An examination of consumers’ awkward service experiences (ASEs)

Abstract

Awkward encounters represent the cringe-inducing scenes of social discomfort, which exist in various facets of our everyday interactions. The significance of awkward encounters in day-to-day life is shown through a recent survey that reported 34% of Millennials (Generation Y), experienced over three awkward-related incidents per week. In social media also, the socially awkward penguin is a character used as a means of sharing social situations surrounding misconduct, and a loss of script about how to respond in a social situation. Given that service researchers have treated the service encounter as a social situation, there is reason to believe that awkward encounters could be pervasive in service contexts also. This will be termed the awkward service encounter. Awkward service encounters represent a set of negative incidents, which have the potential to damage consumer-company relationships through embarrassment; a strong self-conscious emotion that is highly influential of consumer behaviours. For instance, embarrassment can impact shoplifting behaviours, re-patronage intentions, and negative word of mouth activities. This means that these encounters will have serious implications for a firm’s bottom line profits. Awkward service encounters however, have rarely been focussed on, in the services literature. Existing research that does touch on awkward encounters, taps into different aspects of this situation, for instance the awkward silence, or situations prone to awkwardness such as developmental disorders, stigmatised and non-stigmatised interactions and social awkwardness. Perhaps the most attention awkward encounters have received however, is in the embarrassment domain where an awkward interaction is argued as a primary cause of embarrassment. Nevertheless, even in this research area, there are gaps in understanding the awkward encounter and its experience because embarrassment scholars have only gone as far as providing core descriptions. These descriptions suggest the involvement of disconfirmed expectations, disruptions, discomfort, and uncertainty. Furthermore, by only examining awkward encounters through the lens of embarrassment, results may incorrectly suggest that most (if not all) awkward encounters are embarrassing. To address this gap, this research views the awkward service encounter as a stressful service situation. Accordingly cognitive appraisal theory is used as the foundation to develop a conceptual model of consumers’ awkward service experience (ASE). In building this model, additional theories and concepts are also integrated including role theory, fundamental human needs, cognitive disequilibrium and mindfulness, to arrive at a complete model of consumers’ ASEs. This model is then examined through three studies. Study One focussed on identifying (using the critical incident technique) the underlying features and common types of awkward service encounters. Study Two focussed on exploring (using semi-structured interviews) the consumers’ ASE, paying particular attention to identifying key components (i.e. cognitions, emotions, and behaviours). Finally Study Three focussed on statistically modelling the relationships between the key components within consumers’ ASEs, and further attempted to differentiate when embarrassment was likely (or unlikely). The findings from this research suggest that the underlying features of awkward service encounters involve normative violations or non-normative service situations. In terms of the specific types of awkward service encounters, 13 were identified based on the two underlying features and interestingly, only approximately 50% of the awkward service encounters were additionally reported as embarrassing. Moving to the ASE, this research finds that once faced with an awkward service encounter, the experience involves perceived threats (effectance and esteem), cognitive disequilibrium, mindful alertness, and active monologues. In terms of emotions, within ASEs, the customer will feel confused or embarrassed and coping will then take on the form of problem-focussed coping or avoidance coping. Finally, the relationships between these key components of consumers’ ASEs were successfully modelled. This not only captured the nature of these experiences, but also determined when embarrassment was likely to be present in an ASE. Overall, these findings contribute to the services and the embarrassment literature, and further helps managers become more proactive in dealing with awkward service encounters.