The role of personalization in service encounters Article

Mittal, B, Lassar, WM. (1996). The role of personalization in service encounters . JOURNAL OF RETAILING, 72(1), 95-109. 10.1016/S0022-4359(96)90007-X

cited authors

  • Mittal, B; Lassar, WM

authors

abstract

  • Personalization - the social content of interaction between service or retail employees and their customers - is advanced as an important mediator of customer satisfaction and patronage behavior. The influence of this service-enhancing factor is investigated within the nexus of SERVQUAL, a comprehensive measure of service quality. Survey data from 233 adult consumers show that "personalization" significantly influences customer experience and evaluation of service. As hypothesized, for a business that performs service on a physical possession, this influence is subsumed in other components of SERVQUAL. In contrast, for a business delivering service in interactive encounters with customers, "personalization" emerges as the most important determinant of perceived service quality, and of customer satisfaction and other patronage indicators. © 1996 New York University. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

publication date

  • March 1, 1996

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 95

end page

  • 109

volume

  • 72

issue

  • 1