Cross-generational perceptions and reactions during service recovery

Abstract

The assumptions of some service-marketing theorists have recently been questioned in analyses of disciplining and compliance – defined as service providers' attempts to control interactions with customers by subtly influencing and manipulating customers' choices and behaviours, based on observation and knowledge of customers. An empirical study seeks to provide a better understanding of the perceptions and reactions to disciplining and compliance by members of two significant generations: baby boomers and generation Y. Cross-generational similarities and differences in expectations of service recovery, perceptions and reactions to disciplining and compliance suggest two distinct pathways of disciplining and compliance which have been incorporated into a new model – an addition to services marketing which rarely acknowledges disciplining and compliance in service interactions. Practitioners are advised to apply disciplining and compliance in a manner sensitive to cross-generational differences and not generically, as appears to be the current practice in the companies studied, by utilising data to distinguish among callers belonging to diverse generational cohorts and apply diverse disciplining and compliance tactics accordingly.

Keywords:

• discipline
• compliance
• control