Bandwidth Quota Exceeded

Traditionally, service encounters in firms have been conducted through interactions between customers and employees. In this digital age, however, different industries have begun to adopt “Self-Service Technologies” (SSTs) in which customers are serviced by a machine rather than a human employee. This study hypothesized that customer delight, customer retention intent, and Word of-Mouth (WOM) intent could all be driven by both SST use and surprise. This study aimed to examine the role of SSTs and surprise on the three aforementioned dependent variables in an Indonesian supermarket setting. One hundred eighty-nine respondents were selected as the convenience sample to represent the Indonesian population, and a between-subjects experiment was conducted. The results revealed that neither service encounter method nor surprise significantly impacted the three dependent variables. Surprise may not necessarily induce delight, perhaps due to a lack of a solid explanation that followed it and differences in cultural perceptions of surprise. Moreover, it was predicted that rather than the SST use itself, customer responses are influenced by the awareness of other Indonesians towards SSTs. This study informed managers that though there is no best service encounter method to use, they can still build a successful marketing strategy by researching the needs of individual customers.

1. Anderson, E. W. (1998). Customer satisfaction and word of mouth. Journal of Service Research, 1(1), 5–17. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/109467059800100102
2. Arnold, M. J., Reynolds, K. E., Ponder, N., & Lueg, J. E. (2005). Customer delight in a retail context: Investigating delightful and terrible shopping experiences. Journal of Business Research, 58(8), 1132–1145. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2004.01.006
3. Barnes, D. C., Collier, J. E., Howe, V., & Hoffman, K. D. (2016). Multiple paths to customer delight: the impact of effort, expertise and tangibles on joy and surprise. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(3), 277–289. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/jsm-05-2015-0172
4. Beatson, A., Lee, N., & Coote, L. V. (2007). Self-service technology and the service encounter. The Service Industries Journal, 27(1), 75–89. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02642060601038700
5. Bendapudi, N., & Berry, L. L. (1997). Customers’ motivations for maintaining relationships with service providers. Journal of Retailing, 73(1), 15–38. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-4359(97)90013-0
6. Berman, B. (2005). How to delight your customers. California Management Review, 48(1), 129–151. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/41166331
7. Bettencourt, L. A., & Gwinner, K. (1996). Customization of the service experience: The role of the frontline employee. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 7(2), 3-20. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/09564239610113442
8. Bitner, M. J., Booms, B. H., & Mohr, L. A. (1994). Critical service encounters: The employee’s viewpoint. Journal of Marketing, 58(4), 95–106. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/1251919
9. Bitner, M. J., Booms, B. H., & Tetreault, M. S. (1990). The service encounter: Diagnosing favorable and unfavorable incidents. Journal of Marketing, 54(1), 71–84. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/1252174
10. Bitner, M. J., Brown, S. W., & Meuter, M. L. (2000). Technology infusion in service encounters. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(1), 138–149. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070300281013
11. Cambra-Fierro, J., Melero-Polo, I., & Vázquez-Carrasco, R. (2014). The role of frontline employees in customer engagement. Revista Española de Investigación de Marketing ESIC, 18(2), 67–77. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reimke.2014.06.005
12. Charness, G., Gneezy, U., & Kuhn, M. A. (2012). Experimental methods: Between-subject and within-subject design. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 81(1), 1–8. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2011.08.009
13. Chitturi, R., Raghunathan, R., & Mahajan, V. (2008). Delight by design: The role of hedonic versus utilitarian benefits. Journal of Marketing, 72(3), 48–63. doi:https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.72.3.48
14. Choi, I., & Nisbett, R. E. (2000). Cultural psychology of surprise: Holistic theories and recognition of contradiction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 890. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.890
15. Crotts, J. C., Magnini, V. P., et al. (2011). The customer delight construct: Is surprise essential? Annals of Tourism Research, 38(2), 719–722. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.03.004
16. Curran, J. M., & Meuter, M. L. (2005). Self-service technology adoption: Comparing three technologies. Journal of Services Marketing, 19(2), 103-113. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/08876040510591411
17. Derbaix, C., & Vanhamme, J. (2003). Inducing word-of-mouth by eliciting surprise-a pilot investigation. Journal of Economic Psychology, 24(1), 99–116. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-4870(02)00157-5
18. Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. (1975). Unmasking the face. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
19. Gwinner, K. P., Bitner, M. J., Brown, S. W., & Kumar, A. (2005). Service customization through employee adaptiveness. Journal of Service Research, 8(2), 131–148. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670505279699
20. Hartline, M. D., & Jones, K. C. (1996). Employee performance cues in a hotel service environment: Influence on perceived service quality, value, and word-of-mouth intentions. Journal of Business Research, 35(3), 207–215. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(95)00126-3
21. Hassan, H., Sade, A. B., & Rahman, M. S. (2014). Self-service technology for hypermarket checkout stations. Asian Social Science, 10(1), 61. doi:https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v10n1p61
22. Huang, T.-L. (2018). Creating a commercially compelling smart service encounter. Service Business, 12(2), 357–377.
23. Jiang, L., Hoegg, J., Dahl, D. W., & Chattopadhyay, A. (2010). The persuasive role of incidental similarity on attitudes and purchase intentions in a sales context. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(5), 778–791. doi:https://doi.org/10.1086/605364
24. Kim, M. G., & Mattila, A. S. (2013). Does a surprise strategy need words? The effect of explanations for a surprise strategy on customer delight and expectations. Journal of Services Marketing, 27(5), 361-370. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-01-2012-0008
25. Lovelock, C. H., & Young, R. F. (1979). Look to consumers to increase productivity. Harvard Business Review, 57(3), 168–178.
26. Ludwig, N. L., Heidenreich, S., Kraemer, T., & Gouthier, M. (2017). Customer delight: universal remedy or a double-edged sword? Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 27(1), 23-46. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/jstp-08-2015-0197
27. Meuter, M. L., Ostrom, A. L., Roundtree, R. I., & Bitner, M. J. (2000). Self-service technologies: Understanding customer satisfaction with technology-based service encounters. Journal of Marketing, 64(3), 50–64.
28. Ng, S., David, M. E., & Dagger, T. S. (2011). Generating positive word-of-mouth in the service experience. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 21(2), 133-151. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/09604521111113438
29. Oliver, R. L., Rust, R. T., & Varki, S. (1997). Customer delight: Foundations, findings, and managerial insight. Journal of Retailing, 73(3), 311. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-4359(97)90021-x
30. Pine, B. J., Gilmore, J. H., et al. (1998). Welcome to the experience economy. Harvard Business Review, 76, 97–105.
31. Plutchik, R. (1980). Emotions: A psychoevolutionary synthesis. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
32. Proença, J. F., & Rodrigues, M. A. (2011). A comparison of users and non-users of banking self-service technology in Portugal. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 21(2), 192-210. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/09604521111113465
33. Rafiah, K. K., & Ariyanti, M. (2017). Role of transactional quality and relational quality to customer e-loyalty in marketplace C2C in Indonesia. International Journal of Business and Economic Affairs, 2(2), 116–126. doi:https://doi.org/10.24088/ijbea-2017-22005
34. Ranaweera, C., & Prabhu, J. (2003). On the relative importance of customer satisfaction and trust as determinants of customer retention and positive word of mouth. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for marketing, 12(1), 82–90. doi:https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jt.5740100
35. Recamadas, H. K. (2018). A path analysis of customer loyalty of homegrown coffee shops in Davao region. Journal of Administrative and Business Studies, 4(4), 185-195. doi:https://doi.org/10.20474/jabs-4.4.1
36. Rust, R. T., & Huang, M.-H. (2012). Optimizing service productivity. Journal of Marketing, 76(2), 47–66. doi:https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.10.0441
37. Rust, R. T., & Oliver, R. L. (1994). Service quality: New directions in theory and practice. London, UK: Sage.
38. Rust, R. T., Zeithaml, V. A., & Lemon, K. N. (2000). Driving customer equity: How customer lifetime value is reshaping corporate strategy. New York, NY: The Free Press.
39. Sabadus, A. (2009). Supermarkets increase self-checkouts. Retrieved from https://on.ft.com/2W2873B
40. Schneider, B., & Bowen, D. E. (1999). Understanding customer delight and outrage. Sloan Management Review, 41(1), 35-45.
41. Scholz, J., & Smith, A. N. (2016). Augmented reality: Designing immersive experiences that maximize consumer engagement. Business Horizons, 59(2), 149–161. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2015.10.003
42. Singh, J. (1988). Consumer complaint intentions and behavior: Definitional and taxonomical issues. Journal of Marketing, 52(1), 93–107. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/002224298805200108
43. Singh, Y. K. (2006). Fundamental of research methodology and statistics. Delhi, India: New Age International.
44. Skogland, I., & Siguaw, J. A. (2004). Are your satisfied customers loyal? Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 45(3), 221–234. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0010880404265231
45. Smith, A. K., & Bolton, R. N. (1998). An experimental investigation of customer reactions to service failure and recovery encounters. Journal of Service Research, 1(1), 65–81. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/109467059800100106
46. Statistics Laerd. (n.d.). Two-way ANCOVA in SPSS statistics. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2Iw2JxQ
47. Torres, E. N., & Kline, S. (2006). From satisfaction to delight: A model for the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 18(4), 290–301. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110610665302
48. Valenzuela, A., Mellers, B., & Strebel, J. (2010). Pleasurable surprises: A cross-cultural study of consumer responses to unexpected incentives. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(5), 792–805. doi:https://doi.org/10.1086/605592
49. Vanhamme, J. (2000). The link between surprise and satisfaction: An exploratory research on how best to measure surprise. Journal of Marketing Management, 16(6), 565–582. doi:https://doi.org/10.1362/026725700785045949
50. Vanhamme, J. (2008). The surprise-delight relationship revisited in the management of experience. Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition), 23(3), 113–138. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/205157070802300307
51. Vashista, D. S., & Balaji, B. (2013). Cross cultural study of customer satisfaction with self service technology in retail settings of India and Indonesia. International Journal of Management, 4(5), 139-152.
52. Westbrook, R. A. (1987). Product/consumption-based affective responses and postpurchase processes. Journal of Marketing Research, 24(3), 258. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/3151636
53. Westbrook, R. A., & Oliver, R. L. (1991). The dimensionality of consumption emotion patterns and consumer satisfaction. Journal of Consumer Research, 18(1), 84. doi:https://doi.org/10.1086/209243
54. Wharrad, H., & Silcocks, P. (2009). Experimental design. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2TDgBgd
55. Wood, M. L., Stoltz, D. S., Van Ness, J., & Taylor, M. A. (2018). Schemas and frames. Sociological Theory, 36(3), 244-261.
56. Wu, L., Mattila, A. S., & Hanks, L. (2015). Investigating the impact of surprise rewards on consumer responses. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 50, 27–35. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.07.004
57. Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (1996). The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal of Marketing, 60(2), 31-46. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299606000203

Putri, M. K. D. (2020). The role of methods of service encounter and surprise in customer delight and customer loyalty in Indonesian supermarkets. International Journal of Business and Administrative Studies, 6(1), 9-20. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.20469/ijbas.6.10002-1