Interaction between functional and relational service quality: hierarchy vs. compensation

ABSTRACT

The main goal of this research study is to examine the form of interaction between functional and relational service quality in their links to customer satisfaction. Two competing hypotheses were tested: hierarchy and compensation-seeking. According to the hierarchy hypothesis, emotional-relational facets (relational service quality) only become important when core aspects are provided in an efficient manner (functional service quality). By contrast, the compensation-seeking hypothesis proposes that relational service quality helps to compensate for a sub-optimal level of functional service quality. To examine the generalizability of results to different types of service contexts, customers from three independent service settings participated in the research study. Our results confirmed the compensation-seeking hypothesis in the three samples. Accordingly, relational service quality was able to attenuate the reduction in customer satisfaction when functional service quality was sub-optimal. The manuscript concludes with a discussion of findings and ideas for research and practice.

摘要

本研究的主要目的是调查功能性服务质量与关系服务质量在客户满意度方面的相互作用的形式。测试了两个相互竞争的假设：等级制和寻求补偿。 根据层次假设，情感关系面（关系服务质量）只有当核心方面以有效的方式（功能服务质量）提供时才变得重要。相比之下，寻求补偿的假设提出关系服务质量有助于补偿功能服务质量的次优水平。为了检验结果对不同类型服务环境的普遍性，来自三个独立服务设置的客户参与了研究。我们的结果证实了三个样本中的寻求补偿的假设。因此，当功能性服务质量不理想时，关系服务质量能够减弱顾客满意度的降低。本文最后讨论总结了研究成果和研究想法及实践。

KEYWORDS:

• Functional service quality
• relational service quality
• customer satisfaction
• hierarchy
• compensation-seeking

关键词:

• 功能性服务质量
• 关系服务质量
• 客户满意度
• 等级制
• 寻求补偿

Acknowledgments

The authors also thank ‘Plena inclusión’ and associated centers that participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful for the support of the Spanish Agency of Research [PSI2013-48509-P, PSI2016-78158-R] and FEDER.