The zone of tolerance

Emerald - Tập 6 Số 2 - Trang 46-61 - 1995
RobertJohnston1
1Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Tóm tắt

Briefly reviews some of the literature on service quality and in particular the zone of tolerance – the zone of acceptable or expected outcomes in a service experience. Uses the zone of tolerance to explore the relationships between customers′ satisfaction with individual transactions, or service encounters, and their satisfaction with the overall service. Provides nine propositions which identify how customers′ perceptions of the quality of a service can be influenced and how the thresholds of the zone of tolerance can be adjusted during the process of service delivery. Also considers some of the design implications of the propositions.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Assael, H. (1992), Consumer Behavior and Marketing Action, 4th ed., PW‐Kent.

Berry, L.L. and Parasuraman, A. (1991), Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality, Free Press, New York, NY.

Berry, L.L., Zeithaml, V.A. and Parasuraman, A. (1985), “Quality counts in services, too”, Business Horizons, May‐June, pp. 44‐52.

Bitner, M.J. and Hubbert, A.R. (1994), “Encounter satisfaction versus overall satisfaction versus service quality: the consumer′s voice”, in Rust, R.T. and Oliver, R.L. (Eds), Service Quality: New Directions in Theory and Practice, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Bolton, R.N. and Drew, J.H. (1991), “A multistage model of customers′ assessment of service quality and value”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 17, March, pp. 375‐84.

Brandt, D.R. and Reffett, K.L. (1989), “Focussing on customer problems to improve service quality”, The Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 5‐14

Brogowicz, A.A., Delene, L.M. and Lyth, D.M. (1990), “A synthesized service quality model with managerial implications”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 27‐46.

Churchill, G.A. and Surprenant, C. ( 1982), “An investigation into the determinants of customer satisfaction”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XIX, November, pp. 491‐504.

Cooper, A.R., Cooper, M.B. and Duhan, D.F. (1989), “Measurement instrument development using two competing concepts of customer satisfaction ”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 2, pp. 28‐35.

Cronin, J.J. and Taylor, S.A. (1992), “Measuring service quality: a reexamination and extension”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56, July, pp. 55‐68.

Cronin, J.J. and Taylor, S.A. (1994), “SERVPERF versus SERVQUAL: reconciling performance‐based and perceptions‐minus‐expectations measurement of service quality”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 125‐31.

Engel, J.F., Blackwell, R.D. and Miniard, P.W. (1993), Consumer Behavior, 7th ed., The Dryden Press, Chicago, IL .

Erevelles, S. and Leavitt, C. (1992), “A comparison of current models of consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 5, pp. 104‐14.

Foxall, G. (1990), Consumer Psychology in Behavioural Perspective, Routledge, New York, NY.

Gronroos, C. (1990), “Service management: a management focus for service competition ”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 6‐14.

Haywood‐Farmer, J. and Nollet, J. ( 1991), Services Plus: Effective Service Management, Morin, Boucherville, Quebec.

Johnston, R. (1987), “A framework for developing a quality strategy in a customer processing operation”, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 35‐44.

Kennedy, J.R. and Thirkell, P.C. ( 1988), “An extended perspective on the antecedents of satisfaction”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 1, pp. 2‐9.

Krugman, H. (1965), “The impact of television advertising: learning without involvement ”, Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 29, Fall, pp. 349‐56.

La Tour, S.A. and Peat, N.C. (1979), “Conceptual and methodological issues in consumer satisfaction research”, in Wilkie, W.L. (Ed.), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 6, pp. 432‐7.

Levitt, T. (1981), “Marketing intangible products and product intangibles”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 59 No. 3 , pp. 94‐102.

Liljander, V. and Strandvik, T. (1993), “Estimating zones of tolerance in perceived service quality and perceived service value”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 4No. 2, pp. 6‐28.

Mattsson, J. (1992), “A service quality model based on an ideal value standard”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 18‐33.

Miller, J.A. (1977), “Exploring satisfaction, modifying models, eliciting expectations, posing problems and making meaningful measurements”, in Hunt, H.K. (Ed.), Conceptualization and Measurement of Consumer Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA.

Oliver, R.L. (1980), “A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XVII, November, pp. 460‐9.

Oliver, R.L. (1993), “A conceptual model of service quality and service satisfaction: compatible goals, different concepts”, in Swartz, T.A, Bowen, D.E. and Brown, S.W. (Eds), Advances in Services Marketing and Management, Vol. 2, pp. 65‐85.

Oliver, R.L. and DeSarbo, W.S. (1988), “Response determinants in satisfaction judgements”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 14, March, pp. 495‐507.

Olshavsky, R.W. and Miller, J.A. ( 1972), “Consumer expectations, product performance, and perceived product quality”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. IX, February, pp. 19‐21.

Olshavsky, R.W. and Spreng, R.A. ( 1989), “A ‘desires as standard’ model of consumer satisfaction”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 2, pp. 49‐54.

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L. (1985), “A conceptual model of service quality and implications for future research”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, Fall, pp. 41‐50.

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. and Berry, L.L. (1994), “Reassessment of expectations as a comparison standard on measuring service quality: implications for further research”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 111‐24.

Poiesz, T.B.C. and Bloemer, J.M.M. ( 1991), “Customer (dis)satisfaction with the performance of products and services – the applicability of the (dis)confirmation paradigm”, Marketing Thought Around the World, Vol. 2, Proceedings from the European Marketing Academy Conference, Dublin, pp. 446‐62.

Rust, R.T. and Oliver, R.L. (1994), “Service quality: insights and management implications from the frontier”, in Rust, R.T. and Oliver, R.L. (Eds), Service Quality: New Directions in Theory and Practice, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Spreng, R.A. and Olshavsky, R.W. ( 1992), “A desires‐as‐standard model of consumer satisfaction: implications for measuring satisfaction”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 5, pp. 45‐54.

Strandvik, T. (1994), Tolerance Zones in Perceived Service Quality, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsingfors.

Swan J.E. (1988), “Consumer satisfaction related to disconfirmation of expectations and product performance”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 1, pp. 40‐7.

Swan, J.E. (1992), “Satisfaction work: the joint production of patient satisfaction by health care providers and patients”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 5, pp. 70‐80.

Swan, J.E. and Combs, L.J. (1976), “Product performance and consumer satisfaction: a new concept”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 40, April, pp. 25‐33.

Taylor, S.A. (1993), “The roles of service quality, consumer satisfaction, and value in Quinn′s (1992) paradigm of services”, Journal of Marketing: Theory and Practice, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 14‐25.

Tse, D.K. and Wilton, P.C. (1988), “Models of consumer satisfaction formation: an extension”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XXV, May, pp. 204‐12.

Vezina, R. and Nicosia, F.M. (1990), “Investigations of the social determinants of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, Vol. 3, pp. 36‐40.

Woodruff, P.B., Cadotte, E.R. and Jenkins, R.L. (1985), “Modelling consumer satisfaction processes using experience‐based norms”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XX, August, pp. 296‐304.

Zeithaml, V.A., Berry, L.L. and Parasuraman, A. (1993), “The nature and determinants of customer expectations of service”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 1‐12.