Handling Customer Disconfirmations: A Model of the Service Provider’s Response Process

How employees deal with potentially disconfirming service encounter situations is of utmost importance for service organizations. Appropriate reactions by frontline service providers can decrease the likelihood of customer disconfirmation and sometimes even convert a disconfirming event into a memorable, satisfying encounter for the customer. In order to design operating policies and training strategies to properly handle disconfirmation situations, it is necessary to investigate frontline service providers' behavior when they are confronted with customer disconfirmations. Gaby Mairamhof gives a model of the service provider's cognitive response process to disconfirmation built on decision theory; the service provider's decision process is seen from an information processing perspective. Based on individual and social psychology the author develops hypotheses about what happens in the service provider's mind within each process step. Organizational and personal variables are identified that may influence the response process. The model is tested empirically and implications concerning the management of critical encounter situations are discussed.