From Deseret News archives:
Study offers insights on customer relations
How do you want management to respond?
A. Apologize sincerely, explain what happened and promise to repair the relationship.
B. Offer several options from which you can choose to fix the situation.
C. Acknowledge the mistake and give monetary compensation for it.
Your answer says something about what kind of customer you are, according to a new study co-authored by a Brigham Young University professor that debunks the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to customer service.
Published in the Journal of Marketing, the study outlines three types of customers: relationals, answer A; oppositionals, answer B; and utilitarians, answer C.
"We originally set out to look and understand at a deeper level consumers' recovery expectations," said Glenn Christensen, an assistant professor of management at BYU. "What emerged quickly is they're not monolithic. It wasn't all the same, and people weren't at all the same, as had been tacitly assumed in (previous) research.
"They're very much interested in how they're treated in the process," said Christensen. "I tend to form relationships with providers and want them to form them with me and create a big love group."
Oppositionals, on the other hand, can become aggressive and overly demanding in the face of a customer service failure. These people want to feel in control, the study notes, which is why companies should allow these customers to choose from multiple options to rectify the situation.
"We're not saying that these oppositionals are just grumpy people, but in the context of a service recovery ... it really frames the way they look at the whole encounter," Christensen said.
Finally, utilitarians approach service breakdowns from a rational, calculating perspective. They are interested in the bottom line, according to the study, and see apologies as an attempt to buy them off with emotion.
The study's lead author is Torsten Ringberg of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and co-authored by Christensen and Gaby Odekerken-Schroder of Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
Recent comments
Most responses to bad service can be done by incorporating all three...
Customer | Oct. 25, 2007 at 9:14 p.m.
I'm a former student of Glenn Christensen's and I was a little...
Pete Maughan | Oct. 25, 2007 at 11:23 a.m.
I was a steady/frequent customer for a supper club which offered good...
Dan McGrew | Oct. 25, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.
- Dixie campus briefs 1:10 a.m.
- Westminster campus briefs 1:09 a.m.
- UVU campus briefs 1:07 a.m.
- Utah Utes campus briefs 1:07 a.m.
- Visit to paradise nightmarish for Ags 12:32 a.m.
- Utes struggling to shake starts 12:31 a.m.
- Cougars' execution flawless 12:30 a.m.
- Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings 12:17 a.m.
- 3A football: Tigers pull away 12:12 a.m.
- Editorial: 'Immigrant' children needy 12:12 a.m.
- Gay advocates trek to LDS office
207 - Dirk does dirty work in Dallas
190 - Lobo suspended
172 - Speed has never been BYU's game
136 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
129 - House passes health care bill
116 - RSL rallies to advance
102 - Prep football: San Juan vs. S. Sevier
102 - Thousands protest health bill
100 - Provo company innovating engines
98
Is that WSU was not down 32-21 at half time, they were only down one point....
thanks to their incredible win over the legendary Lobos, the Utes will still...
Now I have something to really complain about.
The girls are CHAMPIONS; and the boys are....
The government wants 95% of Americans to have health care because it is a...
Whittingham is doing great with the team. A major rebuilding year to replace...
Nice to see the Cougars on track again. Lets not have a nuclear melt down...
Not a good weekend for LP.
Kevin in the Terrace | 9:57p You stated "What matters is the overwhelming...
JAZZ/ROYAL PAIN. Sounds about right.

