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The relationship between service customers' quality assurance behaviors, satisfaction, and effort: A cost of quality perspective
Author(s) -
Youngdahl William E.,
Kellogg Deborah L.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of operations management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.649
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1873-1317
pISSN - 0272-6963
DOI - 10.1016/s0272-6963(96)00097-6
Subject(s) - quality assurance , service quality , business , customer service assurance , service (business) , quality (philosophy) , customer satisfaction , marketing , process management , perspective (graphical) , service provider , service design , typology , service level objective , service guarantee , customer retention , computer science , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , artificial intelligence , history
The overarching purpose of this article is to deepen understanding of customers' roles in service quality assurance. Customers engage in quality assurance behaviors in attempts to increase their satisfaction and to recover from service failures. The non‐monetary costs incurred by customers who engage in these behaviors represent largely overlooked costs of quality that can and should be factored into service design and management. Four customer costs of service quality are identified using a critical incident methodology to classify service customers' quality assurance behaviors. Then, relationships between customers' quality assurance behaviors and reported levels of effort and satisfaction are tested to better understand the implications of the typology. Finally, we provide some initial suggestions for integrating the quality assurance behaviors of customers with the service management activities of service providers.