three different discussion forums substantial replies and just agreeing 100 words each response.
1. A study published by Calvert, et al., (2019) examined the effects positive and negative customer service interactions had on both the customers and the employees that engaged in the interaction. The results determined that genuine earnestness and openness on behalf of the employee improves the emotional state of both the employee and the customer. To reach this conclusion, the researchers conducted two different tests across three different English-speaking countries – the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. The two tests were the Impulse Test, which tested for reactions to various customer service videos, and the second was an affective semantic priming task, which requested answers to customer service situations or questions and how the participants felt about those situations (Calvert, et al., 2019).
The study was very thorough. It used two tests to reach the hypothesized results. It removed people who actively work in the customer service industry. It accounted for differences in responses by gender, age, and across cultures (e.g., the United Kingdom has lower expectations of customer service compared with Canada and Australia, Canada felt happier overall by both providing and receiving customer service, and Australia felt more of “a sense of ‘calm’” (Calvert, et al., 2019, Sec. 3.2.5) in providing customer service and “‘fortunate… ‘thrilled’, ‘happy’ and ‘appreciated’” (Calvert, et al., 2019, Sec. 3.2.5) upon receiving it (Calvert, Pathak, Ching, L. Trufil, & Fulcher, 2019). The study had one error in reasoning – the sample size was small, although it admits to that. A potential bias can also be that it only studied the effects of customer service in three countries of the Western world (Calvert, et al., 2019).
Good customer service has been proven to more satisfied and productive employees and a lower turnover rate (Digital Minds BPO, 2022), so the study certainly provided deeper insight into customer service and how positive service offers benefits not just to the customer.
References
Calvert, G. A., Pathak, A., Ching, L. E. A., Trufil, G., & Fulcher, E. P. (2019, October 9). Providing excellent customer service is therapeutic: Insights from an implicit association neuromarketing study. National Institute of Health of Health, National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information. doi: 10.3390/bs9100109
Digital Minds BPO (2022, April 16). 11 amazing benefits of good customer service that help your business grow. https://digitalmindsbpo.com/blog/benefits-of-good-customer-service/
2. Hello All,
I find the Walt Disney Corporation’s world domination fascinating.
It would be rare to find a household in the United States in which the name Walt Disney is not recognized. The Walt Disney corporation has created a remarkable legacy comprised of major television news stations, films, theme parks, and dozens of other business ventures.
The Walt Disney corporation has accomplished its theme park success primarily by setting an exemplary standard of customer service that many attempt to replicate.
One article that outlines this success is “Customer Loyalty the Disney Way,” authored by Kelley Lawrence and Henry Greene, in the International Journal of Arts and Sciences. The authors give examples of the corporation’s excellent customer service techniques that have created its infamous customer loyalty such as providing customers with “real consumer experiences and real emotional experiences”, “anticipating and fulfilling customer’s needs”, and always turning negative situations into positive situations by giving out free gifts or refunding their unhappy customers. The article proceeds to show how other businesses can replicate those customer service techniques to create their own loyal customer base, thus indicating that if you do what Disney does, you’ll be the next multi-billion dollar company.
Additionally, the authors compare how the Walt Disney corporation has built loyalty across multiple generations (e.g. Baby Boomers and Millennials). The article completes a case study with those two generations and asks questions about their perception of Disney, their thoughts and expectations when it comes to customer service, and what the “most important factors” are when considering a customer service experience. The researchers took these results and made conclusions about the customer service experience between these two age demographics at the end of their article.
I would argue a major area of insufficient evidence is the sample size of the study. This study included only three members of the millennial and Baby Boomer demographic each. One cannot make a claim about an entire generation from solely three members. Additionally, most were caucasian females from the state of Connecticut, a traditionally wealthy demographic and state compared to the larger population.
A major error in reasoning is one cannot base an entire customer service experience from one business or enterprise. Customer service expectations at Disney for an individual is probably vastly different from their customer service expectations at Walmart. Personally, my customer service expectations are much higher at an amusement park because I’m spending many hours there, will be using the restroom, will be having a meal, and will need a place to rest. You will not find me using a restroom at Walmart, so my expectations are a lot lower at Walmart.
References:
Greene, H, Lawrence, K. (2020). Customer Loyalty the Disney Way. American International Journal of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, 13 (1), 83-94. http://ezproxy.apus.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fcustomer-loyalty-disney-way%2Fdocview%2F2506762699%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8289
3. The article I chose is called “Customer Service Providers’ Attitudes Relating to Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction in the Customer-Server Exchange” and I found the article to be free of bias. The authors wrote fact based and well researched responses regarding managerial, coworker, and customer roles and traditionally how the model is designed to work. The authors write about strong ethical behavior of the managers being an integral part of what makes the customer service experience work well.
In my personal life, I was a hostess at a historic and very elegant hotel restaurant and the majority of the clientele were pretty awful. They were very entitled, rude, lacked any sort of manners, hurtful, and sometimes downright relentless. Our management thankfully always had our backs and they did not tolerate restaurant guests berating their employees. There was however one evening, it had been raining most of the day and this lady came in to the restaurant and we could tell she was weary from travels, cold, and wet and we seated her in our fireside lounge (dinner table right next to the fireplace) and we went to the flower shop inside the hotel, brought her a red rose and placed it on her table and told her to have a nice evening. She started crying and told our managers how she had the worst day and his staff made it so much better. I will never forget that, that was customer service working as it should.
Susskind, A. M., Kacmar, K. M., & Borchgrevink, C. P. (2003). Customer Service Providers’ Attitudes Relating to Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction in the Customer-Server Exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 179–187. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.1.179
V/r Watts