion, situational variables, the perceived differences in the encounter relative to one in the USA, and behavioral intention items. Findings – The amount spent was found to be an antecedent to both the excitement and the cultural knowledge dimensions of culture cushion while language was an antecedent for excitement only. Excitement had a positive relationship with satisfaction and other behavioral intention measures. Perceived differences mediated the relationship between knowledge and satisfaction with products, atmosphere and customer service such that lower perceptions of cultural knowledge caused greater perceived differences, which resulted in lower satisfaction ratings. Research limitations/implications ...

Explanation information and source in service recovery initiatives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to specifically consider two interactional aspects that are likely to contribute to the success of an explanation of why a service failed: the adequacy of information provided and role of the person providing the information. Design/methodology/approach – Two empirical studies were conducted using a between-subjects 2 (information: low vs high) × 2 (employee: frontline vs manager) experimental design. The first study was designed to better understand when the information provided might have a more positive impact on the customer. The second study was conducted to understand why the effects exist. Findings – In Study 1, an interaction effect was seen that suggests that the most positive outcome is when the manager (vs the frontline employee) provides a full explanation (vs limited explanation) of the mishap. Results from Study 2 indicate that source credibility is in play. Research limitations/implications – Participants were asked to respond to service failure and re...

Reinventing the Customer Experience: Technology and the Service Marketing Mix

Technology continues to advance at a rapid rate. The challenge for retailers is to determine which technologies are likely to have the biggest disruption on the retail experience and should, therefore, be adopted to remain competitive. Several new technologies are already having a major impact on the customer experience. For example, shoppers can take a picture of a QR (Quick Response) code in a magazine advertisement using their mobile devices and then be forwarded to a website where they can learn more about the product and even purchase it, if so desired. Additionally, mobile devices can accept customized coupons (Groupons) and product recommendations through a loyalty program such as the one provided by Shopkick. Opinions about potential purchases from friends/family in remote locations can be garnered through the utilization of social networking technology such as Magic Mirrors (Buechner et al. 2007). A common element in these examples is that technology has the capability to radically alter the retail experience.

The role of delight in driving repurchase intentions

A channel differentiator for brick-and-mortar retail stores is the availability of salespeople to assist customers directly in their purchase decision. This research considers two aspects of customer interactions with retail salespeople that lead to perceptions of extraordinary service and enhance repurchase intentions: customer comfort and salesperson expertise. Retail customers desire value-added informational assistance from the salesperson to minimize ambiguity associated with the product and to reduce the risk associated with a purchase decision. A retail salesperson needs to make customers feel comfortable so that the customer will share specific needs during the interaction, and the salesperson can recommend appropriate products and services. Our findings reveal that while both customer comfort and salesperson expertise positively influence satisfaction with the salesperson and customer delight, only customer delight leads to repurchase intentions. While satisfaction is a commonly asserted goal for retailers; the present research suggests that in a transaction-based environment, elevated emotions such as customer delight represent a more powerful predictor of repurchase intentions. This research provides evidence of trainable salesperson behaviors that enhance customer perceptions of extraordinary service and offer firms an opportunity for significant performance gains.

Implementing a Delight Strategy in a Restaurant Setting The Power of Unsolicited Recommendations

Identifying specific initiatives that can be undertaken by frontline employees to enhance customer delight is of great interest to service firms. In the hopes of contributing to this objective, the current research evaluates the impact of server recommendations on customer delight. Findings indicate that unsolicited server recommendations have a significant positive impact on customer delight. Moreover, the research provides no evidence to suggest that repercussions will result for the service provider even if the provision of an unsolicited recommendation leads to a negative outcome. The mediating role of expectations is examined to gain a better understanding of these recommendation effects. Consistent with self-fulfilling prophecy, the results reveal that customers are capable of experiencing delight even in heightened pre-experience expectation situations. These results provide evidence that the pursuance of customer delight as a strategic objective may warrant additional consideration.