Service encounters and service relationships: Implications for research

Abstract

The essentially social nature of service encounters, a short-run phenomenon, provides the occasions in which buyer and seller negotiate the terms of their exchange relationship, a long-run phenomenon. Defined as the mutual recognition of special status between exchange partners, exchange relationships insure efficacy for the buyer, as they mitigate market volatility for the seller. Understanding how economic exchange is played out against a background of social exchange can yield actionable insights. One implication is that research must include both customer and provider perceptions as the focal unit. Other research implications include the need to study the impact of customer role performance on satisfaction, to identify the elements of style and substance that buyers or sellers use to judge relational performance, and the need to develop measures of relational quality and strength.