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The influence of customer-to-
customer interactions and role
typology on customer reaction
Cedric Hsi-Jui Wu
a
a
Department of Business Administration , National
Dong Hwa University , Hualian, Taiwan, Republic of
China
Published online: 05 Dec 2008.
To cite this article: Cedric Hsi-Jui Wu (2008) The influence of customer-to-customer
interactions and role typology on customer reaction, The Service Industries Journal,
28:10, 1501-1513, DOI: 10.1080/02642060802250310
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The inuence of customer-to-customer interactions
and role typology on customer reaction
Cedric Hsi-Jui Wu

Department of Business Administration, National Dong Hwa University,

Hualian, Taiwan, Republic of China
The service encounter is an important topic in service management. Although researchers have argued
that customer-to-customer interactions may affect customers evaluation of the service experience in
service encounter contexts, the impact of customer-to-customer interaction on customer reaction has
not been sufciently studied. Consequently, the objective of this research is to investigate the relationship
between customer-to-customer interactions, role typology and customer reaction. This research adopted
questionnaires to investigate tourists traveling to foreign areas and concluded that the perception of
customer-to-customer interaction incidents could be extracted into six factors. Protocol and
sociability incidents have a signicant positive impact on customer satisfaction; malcontent
incidents have a negative impact; crude incidents and malcontent incidents have signicant negative
impact on customer loyalty; and nally, the customers role typology moderates the relationship between
protocol and sociability incidents and customer satisfaction.
Keywords: customer-to-customer interactions; role typology; customer satisfaction; customer loyalty
Introduction
Service customers tend to be much more involved in service production or delivery than their
manufacturing counterparts (Youngdahl & Kellogg, 1997). Because of the nature of the services,
their heterogeneity and inseparability (Bateson, 1985), service is often highly complex and a
summation of interaction, exchange and performance between service employees and custo-
mers. There is much human interaction in the service, which is called the service encounter
(Bitner, Booms, & Tetreault, 1990; Shostack, 1985). Langeard, Bateson, Lovelock, and
Eiglier (1981) modeled the service delivery process as a system of customer interactions in
the service encounter. Interactions occur between the customer and the service contact person-
nel, the service place environment and other customers. Therefore, researchers have attempted
to identify factors affecting customers perceptions of exchanges between service organi-
zations and their customers in service encounters (e.g. Baker, Grewal, & Parasuraman, 1994;
Bitner et al., 1990; Keaveney, 1995; Kelley, Hoffman, & Davis, 1993).
According to Fisk, Brown, and Bitner (1993), the research on service encounters can be
divided into three primary types: customer and employee interactions, customer involvement

Email: cedric@mail.ndhu.edu.tw
The Service Industries Journal
Vol. 28, No. 10, December 2008, 15011513
ISSN 0264-2069 print/1743-9507 online
#2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/02642060802250310
http://www.informaworld.com
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in service production and delivery, and the role of tangibles and physical environment in
customer evaluation. Although many of the linkages that solidify customer business relation-
ships are already well-recognized, one important linkage, which is the focus of this article,
has been insufciently studied: the relationship between customers and other customers in
business environments (Martin, 1996). With regard to these interactions, mentioned by Fisk
et al. (1993), such poor research emphasis is not surprising given the notion that the custo-
mer service provider interaction and the customer service environment interaction are often
deemed rm-controllable, while the behavior of other customers during the service experience
is not under complete control of the rm (Martin & Pranter, 1989). Unlike rm-controllable vari-
ables, Davies, Baron, and Harris (1999) argued that it is often difcult to disentangle the effects
of customer-to-customer interactions on purchase decisions as well as subsequent feelings
toward the rm. However, individually or in combination, all elements of the service encounter
are likely to inuence satisfaction and loyalty. Indeed, Grove and Fisk (1997) specically called
for a need to learn more about the effects of customer-to-customer interactions during the service
encounter, so that rms may better manage resources to promote or discourage certain customer
behaviors.
The service encounter has been investigated from the service encounter as a whole, which is
a more gestalt perspective. For example, Grove and Fisk (1983) studied the service encounter
within the sociological framework of dramaturgy. They saw service encounters as perform-
ance, within certain arenas, and their success depended on props, actors and audiences. This
viewpoint holds the role of the customer as the co-producer of the service encounter, especially
for customized offerings. Scripts or roles are established that allow each actor (service provider
or customer) to understand when they contribute to the service encounter (Solomon, Surprenant,
Czepiel, & Gutman, 1985; Surprenant & Solomon, 1987). An extension of the dramaturgical
metaphor is the concept of role theory (Solomon et al., 1985), and the relevance of role
theory to customer understanding in marketing emerges in the focus on social exchange
within marketing encounters (Broderick, 1998). Role theory recognizes that many social
exchanges follow certain patterns due to the participants adoption of a role. As role theory
has been used to understand more about employeecustomer interactions, it seems an appropri-
ate framework to examine customer-to-customer interactions.
The importance of the customers role has been highlighted in more recent exploratory
studies in service encounter settings (Harris, Baron, & Davies, 1999). The most detailed
study of role typologies within customer-to-customer interactions was undertaken by
McGrath and Otnes (1995). They developed a typology of roles that categorized stranger
encounters by the initiator of the encounter and by the awareness and participation of one or
both members of the exchange dyad. Three specic roles were identied: helpseeker, proactive
helper and reactive helper. Parker and Ward (2000) based on McGrath and Otness (1995) study
focused on customer-to-customer interactions between strangers. Their study supported the nd-
ings of McGrath and Otnes (1995) in the USA. UK customers do adopt the role of helpseeker,
reactive helper and proactive helper. However, they found differences between helpseekers as
they may behave either proactively or reactively.
In summary, despite being long-noted as an important aspect of the service encounter (e.g.
Bitner et al., 1990; Grove & Fisk, 1997; McGrath & Otnes, 1995), customer-to-customer inter-
actions has been relatively ignored in the services literature. Moreover, there is a lack of empiri-
cal research that examines the role that the effects of customer-to-customer interactions and role
C.H.-J. Wu 1502
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typology have on service evaluations. Although other customers behavior cannot be predicted,
the establishment of customer scripts or roles (Solomon et al., 1985; Surprenant & Solomon,
1987) and compatibility between customers through behavior types (Martin & Pranter, 1989)
may increase the likelihood that customers, at a minimum, behave in an expected manner.
Therefore, this article attempts to explicate the nature of these customer-to-customer relation-
ships and the effect of customers role typology on customer reaction. In this regard, this
study is designed both to respond to recent calls for further research into such issues (e.g.
Fullerton & Punj, 1993; Harris et al., 1997; Harris & Ogbonna, 2002; Harris & Reynolds,
2003; Martin, 1996; Moore, Moore, & Capella, 2005) and to advance understanding of these
central issues. Next, a description of our empirical investigation of the phenomenon is pre-
sented. The results of our inquiry are then discussed and implications and directions for
future research are offered.
Literature review
Customer-to-customer interactions
Lovelock (1994) provided a structural representation of the services marketing system. The
component of the structure which is visible to the customer is called the service delivery
system. It is the front stage of the services marketing system. Within the service delivery
system, a customers overall experience is affected by various potential interactions: interactions
with service (contact) personnel, interactions with internal and external physical surroundings
(including equipment) and interactions with other customers. Langeard et al. (1981) encapsu-
lated the same interactions in their servuction system model, where their front-stage structure
identies the interactions of customer A, with contact personnel, the inanimate environment
and customer B.
The human interactions in service encounters are purposive transactions whose outcome is
dependent on the coordinated actions of both the participants. As is the case in many types of
dyadic interactions, one cannot predict the quality of outcomes with the knowledge of only
one action behavior. Instead, much of the social behavior consists of joint activity a major
task for the interacting person is the mutual coordination of appropriate behavior vis-a-vis the
other person. Specically, service encounters will be used to indicate face-to-face interactions
between a buyer and a seller in a service setting. These interpersonal exchanges can strongly
inuence customer satisfaction (Solomon et al., 1985).
Martin (1996) investigated customer satisfaction with 32 behaviors in which the other custo-
mers may engage when in public business environments. A principal components analysis of the
32-behavior ratings was conducted in an effort to identify the dimensionality of these customers
perceptions, including being gregarious, grungy, inconsiderate, crude, violent, malcontent,
leisure. Grove and Fisk (1997) used the critical incident technique (CIT) to gather 330 critical
incidents data from 486 customers regarding satisfying or dissatisfying episodes with service
organizations that were the result of other customers presence. Analysis of the data revealed
specic categories of other customers inuence, including two major classications of
critical incidents. All the secondary categories that were identied included: Group 1 physical
incidents in line, verbal incidents in line, other incidents in line and other protocol incidents.
Group 2 friendly and unfriendly incidents, and ambiance incidents.
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The consumption experiences of customers were also found to be affected by the dysfunc-
tional customer behavior of others (Harris & Reynolds, 2003), such as public acts of drunkenness
and violent behaviors, especially capable of affecting the consumption experiences of those in
close proximity. Unsurprising, such spoilt consumption experiences appear to affect the
extent of customer satisfaction and loyalty (Blodgett, Wakeeld, & Barnes, 1995; Prim &
Pras, 1999). Lovelock (1994) constituted the most widely recognized categorization of dysfunc-
tional jaycustomers behaviors. Lovelock (2004) argued that such customers include what he
labels thieves, rule breakers, the belligerent, vandals, family feuders and deadbeats. Similarly,
Zemke and Anderson (1990) presented a typology of ve customers from hell, including
abusive egocentrics, insulting whiners, hysterical shouters, dictators and free-leaders with the
objective of gaining faster, superior or even free service. Such customers use service encounters
in a dysfunctional manner. Bitner, Booms, and Mohr (1994) used the critical incident technique
to examine 774 critical service encounters, from which four dysfunctional customer behaviors
are identied from the employees perspective. These are drunkenness, verbal and physical
abuse, breaking company policies, and lack of cooperation.
In many service contexts, customers receive a service simultaneously while other customers
are being served. Therefore, fellow customers are present in the service environment and can
affect the nature of the service outcome or process. Fellow customers can either enhance or
detract from customer satisfaction and perception of quality (Grove & Fisk, 1997). Thus,
based on the review of relevant studies, there are many studies showing that customers may
affect one another indirectly by being part of the environment or more directly through specic
interaction incidents (Baker, 1987; Bitner, 1992; Grove & Fisk, 1997; Harris & Reynolds, 2003;
Martin, 1996; Parker & Ward, 2000). These relationships are highly relevant because they can
dramatically inuence customer satisfaction with the broader customer experience (Arnould &
Price, 1993; Davies et al., 1999; LeBaron & Jones, 2002; Martin, 1996; Martin & Pranter, 1989;
Price, Arnould, & Tierney, 1995). Such an interactive incident may be an upside experience, or
more likely a distressing experience. Therefore, fellow customers will be inuenced by the per-
ception of these customer-to-customer interaction incidents. Specically speaking, the custo-
mers perception of customer-to-customer interaction incidents will directly or indirectly
inuence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Furthermore, the customer satisfaction
will positively impact on customer loyalty. Thus, we hypothesized the following:
H1: The perceptions of customer-to-customer interaction incidents have a signicant impact on customer
satisfaction.
H2: The perceptions of customer-to-customer interaction incidents have a signicant impact on customer
loyalty.
H3: Customer satisfaction has a signicant positive impact on customer loyalty.
Role typology
McGrath and Otnes (1995, p. 263) concentrated specically on the interaction between strangers
in a retail environment and identied that stranger interactions accompanied by a variety of
external stimuli, stemmed from a variety of motives and resulted in a variety of emotional
responses and behaviors. Furthermore, they concluded that strangers engaging others in
retail settings often appeared to be portraying specic roles and developed a typology of
roles that categorized stranger encounters by initiating the encounter and by the awareness
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and participation of one or both members of the exchange dyad. Three specic roles were ident-
ied: helpseeker, proactive helper and reactive helper. From their study, the helpseeker emerged
as the most prevalent and most proactive customer type. This role involves customers actively
seeking information from others by questioning shoppers who they visually assess might
possess information or advice about products (McGrath & Otnes, 1995, p. 263). In contrast
to the helpseekers, proactive helpers feel more comfortable giving advice to others, appearing
to have an innate need to be helpful in the marketplace and freely offer unsolicited advice
(McGrath & Otnes, 1995, p. 264). A third role reactive helpers often emerged as a result of
a direct approach by helpseekers. They are generally asked for help or information because
something about their manner and/or appearance conveys to the helpseeker the impression
that they will be a good source of information.
Parker and Ward (2000) based on the McGrath and Otness (1995) study discovered that in
terms of the roles people play when interacting with other customers, both stages of the study
supported the ndings of McGrath and Otnes (1995) in the USA. UK customers do adopt the
role of helpseeker, reactive helper and proactive helper. However, they found differences
between helpseekers as they may behave either proactively or reactively. The reactive helpsee-
ker represents the biggest managerial challenge as he/she does not like to ask for help or advice
from other customers or service providers.
Also, empirical works by Grove and Fisk (1997) have demonstrated the frequency of
customer-to-customer interactions in leisure and retail settings. Some fellow customers can
spoil a service experience through inappropriate public behaviors (Hoffman & Bateson,
1997). These behaviors have been proled by Zemke and Anderson (1990) under the banner
of customers from hell. Fellow customers, however, can positively enhance a service setting
through providing information (Harris et al., 1999) or social support (Adelman, Ahuvia, &
Goodwin, 1994).
Therefore, according to the studies of McGrath and Otnes (1995) and Parker and Ward
(2000), the role customer playing interacts with other customers including reactive helpseeker,
proactive helpseeker, reactive helper and proactive helper. As the different role typologies that
customers play in service contexts stemmed from a variety of product knowledge, personality
and motives, the inuences of customer-to-customer interactions on customer satisfaction
varied when customers play a distinct role typology. For example, when fellow customers
present protocol and sociability behaviors, the reactive helpseeker will be the most
appreciated than other customers who play different role typologies. Thus, we hypothesized
the following:
H4: The role typology of the customer played in the customer-to-customer interactions will moderate the
relationship between the perception of customer-to-customer interaction incidents and customer
satisfaction.
Methodology
Data collection
Data were obtained from a survey of customers who participated in foreign travel service from
Taipei. The foreign travel customers had a longer period to get along with fellow customers, and
they could fully experience customer-to-customer interactions. We selected the major travel
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agents in Taipei to help in interviewing the customers who had just completed foreign travel. A
total of 256 valid responses were collected.
The respondents tended to be young (the majority are 2635 years old), women (65.6%),
well educated (57.4% have a college degree), nancially median (20.3% nancial income
range is 25,00030,000 N.T. dollars/month). They also tended to travel for ve to six days
with friends and family (82.8%). The major motivation for traveling was taking a rest and
realizing their traveling dream (38.3%).
Measures
Customer-to-customer interaction incidents
The perception of customer-to-customer interaction incidents were measured by 21 items, each
of which was drawn from Martins (1996) work. The respondents were asked about the evalu-
ation of the customer-to-customer incidents based on the Likerts ve-point strongly dislike to
strongly like scale, as well as the frequency of occurrence of these incidents during their journey,
scored from 1 to 5, respectively. Fishbeins quantitative model was taken: the product of the
evaluation level and its frequency represent the perception of customer-to-customer interaction
incidents. Several travel agencies and customers were interviewed about the items in order to
conrm the statements that are suitable to the foreign travel context and modify the wording.
Then, a total of 32 respondents test retest pilot tests were conducted. All items test retest
reliability (correlation coefcients) were signicant and larger than 0.5.
Customer role typology
Customers role typology was measured by one item where the respondents were asked to select
the one major role they played in the customer-to-customer interaction during their journey.
There are four role typologies, including reactive helpseeker, proactive helpseeker, reactive
helper and proactive helper with each role explained by a specic statement.
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction was measured by one item. All the responses were obtained on a Likerts
ve-point strongly disagreestrongly agreement scale.
Customer loyalty
Customer loyalty was measured by one item. All the responses were obtained on a Likerts ve-
point strongly disagreestrongly agreement scale.
Controlled variables
We controlled the other variables that may potentially inuence the criterion variables, including
travel motivation, area, times, and companion of tourists.
Results
The principal components analysis and varimax rotation were used to identify the dimensionality
of the perception of the 21 customer-to-customer interaction incidents. There are six factors that
C.H.-J. Wu 1506
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emerged with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. Collectively, the six factors explained 62.635% of
the variance. Interpretation of the factors suggests that customers may differently evaluate
fellow customer behaviors into six categories, in which Cronbachs a values are 0.728, 0.714,
0.754, 0.714, 0.616, and 0.627, respectively.
Factor 1: protocol and sociability incidents included a variety of protocol and benevolent
acts, such as congratulation for making a good selection, conversation with me, shaking my
hand, being more interested in socializing, holding the door for me. Therefore, it was named
protocol and sociability incidents and 22.958% of total variance can be explained by it.
Factor 2: violent incidents included being in anger, hitting the table with their st, delib-
erately kicking a chair, quarrelling with another customer. Therefore, it was named violent inci-
dents and 12.578% of the total variance can be explained by it.
Factor 3: grungy incidents included smelling as if they had not showered in several days,
propping their feet on a table, breaking in line. Therefore, it was named grungy incidents, and
9.171% of the total variance can be explained by it.
Factor 4: malcontent incidents included being upset after receiving poor service, com-
plaining about the service, not being ready to order (when I am). Therefore, it was named mal-
content incidents and 6.757% of the total variance can be explained by it.
Factor 5: crude incidents included telling dirty jokes, being noticeably drunk, being
naked. Therefore, it was named crude incidents, and 6.373% of the total variance can be
explained by it.
Factor 6: inconsiderate incidents included shouting loudly enough to be heard several
(tables) (lanes) away, allowing their young children to run throughout without supervision,
smoking cigarettes. Therefore, it was named inconsiderate incidents, and 4.798% of the
total variance can be explained by it.
We used multiple regression analysis to examine the inuences of customer-to-customer
interaction incidents to customer satisfaction. The variance ination factor (VIF) values was
used to test the impact of collinearity, and the results indicated that the VIF values were
all small than 3. No VIF value exceeded 10.0, these results indicated that interpretation of
the regression variate coefcients should not be affected adversely by multicollinearity.
The results, as shown in Table 1, indicated that the F ratio for the multiple regression model was
statistically signicant (F 2.986

, p , 0.001). The R
2
value of the multiple regression
model was 0.109, indicating that 10.9% of the variation in the customer satisfaction was
explained by the independent variables. The results, as shown in Table 1, indicated that the
protocol and sociability incidents was positively and signicantly related to the customer sat-
isfaction (b 0.226

), but the malcontent incidents was signicantly and negatively

related to the customer satisfaction (b 20.160

). H1 was partially supported, as the b coef-

cient for protocol and sociability incidents was signicantly positive and the b coefcient for
malcontent incidents was signicantly negative.
Similarly, we used multiple regression analysis to examine the inuences of customer inter-
action incidents and customer satisfaction to customer loyalty. The results, as shown in Table 2,
indicated that the VIF values were all small than 3. No VIF value exceeded 10.0, these results
indicated that interpretation of the regression variate coefcients should not be affected
adversely by multicollinearity. The results, as shown in Table 2, indicated that the F ratio
for the multiple regression model was statistically signicant (F 28.363

, p , 0.001).
The R
2
value of the multiple regression model was 0.561, indicating that 56.1% of the variation
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in the customer satisfaction is explained by the independent variables. The results, as shown in
Table 2, indicated that there was a signicantly negative relationship between the malcontent inci-
dents and customer loyalty (b 20.155

), and a signicantly negative relationship between

crude incidents and customer loyalty (b 20.106

). There was a positive relationship

between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (b 0.690

). H2 was partially supported,

as the b coefcient for crude incidents and malcontent incidents was signicantly negative. H3
was fully supported, as the b coefcient for customer satisfaction was signicantly positive.
We used multiple regression analysis to examine the moderating effect of customer role typol-
ogy. The results, as shown in Table 3, indicated that the VIF values were all small than 3. No VIF
value exceeded 10.0, these results indicated that interpretation of the regression variate coefcients
should not be affected adversely by multicollinearity. The results, as shown in Table 3, indicated
Table 1. Regression analysis of customer satisfaction.
Independent variables
Dependent variable:
customer satisfaction b
Variance ination
factor value R
2
(adjusted) F ratio
Intercept 3.297

0.109 2.986

Protocol and sociability incidents 0.226

1.211
Violent incidents 20.124 2.064
Grungy incidents 20.004 1.615
Malcontent incidents 20.160

1.235
Crude incidents 0.049 1.708
Inconsiderate incidents 0.054 1.344
Traveling times 0.018 1.187
Traveling area 20.031 1.125
Tourism motivation 0.044 1.103
Travel companion 20.040 1.166

p , 0.05.

p , 0.01.

p , 0.001.
Table 2. Regression analysis of customer loyalty.
Independent variables
Dependent variable:
customer loyalty b
Variance ination
factor value R
2
(adjusted) F ratio
Intercept 1.173

0.561 28.363

Protocol and sociability incidents 0.072 1.268

Violent incidents 0.064 2.081
Grungy incidents 0.027 1.615
Malcontent incidents 20.155

1.264
Crude incidents 20.106

1.710
Inconsiderate incidents 0.052 1.348
Customer satisfaction 0.690

1.122
Traveling times 20.023 1.187
Traveling area 0.058 1.126
Tourism motivation 0.043 1.105
Travel companion 20.074 1.168

p , 0.05.

p , 0.001.
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that the F ratio for the multiple regression model was statistically signicant (F 2.895

,
p , 0.001). The R
2
value of the multiple regression model was 0.171, indicating that 17.1% of
the variation in the customer satisfaction was explained by the independent variables. The
results, as shown in Table 3, indicated that the b coefcient for the interaction of protocol and
sociability incidents and role typology was signicantly negative (b 20.173

). This result
show that the customer role typology negatively moderates the relationship between protocol
and sociability incidents and customer satisfaction. Therefore, H4 was partially supported.
Conclusions
Customer satisfaction plays a critical role in maintaining long-term customer business relation-
ships. This study has attempted to investigate the impact of customer-to-customer interaction on
the evaluation of the business. The result indicated that the protocol and sociability incidents of
customer-to-customer interactions has a positive inuence on customer satisfaction. But mal-
content incidents of customer-to-customer interactions has a negative inuence on the customer
satisfaction. The malcontent incidents and crude incidents have negative impact on customer
loyalty. The customer satisfaction has a positive impact on customer loyalty. With regard to the
moderating effect of customer role typology, customer role typology negatively moderated the
relationship between protocol and sociability incidents and customer satisfaction. In other
words, the positive relationship between protocol and sociability incidents and customer
satisfaction will decrease according to the role typology which the customer played in the
Table 3. Analysis of customer role typology moderating effect.
Independent variables
Dependent variable:
customer satisfaction b
Variance ination
factor value
R
2
(adjusted) F ratio
Intercept 3.472

0.171 2.895

Protocol and sociability incidents 0.282

1.402
Violent incidents 20.090 2.158
Grungy incidents 20.027 1.688
Malcontent incidents 20.111 1.348
Crude incidents 20.033 1.832
Inconsiderate incidents 0.074 1.400
Role typology 20.142

1.215
Protocol and sociability
incidents customer typology
20.173

1.223
Violent incidents role typology 0.031 1.944
Grungy incidents role typology 0.043 1.735
Malcontent incidents role typology 20.099 1.527
Crude incidents role typology 20.131 1.656
Inconsiderate incidents role typology 0.099 1.569
Traveling times 20.018 1.263
Traveling area 20.011 1.179
Tourism motivation 0.086 1.155
Travel companion 20.016 1.217

p , 0.05.

p , 0.01.

p , 0.001.
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customer-to-customer interactions, with the sequence of reactive helpseeker, proactive helpsee-
ker, reactive helper and proactive helper.
The ndings of this study conrmed the effects of tourist customer-to-customer interactions
on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The customers role typology will moderate the
impact of customer-to-customer interactions on customer satisfaction. Therefore, in order to
improve tourist satisfaction and loyalty, the travel agency should maintain a compatible custo-
mer mix and communicate with the customers to behave properly. Based on the results of this
study, some suggestions for the tourism management on how to manage customer-to-customer
interactions and enhance customer satisfaction can be proposed.
Do proactive efforts to shape or manage customer behaviors
When tourists interact with other customers, if the other customer engages in positive protocol
and social interaction this will enhance the customers tourism experience. On the other hand,
negative customer-to-customer interaction behaviors, such as the malcontent behaviors,
would spoil the customers tourism experience and satisfaction. Thus, the travel agency
should establish communication and enhance the codes of conduct of customers. The service
employees should prevent the domino effect of spreading dysfunctional customer behaviors
from a single dysfunctional customer to those in close proximity. Methods for improving
customer-to-customer interaction relationships are apparently necessary. First, the employee
can employ a warm up act to get the customer ready and in the right frame of mind for a
tourist (Grove & Fisk, 1992). The agent might introduce a new customer to the existing custo-
mers, and all relationships between the customers are strengthened. Organizations should
educate customers to the types of behaviors expected of them or those not allowed when visiting
their servicescapes (Bowen, 1986; Bowers, Martin, & Luker, 1990). Secondly, the physical
aspect of the service setting also allows a manager the opportunity to inuence customer-to-
customer interactions. Atmospherics as described by Bitner (1992) have the ability to
enhance the customers environment. Managers should incorporate changes to the physical set-
tings that enhance the type of interactions they desire. On the other hand, the employee should
separate the incompatible customer in advance when he arranges the physical facility. To ensure
physical environments foster compatible customer-to-customer interaction relationships, for
example, arrange seating to promote conversation among customers, to allow customers a
choice to select the seating or room, and so on.
Identifying the roles customers play is useful to those frontline staff
who are trying to provide help and advice
It is important to recognize the differences between helpseeking behaviors, as one can imagine
that reactive helpseekers would respond favorably to the sales assistants help while the proactive
helpers might feel pressured and uncomfortable. Customers represent a huge body of knowledge
and experience that they are more than willing to pass on to others (Parker & Ward, 2000).
If service employees were trained to facilitate this type of interaction and manage it when
necessary, it is likely to increase employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.
View customers as a valuable resource
Customers are human resources to service organizations, making a signicant oral contribution
to the service experience. If service providers were to encourage customer-to-customer
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interactions, then management efforts can be directed towards training staff how to be facilita-
tors of inter-personal interactions and how not to intervene in customer conversations (McGrath
& Otnes, 1995). Adelman et al. (1994) noted that customers may carry out functions by support-
ing each other normally and by associating with providers. For the manager, one key area is the
need to put in place tactics for the identication of knowledgeable customers (or active helpers),
because such customers provide a potentially rich source of assistance (Parker & Ward, 2000).
Service employees may need to consider the extent to which the opportunity exists to develop
the role of these customers as partial employees in the context of providing information to
other customers.
Re-examine the roles of service employees
Frontline interaction personnel plays a critical role in implementing compatibility management
programs. In fact, the actions of service employees will have the greatest effect on customer
interactions. The employee should use interpersonal skills and special events to promote com-
patibility. Managers should seriously consider recruiting, training and empowering their staff
with a view to encouraging positive customer interactions. To train and motivate these
employees to manage potential customer conicts and to be alert to opportunity to foster positive
encounters between customers is needed. Similarly, Lovelock (2004) argued that service mar-
keters must occasionally act as police ofcers to manage customer-to-customer relationships.
Managers should inform service contact staff about the importance of customer-to-customer
interactions, and staff should be trained as to when they should intervene in customer inter-
actions (Martin, 1996), as well as when they should not intervene (McGrath & Otnes, 1995).
A clear and unambiguous position will help compatible customers
to self-select into the service environment
The correct targeting of appropriate customer segments will determine both servicecapes selec-
tion and the content of staff training. And avoid putting incompatible customers together, for
example, families with young child and couples, smoking and non-smoking customers.
However, the fact that these customer characteristics are easily recognized makes it more
likely that service managers and employees could anticipate and prevent problems. Customer
compatibility usually appears to be positively related to the homogeneity of the customer
group, in terms of similar preferences, sought benets, attitude, past experiences and physical
characteristics. When incompatibility is apparent, appealing to prospective market segments
might be avoided, so as not to spoil the service experience of the existing segments served.
In sum, if marketing and operations managers combine their energies in an effort to imple-
ment these tactics to leverage customer compatibility, the organizations ability to attract new
customers and to retain the existing ones likely will be enhanced. As customer satisfaction
is at stake with these potential benets, service providers should settle for a comprehensive
approach with customer-to-customer interactions.
Future research
Although it is argued that the current study provides an interesting empirical insight into the
effects of customer-to-customer interaction incidents, the nature and design of the study
limits the generalizability of the nding and its implications. In this regard, the study raises
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a series of potentially attractive avenues for future research. First, this study employed the
customer-to-customer interaction incidents typology proposed by Martin (1996) to modify
and develop the measures of the perception of customer-to-customer interaction incidents.
But future studies could use CIT to nd specic foreign tourism service customer-to-customer
interaction incidents. Secondly, the focus of this research has been on foreign travel service, and
much of the behaviors and effects uncovered are likely to be specic to such contexts. Future
studies could explore the phenomena in alternative contexts and within the broader service
industry. Thirdly, studies can consider the effects of different cultural contexts. Since foreign
travel customers will experience several different cultural contexts, the interaction relationships
may be different or the perception of the customer-to-customer interaction incidents will change
under different cultural contexts. Fourth, additional research is needed of both a qualitative and a
quantitative nature to identify the frequency of occurrence of these interactions in other service
settings, to examine the particular nature of the roles adopted and the types of scripts that
role adopters use. This knowledge would then provide a platform for managerially oriented re-
search to examine the ways in which service provider might actively seek to facilitate customer-
to-customer interactions appropriate to their particular service settings.
Acknowledgement
Funding for this research was provided by the R.O.C. Governments National Science Council (NSC 92-2416-
H-130-004).
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