Free Drink or Free Mug? Managing Service Experience with Experiential vs. Material Complimentary Gifts

HaeEun Helen Chun () and Yue Woon Hiang ()
Additional contact information
HaeEun Helen Chun: School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
Yue Woon Hiang: Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau, Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore 247729

Service Science, 2016, vol. 8, issue 2, 184-202

Abstract: In the marketplace, complimentary gifts can take the form of experiential elements (e.g., a meal) or material items (e.g., tangible objects such as a mug). We identify these free gifts as a meaningful service design choice that helps service providers innovate service. Specifically, we examine the circumstances under which experiential or material gifts are preferred and generate greater consumer satisfaction, enhancing the overall service experience. Across three experiments, we demonstrate that consumers are generally happier with experiential offerings, and they prefer (and are more satisfied with) experiential offerings on ordinary consumption occasions; experiential elements are believed to further enrich otherwise mundane experiences. However, this experiential advantage disappears for consumers on meaningful and special occasions because of a strong desire to obtain a memory cue that will help them recall the experience. Indeed, the preference for a material item holds only when the gift has the quality to serve as a salient memory marker. This research provides insight for managers to take into account consumption occasions or types of consumers (e.g., special occasions, repeat customers) to effectively design service bundles with complimentary gifts and thus better manage overall service experience.

Keywords: service design; experience design; free gifts; consumer satisfaction; memory marker (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/serv.2016.0138 (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:inm:orserv:v:8:y:2016:i:2:p:184-202

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Service Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().