Behaviour of Customers in the Service Encounter - Essay Example

READING THE BEHAVIOURS S IN THE SERVICE ENCOUNTER Consumer behaviour is one of the most important s especially in the field of marketing. It mainly deals with the study of how people choose to buy a certain product, what, when and why they buy. In fact it is a multidisciplinary subject that blends elements from psychology, sociology, socio-psychology, anthropology and economics. In today's competitive world it has become important to understand the need of customers. This paper discusses some of the most important aspects of reading the behaviours of customers especially in the hospitality sector. In the U.S. economy there are two major sectors identified by the U.S. Standard Industry Classification System. The first one is the goods-producing sector and the second one is the service-producing sector. The goods-producing sector includes agriculture, forestry, and fishing; mining; construction; and manufacturing. The service-producing sector includes the divisions of transportation, communications, and utilities, wholesale and retail trade, finance, insurance, real estate, public administration and other services. In other words, the service sector can be termed as hospitality sector (Simmering, 2006). Today's customers have more power than ever before. This is mainly because of the fact that a single product or service is provided by several agencies. As a result of this competition, customers have more than enough choices. They have high-quality alternatives, greater access to information, and the unprecedented ability to compare brands. It can be said that power has shifted from producers to consumers. For example, it a person decides to buy a car with specific model, colour, and interiors in his mind and approaches a showroom that does not have that model, he would look for another showroom. But if the seller is good at selling, he may convince the customer to either change his choice by giving a better option at competitive price or buy some time from the customer to deliver the exact model. Consumerism has changed the out look of hospitality sector. Recent years has witnessed the intense competition in the hospitality sector. This sector need to excel is customer service not only to retain existing customers, but also to attract new customers. To thrive in the ever increasing competition, today hospitality sector needs to aim for process excellence (vfirst.com, N.D.). For example, if a customer decides to have food from a restaurant, he first decides on what type of food he would like to have it may be Chinese, Indian or any other. The next question that comes to his mind is which Chinese or Indian restaurant he would go Based on his past experience, he takes the decision mainly based on the quality of food and the service that he got in previous instances. Today, service industries are facing challenges as they are only as good as their last customer transaction or touch-point. As customers compare value and tale decisions at a much faster rate due to easy accessibility to information, this sector must live up to their promises. Irrespective of the type of market, the reasons a customer chooses a particular brand may not be the same tomorrow. Hence it becomes even more difficult to have and maintain customers. As a result of these challenges, nothing is more important than understanding customer behaviour. Knowing what leads to a customer's choice allows the company to make better business decisions, develop effective marketing strategies, and hold the attention of the customers. There are only a few companies that consistently live up to their brand promises and have large customer base. And these companies are the ones who benefit from the rewards of repeat business and customers who are advocates for their products and services (Maritz research, 2005). It is important for a service oriented company to understand what differentiates their companies from others and must understand the needs of the consumers in their markets. These two ingredients are the key to develop a strategic plan to create a market niche and develop their successful customer base. Development of this information along with the development of the internal business processes can lead to some form of a competitive advantage in the market. Understanding the customer and their reactions to the environment will help for a longer life of the relationship between businesses and their customers. Often in spite of a strong commitment and sincere desire to provide quality service, many companies fall significantly short of the mark. This generally happens because they have an internally directed rather than externally directed focus. In other words, companies predict the customers needs and according to their prediction provides products and services. This orientation often leads to providing products and services that do not match customer's expectations. Michael Wing has listed a few common elements that contribute to the gap between customer expectations and the product or service offered: Inadequate bilateral communication between frontline personnel and management. An absence of regular interaction between management and customers An absence of a strong marketing-research program (understanding the customer) An absence of customer-service accountability. (Wing, 1997) Non-verbal communication Non-verbal communication has an important impact on service based businesses. This type of communication takes place intentionally or unintentionally every time on person interacts with another. For instance, customers responses to service delivery, perceived service quality or satisfaction, are dependent on their interpretation of various non verbal signals during the encounter. A service delivered has both soft and hard elements of delivery process. The soft process elements are mainly focused on the individual service provider and the interpersonal exchange directly with the customer and are linked with consumer satisfaction. The service received is evaluated by the customer and the result of this evaluation is expressed in non-verbal language in the further transitions. The non verbal language is a part of everyday social behaviour and, therefore, also a component of every interpersonal service encounter. Nonverbal communication is defined here as "all the messages other than words that people exchange" (DeVito & Hecht, 1990). The non-verbal communication has two elements, body language and paralinguistic or the conveyance of meaning through vocal tone, pitch etc. Non-verbal influence can be categorised into different areas: proxemics (spatial distances), kinesics (known as body language, including eye, facial, and body movement), oculesics (Eye movement), chronemics (time); olfactics (smell); and artifacts (use of objects, such as jewelry) and vocalic or paralinguistic cues (vocalizations other than words, such as sighs and moans, vocal pitch and volume) (Burgoon et al., 1989). These behaviours have a direct effect on how the customer and the service provider conduct themselves during the exchange. The only problem with such conversation is that it can be easily misunderstood. The way personal space is structured is referred to as proxemics in the field of non-verbal communication. Personal space, or distance from other persons is a powerful concept especially when it comes to the service encounters. Several studies on this aspect suggest that proxemics is directly linked to individual interpretation of the meaning of messages conveyed by another person. For instance, if a customer is angry with the service, he expresses his anger in different ways depending on the distance of the customer from the service counter. In fact physical closeness of the angry customer can itself be used to threaten. On the other hand it is also true that when a customer is happy, they express it in much more physical ways. This principle is generally universal. Kinesics is the non-verbal form of behaviour which is related to movement of either any part of the body, or the whole body. In other words communicative body movements are generally classified as kinesic. However, it is also one of the most confusing areas of non-verbal communication behaviour with the existence of different cultures. Many of the times body movements that are clearly understandable in one culture may not make any sense in another. Our eyes can express a number of feelings and the way eyes are used during a communication exchange is described as occulesics. This may include eye contact for example, or the avoidance of eye contact, but it may also include all other eye movements, such as looking onto other body parts of the other person, etc. Haptics is the touching behaviour. Although most frequent during greetings and departures, touching or shaking hands, hugging etc. can occur in a variety of circumstances. This behaviour on the other side may make people from societies in which touching is limited to for example greeting and departure feel extremely uncomfortable (Dahl, N.D.). In today's business atmosphere, a handshake is the most common way for two people (probably the service provider and the customer) to touch one another in a business situation. It is sometimes felt that it is a revealing gesture. There is different information one can gather through handshake. For instance, a firm handshake indicates an intense and greater liking and warmer feelings. Similarly, a prolonged handshake is indicative of more intimate relation, generally happens with close friends or associates. On the other hand if a prolonged handshake may cause the customer discomfort, especially a sales call on a new prospect. A loosely clasped, cold, or limp handshake is generally interpreted as signifying that someone is aloof and unwilling to become involved (Anthony, 2005). There are several studies conducted on the non-verbal communication which can predict the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the customer. It is a well known fact that we are constantly communicating in one way or another - even if we do not utter a word. On the other hand language seems to be the clear and understandable form of communication. According to Birdwhistell (1970) out of the total conversation, up to 65% of a message's meaning is communicated through non-verbal clues. Similarly, Fromkin and Rodman (1983) claim that almost up to 90% of the meaning of a message is transmitted non-verbally. In the business world and especially in the service sector, the importance of non-verbal clues has not often been discussed extensively. Fatt (1998) describes non-verbal behaviour as a skill that is useful to the business person, but are not extensively made use due to the lack of importance it gains. This is contradicted by Gabbot and Hogg (2000) who attribute a major importance to non-verbal clues in a service encounter. According to them: "we have evidence that the non-verbal communication in a service encounter dramatically impacts on the customer's evaluation of the service event. [] that this impact is both overall and in relation to specific components. [] that there are some differences between customer groups in how they react to non-verbal behaviour." Hence, it is quite obvious that non-verbal behaviour is not only important in service encounters, but that it will have a strong impact on any communication within or outside the business sphere. Impact of Body Language Studies have estimated that between 60-80% of what we try to communicate to other people is done through our body language, and the rest is attributed to the actual words we use. This is applicable in the service based companies also. And it is the ability to read and understand the customer's body language that can make the difference between making the sale, and not making the sale. Body language occurs unconsciously for the most part, yet the body language that a buyer or seller use decides to a large extent the quality of communication. In other words it would be good to become conscious of the body language. There are three basic steps involved in understanding the body language - absorb, interpret and mirror. In the first step it is important to notice the customers eyes contact, hands, arms, body angle, voice inflection, and anything else about the language of their body. Being able to successfully observe what is happening is a vital skill in the sales process and can not be taken lightly. In the second step of interpreting include understanding what their body language is saying about how they feel about the service that is provided and the experience they are having. Though learning the art of interpretation may take some time, but it will help make the customer's experience much more pleasant and sale better. Mirroring the customer movements will help build a rewarding and long-lasting relationship with them. It builds trust, helps break down the defensive walls and will show them you are like-minded. In other words, customers will relate with the servicing person easily. There are several factors such as proper eye contact, head position, voice or pitch, etc that influence the customer and visa versa. For instance, eye contact is one of the most important non-verbal aspects of dealing with customers, especially the new customers. Maintaining good eye contact shows respect and a sincere interest in what they have to say. It will give them a feeling of comfort and genuine warmth. Similarly head position will show the friendliness and interested in listening, receptive mode, etc. Leaning towards the customer will also signify their interest in meeting their needs (Graf, 2007). Customer satisfaction can only occur when service meets or exceeds expectations. Though the service sectors have become a large part of the U.S. economy, consumers have become increasingly dissatisfied with the service that they receive. There are several reasons attributed to this. Several studies on services have viewed the service encounter as comprising of tangibles and intangibles, in other words providing a process and a product to the customer. These studies have attempted to identify those factors that influence customer satisfaction. Some of the outcomes from these studies point out that offering goods and services are not enough, it is also important to provide the customers with an experience. In addition most of these studies pointed out that the importance of the actual customer-employee encounter, with the focus on the behaviours of the service provider plays a significant role in repeat purchases. Last but not the least is an often-overlooked element, is the role a customer's perception has in a service exchange, which can have a major effect on the outcomes of the exchange (Karthik, 2003). Recognition and analysis of nonverbal communication in sales transactions is relatively new. A customer's gestures and actions reveal hidden feelings about a product or service. As mentioned earlier, the four major nonverbal communication channels are the physical space between buyer and seller, appearance, handshake, and body movements. Though effective communication plays its role in making a sale, it is the non-verbal communication signals that have significant part of the total communication process between buyer and seller (Anthony, 2005). Professional sales people especially in the hospitality industry seek to learn and understand nonverbal communication to increase their sales success. Conclusion It is a well known fact that service encounters are everyday issue which is used to provide goods and services to a variety of customers. In spite of the increasing internet and other shopping channels most of the encounters are still carried out face-to-face. For an experienced service provider it is easy to predict the customer's behaviour through his non-verbal mode of communication. Many times customer's dissatisfaction is obvious from their voice, facial expression and their body language. In addition, gestures, posture, eye contact and facial expression can provide important cues - of what the customer is really looking for. As a service provider it is important to acquire through knowledge about the behaviour, the preferences, the needs, and the wants of customers. In other words the ability to read the customer's mind and measuring their level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction can produce top-performing sales reps particularly in the service sector. Understanding them to such an intense level that the service provider is actually able to think and react as their customer would is a learnable skill that can be developed with a moderate degree of practice. This will benefit not only the customer but also the service providers as their business will increase by leaps and bounds. Each one of us experience poor service from time-to-time. The only way a customer is satisfied is when the service meets or exceeds expectations. Unfortunately when a customer faces a negative service encounter, it should be noted that such an incident would never disappear from his mind and will be reflected in his future transaction. Hence the most important point for a service provider is to consider each and every customer seriously and do their best to satisfy the customer. For this purpose it is important to understand and have a good knowledge of non-verbal communication. References Anthony, U. (2005) Nonverbal communication in selling, [Online] Supervision, Available from [Accessed on 5 June 2007]. Birdwhistell, R. L. (1970). Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body Motion Communication. Philadelphia, Unicersity of Pennsylvania Press. Burgoon, J. K., Buller, D. B., & Woodall, W. G. (1989). Nonverbal communication: The unspoken dialogue. New York: Harper & Row. Dahl, S. (N.D.) A short introduction to nonverbal communication, [Online] Available from [Accessed on 8 June 2007]. DeVito, J. A., & Hecht, M. L. (1990). The nonverbal communication reader. Prospect Heights, IL.: Waveland Press. Fromkin, V. and J. Rodman (1983). An Introduction to Language. New York, NY., CBS College Publishing. Fatt, J. P. T. (1998). "Nonverbal Communication and Business Success." Management Research News 21(4): 1-10. Gabbott, M. and G. Hogg (2000). "An Empirical Investigation of the Impact of Non-Verbal Communication on Service Evaluation." European Journal of Marketing 34(3-4): 384-398. Graf, M. (2007) The Dynamics of Human Behavior, [Online] Blossom Publishing. Available from [Accessed on 5 June 2007]. Karthik, N. (2003) The customer's role in the service encounter, [Online] Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Available from [Accessed on 8 June 2007]. Maritz research, (2005) Understand your customers. See what makes them tick, [Online] Maritz inc. Available from [Accessed on 5 June 2007]. Simmering, M.J. (2006) Service Industry, [Online] Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation, Available from [Accessed on 6 June 2007]. vfirst.com, (N.D.) ValueFirst Hospitality Sector: The cutting-edge technology, [Online] Available from [Accessed on 6 June 2007]. Wing, M. J. (1997) The Arthur Andersen Guide to Talking With Your Customers Upstart Publishing Company, Chicago, IL. Read More