Service provider’s response to customer disconfirmation: a decision making and information processing perspective

Abstract

The service provider’s response to a customer disconfirmation involves a decision process (Kroeber-Riel, 1992; Peter/Olson, 1990) as the service provider has to decide how to respond to the disconfirmation. In the following discussion, this decision process is viewed from an information processing perspective (Mairamhof et al., 1995). The information processing approach is a widely used approach in organizational and consumer psychology (e.g., Grunert, 1994; Zimbardo, 1992; Brander et al., 1989; Anderson, 1988). It explains human behavior through the sequences of an individual’s mental activities (Wilkie, 1994). Information processing happens within a cognitive system, which contains cognitive structures and cognitive processes. These cognitive processes are interpretation and integration processes that connect cognitive structures with the environment. In critical service encounter situations, cognitive processes connect the service provider’s cognitive structures with the disconfirmation situation. In the first section of this chapter, the logic for the development of the cognitive response process is presented. Then each element of the process will be discussed in detail.