1. Article 4 Service Encounter Problems: Which service providers are more likely to be blamed Oscar Hernandez

2. Objective  Determine if consumers are more likely to attribute the cause for service problems to certain service providers based on the intangibility of the service.  Would the size of unmet expectations be greater if the problem is attribute to the service provider.

3. Previous Research  Folkes (1984) “Consumer reactions to product failure”  Two experiments with 116 undergraduates examined how underlying causal properties or attribution dimensions influences consumer expectancy, marketplace equity, and anger reactions. Exp I utilized Ss' recall of critical incidents, while Exp II obtained responses to hypothetical product failures.

4. Previous Research  Richins (1983) “Negative word-of-mouth by dissatisfied consumers”  This study examines correlates of one possible response--telling others about the dissatisfaction--and identifies variables that distinguish this response from others. Variables investigated include the nature of the dissatisfaction, perceptions of blame for the dissatisfaction, and perceptions of retailer responsiveness.

5. Methodology  Survey  354 people participate in the research  Only 326 completed the entire survey (28 being eliminated because all the sections were not completed).  The service quality used a seven point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)

6. * 75 for the legal consultation * 103 for the discount department store * 62 for the hair styling * 86 for the film processing

7. Lower expectation

8. Higher expectations

9.  There were no significant difference (p>0.05). In both instances, expectations were not met, indicated by a negative score.  Results

11. The research concludes the following: Consumers expectations are higher for service that are more intangible than for services with more tangible features.

12. Conclusions  Who gets blame?  When the service was intangible, the consumers was more likely to blame the service providers.  Why?  Because the consumers can identify service process failures which are not discernible when purchasing products.

13. Conclusions   What can the service provider do?   Tangibilize the service (make the service more evident). How? Making t   This may be accomplished by showing the customer the service process.   What can be done when the customer is not present?   Pictures   Videos   Computer simulations