The Role of Digital Service Encounters on Customers' Perceptions of Companies

Kristina. Heinonen
Additional contact information
Kristina. Heinonen: Hanken Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO), 2008, vol. 6, issue 2, 1-10

Abstract: The service encounter occurs whenever a customer interacts with a company personally or through technology through, for example, the Internet, e-mail, or telephone. Nowadays, customers frequently initiate the encounter as, for example, inquiries, information searches, and complaints are conveniently performed online. This article explores the role of digital service encounters on customer perceptions of companies. Digital service encounters in this article denote remote customer-company interactions via the Internet or e-mail. The focus is on active customers initiating interactions and on customer perceptions of company responses to these interactions. A conceptual framework that captures customer perceived service encounter value on two dimensions (responsiveness and personalization) is proposed. An empirical study exploring the value of company responses to digital contacts indicated that many contacts are responded to promptly and satisfyingly. However, there are also significant differences in the value of the service encounter. Some service encounters are perceived as unpersonalized, and some are even left without response.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 4018/jeco.2008040101 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jeco00:v:6:y:2008:i:2:p:1-10

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) is currently edited by Pedro Isaías

More articles in Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().