Well, last week’s service encounter was on the more positive side, and this week’s entry focuses on one that was less positive, to say the least.  The morning of January 26, I called my family doctor’s office in Tsawwassen, BC regarding a referral to a specialist in Victoria.  This entry will examine the service I received with reference to Chapters 3 and 4 of our course textbook, and will include such topics as credence qualities, consumer choice, services as a process, the effect of emotion and mood, the different levels of customer expectations, and sources of desired and predicted service outcomes. 

As part of a medical service, this particular encounter is high in credence qualities, making it more difficult to evaluate even after the encounter (Zeithaml et al. 2007, p. 49-50).  To aid in this process, it is necessary to first describe the service encounter that took place, and the steps that formed the service process, becoming an experience evaluated by the customer (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 56).  Back in December, I visited my family doctor in Tsawwassen, and we arranged for a referral to be set up for a specialist in Victoria.  My doctor instructed me to wait until later in January to call his office back, and see what the timeline for an appointment with the specialist would be.

So, on Wednesday, I decided to call the office and check on the status of the referral.  The receptionist I spoke with was friendly and helpful, and told me that they had faxed the request over to the specialist, but had not yet heard back from them.  She gave me their phone number, and told me to give their office a call myself to set up the appointment.

I then called the specialist office, and was informed that they had not received a referral from my doctor’s office, and to ask them to resend the document.  I called my doctor’s office back, and was told that they could not find my file at the moment, and to call them back a bit later.  I waited until later in the afternoon, and call the office once again.

This time, however, a different receptionist answered my call.  She was extremely short with me, told me she had called my mom (who still lives in Tsawwassen) regarding the matter, and promptly hung up on me.  I was more than just a little bit annoyed at this point, and had to call my mom to find out exactly what was going on. 

Now, I had expected to have a bit of difficulty dealing with such matters over the phone.  I have lived in Victoria for the past 6 years, but have maintained my family doctor back in Tsawwassen, as I am frequently on the mainland to visit family.  My doctor himself has always been extremely helpful, and has had no problem doing certain things over the phone to prevent me from having to make the trip over to see him if it is not necessary.  The receptionists in the office, on the other hand, are not always so willing.  As a result, I usually go into such phone calls with the expectation that I will have problems with the service of the receptionists, but have accepted these experience-based norms (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 76). 

This situation is also related to the idea that customers have different expectations for specific service encounters, as opposed to overall service expectations (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 86).  In my case, for example, I expected a high level of service from my doctor’s office in general, but a lower level of service when dealing with matters over the phone.  Such expectations are influence by past experiences not only at the same firm, but across industries (Zeithaml et al. p. 86-88).  These sources of desired and predicted service outcomes can be influenced by a number of different experiences, such as generally poor customer service encounters over the phone.

As for my level of satisfaction with the service encounter, I would rate it as a 3.  The first receptionist I spoke to was a very helpful, but the fact that they had lost my file, combined with the horrible service provided by the second receptionist, led to a very unsatisfactory experience.  At the same time, my likelihood of returning would be a 7.  Unless I wanted to go through the lengthy process of changing my doctor, I do not really have a choice when it comes to my return patronage.

While most consumers could go through the process of consumer choice the next time they needed to receive a similar service, this series of steps is harder to apply to a medical service (Zeithaml et al. p. 50-51).  Consumers do go through the stage of need recognition; however, unless they can’t go to their usual doctor for some reason or another, there is not really an alternative search or decision involved. 

My emotional state and mood also formed an important part of the service encounter.  A customer’s mood can amplify the experience, leading differing perceptions, and even differing outcomes (Zeithaml et al. 2007, p. 60).  In the case of my experience, I was in a fairly neutral state at the time, relaxing at home and trying to check a few items off my to-do list before heading out for the afternoon.  My emotional state after the service encounter, however, was not very good at all.  I left the encounter feeling frustrated and annoyed, and in a very bad mood. 

The effect of emotions is also an important consideration for the service provider side of the equation.  If person providing the service is in a poor emotional state, the service provided and the encounter experienced by the customer will likely suffer.  For instance, the second receptionist I dealt with may have been having a horrible day, and taken her frustration out on me.  Training in emotional competence, in which people learn how to recognize and manage their own, as well as other, emotions, can aid in the performance of all levels of employees (Kram, Ting, and Bunker, 2002). 

Finally, upon conducting some further research on customer service in the medical field, I came across a really interesting article.  In it, Arthur Lazarus outlines the use of mystery shoppers to evaluate the service provided in the health care field (2010).  I thought this was a really interesting extension of a technique that has been used extensively in the retail environment for years.  Perhaps if doctors knew the type of service their patients were receiving from other employees in their offices, customer service would improve. 

Works Cited

Kram, K., Ting, S., & Bunker, K. (2002). On-the-Job Training for Emotional Competence. Leadership in Action, 3-7.

Lazarus, A. (2010). The Secret to Improving Health Care Services. Physician Executive, 42-45.

Zeithaml, V., Bitner, M. J., & Gremler, D. D. (2007). Services Marketing. McGraw-Hill.