Similarity over difference: How congruency in customer characteristics drives service experiences

Abstract

Customers are critical actors in the service ecosystem, with their presence and interaction influencing service delivery and consumption. The interactions between customers in service settings can play an important role, with fellow customers having the potential to impact a focal customer's service experience, evaluations, and subsequent outcomes. Yet research on customer-to-customer interactions within the service encounter is limited. This research has examined the effect of congruency (incongruency) in fellow customer characteristics on focal customer outcomes across two studies. In study one, congruence in customer characteristics is shown to be a critical aspect of the service experience that can affect focal customer outcomes. In study two, status enhancement is shown to plays an important role, enhancing the effect of congruent fellow customer characteristics and mitigating weaker focal customer outcomes that result from incongruent customer characteristics. Importantly, these findings differ by the level of service consumption involvement. Findings present important implications for managers and frontline employees. In particular, regarding the importance of understanding, and potentially managing, congruency in customer characteristics; which can allow favorable responses to the service experience.

Introduction

In 2019, the French restaurant Mirazur was awarded the title of the No.1 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants. Imagine you have an upcoming reservation at Mirazur and are excited to be celebrating a special occasion. When the time comes, you enter the restaurant and immediately experience highly personalized service, notice the architecturally designed space, and feel your senses aroused by the gourmet menu. During your dining experience, you notice other diners that are similar to you in terms of how they look, act, and express themselves. However, what if this was not the case? Imagine if the other diners looked, acted, or expressed themselves in a way that was noticeably different from you. How would you feel? And how would this impact your overall dining experience?

Service production, delivery, and consumption exists in an ecosystem of multiple actors – primarily customers, employees, and service providers – all of whom interact and influence the service experience (Alexander, Jaakkola, & Hollebeek, 2018; Dessart, Veloutsou, & Morgan-Thomas, 2015; Fehrer, Woratschek, Germelmann, & Brodie, 2018). The actors in these service encounters have interdependent roles and therefore interact in multiple co-existing processes (Vargo & Lusch, 2016). Within service ecosystems, customers have a critical role to play within the physical environment, including service processes, frontline employees, other customers, and possibly even technology (Patrício, Fisk, Falcão e Cunha, & Constantine, 2011). Despite their level of importance, little is known about how customers interact with such elements within a service encounter (Dessart et al., 2015; Rosenbaum & Massiah, 2011). Even less is known about the interactions between customers, or customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions. Specifically, how focal customers interact with fellow customers in service settings (Brocato, Voorhees, & Baker, 2012; Line, Hanks, & Kim, 2015; Tombs & McColl-Kennedy, 2003), despite such experiences typically occurring in the presence of other customers (Argo, Dahl, & Manchanda, 2005; Nicholls, 2005, Nicholls, 2010).

Given the shared nature of many service encounters, the characteristics of customers can be easily observed and compared by the provider and other customers. For example, well-managed customer characteristics can improve a focal customer's comfort (Lovelock, 1983). More specifically, the appearance (Kim & Lee, 2012; Thakor, Suri, & Saleh, 2008), emotions (Tombs & McColl-Kennedy, 2013), and behaviors (e.g. Grove & Fisk, 1997; Martin, 1996) of fellow customers can significantly impact a focal customer's service experience and responses (Uhrich & Benkenstein, 2012). However, empirical research on the effect of fellow customer characteristics on the focal customer's service experience is scarce (Brocato et al., 2012; Line et al., 2015), including examining isolated or limited characteristics (Choi & Mattila, 2016; Line et al., 2015; Tombs & McColl-Kennedy, 2013).

As such, many managers remain unaware of the specific customer characteristics that impact a customer's service experience, including how any negative effects can be managed and ultimately mitigated. As such, this study investigated how focal customers respond to a service encounter based on how similar or different they perceive fellow customer characteristics to be. More specifically, the effect of congruency in fellow customer appearance, behavior, and emotion on focal customer outcomes has been examined across two studies. This research builds on prior knowledge about the influence of fellow customers on focal customer outcomes (e.g. Grove & Fisk, 1997; Martin & Pranter, 1989; Moore, Moore, & Capella, 2005; Nicholls, 2010), shedding new light on congruency in customer characteristics, as well as the roles of status enhancement and consumption involvement.

The aim of this research is threefold. First, to examine the effects of congruency in fellow customer characteristics on focal customer outcomes; second, to examine the effects of congruency in relation to three separate characteristics (being fellow customer appearance, behavior and emotion) on focal customer outcomes; and third, to examine the moderating effects of consumption involvement and status enhancement on the relationship between congruency in customer characteristics and focal customer outcomes. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. First, a review of relevant literature is presented. Next, the two studies are discussed, including the development of conceptual models to test the hypotheses. It concludes with a general discussion of this study's findings, as well as implications for theory and management, as well as limitations and thoughts for future research.