Customer-to-customer interaction and service satisfaction : an affective approach

Abstract

Customer-to-customer interaction (CCI) is the transfer of information from one customer to another customer such that it changes these customers' attitudes and purchasing behavior. The present study aims to understand how and why CCI influences satisfaction with a service encounter, and how this effect varies based on the characteristics of the customers involved. The theoretical perspective on which the hypotheses are based is the affective events theory. One study using the critical-incidents technique and two scenario-based experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that positive and negative affect mediate the relationship between CCI and service evaluation. Moreover, when the CCI is relevant to the focal customer, significantly more extreme scores of affect are reported. Lastly, when the other customer is perceived to belong to the same cultural group versus a different cultural group, service evaluation is increased. The present study contributes to the services marketing literature by offering an affective perspective in addition to the existing cognitive perspectives to explain the relationship between CCI and service evaluation.