bagaimana stratgei pemasaran, sejarah dan perkembangan pt. kimia farma

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Communication dynamics in
the service encounter
A linguistic study in a hotel
conference department
Jan Mattsson and Marten J. den Haring
Department of Social Sciences, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Communication during service encounters
The importance of service encounters for the purpose of creating and
maintaining good relationships between service firms and their customers has
been widely recognised (Czepiel, 1990; Gummesson, 1995). Perceptions of
service encounters are important elements of customer satisfaction, perceptions
of quality and long-term loyalty (Brown et al., 1994).
Service encounters have been defined in different ways (Bitner et al., 1990;
Crosby et al., 1990; Shostack, 1985). We will regard a service encounter as the
time-frame during which a customer directly interacts with service providers
(Surprenant and Solomon, 1987). Much of current research on service
encounters focuses on the question of how to manage customer-employee
interactions (Brown et al., 1994). For this purpose, various scholars have
classified encounters and pointed to differences in customer-employee
relationships (Bitner, 1992; Chase, 1978; Price et al., 1995). For example, service
encounters have been classified according to the way in which consumers
experience them. Goodwin (1988) underlines the importance of customers’
commitment to the service provider. When the relationship between service
providers and customers is characterised by either high or low commitment to
the service provider, this will cause motivational differences in how customers
respond to the provider and the context. The level of client motivation is
considered to be influenced by expectations of repeated visits and the desire to
please people with whom they interact frequently.
Bitner et al. (1990) have differentiated between encounters by considering
their communication patterns. Some encounters follow short service scripts,
others last longer and have complex patterns of communication. Stiles (1985,
p. 221) echoes this perspective: “It should be possible to classify types of
encounters on the basis of similar exchange structure and then to develop
general modes of how verbal processes in encounters are related to service
efficiency and customer satisfaction”. It is this basic idea that we will now
address. We will attempt to find underlying structures in verbal discourse that
portray the dynamics of communication during encounters and how the service
context impacts communication.
How can we come to grasp the cognitive process by which people experience
service encounters? We believe that much could be learned from analysing
Received June 1997
Accepted January 1998
International Journal of Service
Industry Management,
Vol. 9 No. 5, 1998, pp. 416-435,
© MCB University Press, 0956-4233

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communication and studying how individuals evaluate events and behaviour.
Traditional methods rely on a rather narrow stream of interview data such as
accounts of so called critical incidents to analyse experiences during
encounters. Often these accounts are then categorized or classified by means of
content analysis to generate a larger sample of types of experiences (e.g. Bitner
et al., 1990).
What seems to be a limitation with this traditional approach is that only
verbal data is considered in retrospect, normally from one source only. Thus the
data considered is static and single sourced. It would be advantageous if real
time pictorial and verbal data could be combined for simultaneous analysis. In
this way the context and the events taking place could be pegged to the dyadic
communication between customers and service providers. We would generate a
dynamic, contextually embedded and multiple sourced data set. Quantitative
approaches utilizing real-time multi-dimensional data from encounters have
recently been reported (Lemmink and Mattsson, 1997). This work will attempt
to develop a qualitative procedure, based on the assumptions of grounded
theory (Glauser and Strauss, 1967), to analyse the structural dynamics of
communication. The main purpose is to ascertain a more robust qualitative
analysis of the experiences of customers and service providers by using a multi-
dimensional data set and a step by step procedure. The thrust of the article is to
describe how this can be done.
The outline of our article is as follows. We first discuss our theoretical
foundations which we mainly draw from linguistics. Second, we develop a
method to record, analyse, and interpret verbal and some non-verbal data.
Third, we report on a communicative setting selected for this study, the help
desk of a hotel conference department. Fourth, we illustrate some of our
findings to depict underlying structures of communication dynamics. Finally,
we summarise and draw some conclusions as to the usefulness of our approach.
Theoretical foundations
In order to communicate people have to share a comprehension of each other’s
verbal and non-verbal expressions; they must share a certain rationality and a
willingness to co-operate (Allwood, 1995). Therefore, there should exist a
structure that helps us understand the purpose or motives behind people’s
behaviour
Linguistic scholars believe that this structure lies hidden in the way we all
learn to use language. These thoughts form the basis of a model that is used for
the analysis of communication (Allwood, 1979). Communicative activity
analysis regards the meaning of linguistic expressions as determined by an
inherent meaning potential of the expression and its communicative functions.
The expression’s communicative functions are determined by its social activity
context. A social activity is said to occur if two or more individuals perform
mental acts, exhibit behaviour, or engage in action in a co-ordinated way which
collectively has some purpose or function. Individuals engage in activities by

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occupying activity relevant roles and by jointly pursuing the purpose of the
activity.
We will use the concept of social activity in service contexts to characterise
the structure of role relationships. Face-to-face communication is therefore
believed to be influenced by characteristics of the communicators, of their
relationship, and by characteristics inherent to the social activity that is being
pursued. Encounters in service environments are considered to constitute a
special form of activity context that affects relationships between service
providers and clients. The relationships are thought to be purposeful, limited in
emotional scope, and based on clearly defined roles. Since such relationships are
continuously reproduced by service providers, communicative patterns emerge.
Each specific encounter may be described in terms of characteristic contextual
elements that can be analysed with regard to their influence on communicative
patterns. Consequently, the dynamics interplay between individuals in service
encounter communication is not merely dependent on achieving a certain
purpose, it is also affected by instigating both individuals with a sense of
mastery over the course of the interaction. This can be achieved by efforts that
encourage service providers in dyadic relationships to influence clients’
appraisal by evoking the “correct” communication patterns and by giving
relevant feedback on strategic behaviour. We suggest that relationships are
constantly appraised by participants through evaluative processes that are
determined by person and situational factors. Service encounters constitute an
environment for specific dyadic relationships. They are exposed to certain
expectations or “ready” cognitions about the exchange of behaviour in them.
Each communicative utterance in interaction carries with it a set of implicit
demands for response. The most basic among such demands are:
• that the other respond;
• that the response addresses the content of one’s own preceding
communication; and
• that the response be characterised by a particular degree of elaboration.
The extent to which these demands are satisfied is defined as responsiveness
(Davis, 1982). Moreover, responsiveness is affected by:
• the attention that is devoted to one’s partner;
• the range of cues in his/her behaviour that are attended to; and
• the specific cue content that is selectively attended to.
Both the range and specific nature of cues attended to might be affected by role
relationships. The effects of selective attention will depend on the nature of the
cues focused on, and the context of the interaction. It is here then that the core of
our theoretical framework is materialising. “Attention is often prescribed by the
role relationships within the dyad” (Davis, 1982, p. 86). We ask ourselves what
communicative cues different communicators attend to, or focus on. For this
purpose we have studied what particular verbal and non-verbal features of one

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communicator’s utterances attract the attention of the other communicator. We
shall speak of topics and images. The notion of image has been taken from the
work of Bales and Cohen (1979), who define image as “a picture of an emotionally
loaded focus of attention”. An image will, therefore, be regarded as an emotionally
loaded, either positively or negatively, cue in a person’s communicative behaviour.
On the other hand, we define a topic as an emotionally neutral cue.
When the focus of attention in communication is set off by emotionally
loaded cues, so-called images, these instances should have an important effect
on customer perceptions of the encounter. It is believed that emotions are
products of how people interpret the changing, moment-to-moment fates of
their most cherished values and commitments. Emotions are said to be the
“royal road” to understanding a person’s most important agendas, and how well
that person believes these agendas are being realised (Lazarus and Folkman,
1984). It follows that responses to emotionally loaded cues in utterance
exchanges should be important elements of communication
We have analysed transcriptions by linking together the concepts of
responsiveness, service provider responses that are relevant in content to the
preceding communication of the client, and attention, the cues in the client’s
communicative behaviour that are attended to. They are, as it were, physical
evidence of the outcome of a person’s evaluative process. By studying utterance
exchanges during an encounter, it becomes possible to observe what cues in that
communicative process are attended to. An utterance reflects one
communicator’s verbal and non-verbal expressions until he is interrupted by
another communicator, or until the communication is ended. If the speaker
pauses, it must not be so long that it is more reasonable to regard renewed
activation as a new utterance. An utterance can vary from a single word, a
clause, or a complete sentence. It can contain both a reaction and/or an initiative.
Method and procedure
Recordings and interviews
The empirical data used in the study consist of audio and video recordings of
interactions in a Swedish hotel. For a combined period of ten days the daily
encounters between staff and customers were recorded. The data comprise 54
hours of audio and video recordings. In a first selection of the data, recorded
encounters that were clearly audible and actually featured both service provider
and customers were edited and copied onto a master tape.
The conference department help desk was selected because of its activity
characteristics: it is limited in scope, has a clear-cut functional purpose, and
displays obvious role behaviour; making it possible to clearly discern
communicative patterns. A VCR camera was discretely mounted at the
encounter locality and connected to a VCR recorder. This was done to increase
the uninterrupted recording time of each tape to at least 180 minutes. A
microphone transmitter was rigged on some stationary object in the desk area,
and connected to the recorder. Efforts were made to keep all equipment from

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interfering with normal interaction. The duration of the encounters differs
greatly from a minute to over 20 minutes.
The customers were never explicitly told that they were being recorded. This
was decided in consultation with management. Instead, a small information
note indicating that a research project would be taking place in the hotel was
put up at the front desk. There where two reasons for this. First, management
were not happy about having to explicitly inform all their customers about the
recordings. Second, such an awareness on the part of customers would have
seriously affected our objective to record “natural” communication. Since an
encounter at the hotel does not last for many minutes, it is impossible to let
customers “get used to” the fact that they are being recorded. For the same
reasons, customers were not specifically selected for this study, nor were they
asked to participate in the self-assessment interviews. Customers would
randomly show up in the recording settings to ask for the assistance of service
providers, as we recorded them. The days of the recordings were chosen on the
basis of the number of bookings at the department. We wanted to record
activity at the setting during times when there were both many and few
bookings made. Informed consent was obtained from all staff-members a couple
of months prior to the recordings. Together with the employees we then went on
to select a number of episodes of which the outcome in terms of client or
employee dis/satisfaction was clearly ascertainable. The reason to select
episodes that deviated from the routine was that we presumed them to be more
interesting for analytic purposes. However, any episode could have been
selected for the purpose of illustrating the procedure. In other words, the degree
of customer satisfaction was not an issue. The employees either remembered
whether a customer was dis/satisfied from post-conference surveys or they
themselves valued the episodes after carefully viewing the video recordings.
In order to grasp the linguistic features of the recorded communication all
tapes were transcribed. This basically means that everything that is said or done
on the tapes is systematically written down. Here, the tapes have been transcribed
according to a format developed by the department of linguistics at Gothenburg
University in Sweden (Nivre et al., 1996). This format is primarily developed for
transcriptions of linguistic features in communication, although the transcription
format also can be used to capture certain non-verbal features. It gives a verbatim
account of what has been said and done, utterance by utterance. Audio copies
have been made of the VCR-tapes to help enhance the accuracy of the
transcriptions. All transcriptions have been checked by two transcribers.
Because of the inconvenience and difficulty in approaching hotel guests
(mostly foreign business people) in retrospect in their home country no
interviews were carried out with customers. If the focus of the study had been
to map customer quality perceptions per se this would have been necessary. In
this study, however, we focus on the dynamic aspects of verbal exchanges that
actually took place. We use provider interviews to underpin interpretation. All
in all, we believe that the data set used here is comprehensive and rich enough
for our purpose.

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Two types of interviews were conducted with service providers in the
recordings. First, a semi-structured interview was carried out during which
providers were asked to comment on themselves, other participants, and on
their professional duties. Second, self-assessment interviews were also carried
out with service providers. These interviews presented a valuable opportunity
to combine further data gathering, validation of coding and individual feed-
back to participants in the study. A summary of the practical aspects of our
stepwise method is given in Table I.
Coding and analysing the transcriptions
By following the procedures of the constant comparative method (Glauser and
Strauss, 1967) it is possible to perform so-called open coding of utterances.
Transcriptions will be studied with regard to the content of an utterance as
reflecting the purpose of the underlying activity. We developed a coding scheme
that makes it possible to study each utterance and its assigned codes in the
same format. It also gives us the ability to analyse the actual interplay of
utterances and thus the dynamics of communication.
Each encounter was first coded separately, then the codes from several
encounters were compared with regard to their content in order to confirm that
they were grounded in the data. This work provided material to sort out the
codes into preliminary categories. The scheme, which we choose to call the
molecular coding scheme, is literally attached to the transcription format. Two
coding classes have been allocated to the utterance of each speaker. One marks
the function that we have assigned to the coded utterance of the respective
speaker, and the other reflects the content of the coded utterances. The principle
of dual coding to reflect both an utterance’s function and its contents is not new.
For instance, the general-purpose taxonomy of verbal response modes within
the so-called verbal exchange structure approach (e.g. Stiles, 1985; 1996) is a
widely acknowledged method for measuring and analysing the verbal
behaviour of clients and service providers.
The scheme consists of two halves, see Figure 1, each half representing a role
in the dyad. The codes that have been assigned to utterances of clients are
displayed in the left half. The right half reflects the codes that are given to
utterances made by the service provider or some other third person. By
1 Recording of incidents on video
2 Selection of incidents to be examined
3 Transcriptions of what is said and done on video
4 Semi-structured interviews with service providers
5 Preliminary coding of function and content of utterances
6 Showing of video and transcripts of running text to providers
7 Self-assessment interviews with providers
8 Analysing additional data from providers
9 Completion of the molecular coding scheme
Table I.
Summary of
stepwise method

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presenting the codes on the same line as the contents of each utterance and in
different halves, the coding scheme becomes an effective instrument to reflect
dynamic relations in communication. Furthermore, two coding classes have
been allocated to the utterance of each role: class (A) and (B) for clients, and
class (a) and (b) for service providers and others. These classes, in turn, are
mirrored across the roles. Class (A) and (a) are identical as to the underlying
aspect of the utterance that has been coded. In fact, both mark the “function”
Figure 1.
Briefing
Line
No.
Spea-
ker
Contents Code Class
Briefing§
S2: hi
C: hi
C: <ab> products
@ <abbreviation>
S2: ab products
C: yes
S2: welcome
C: thanks
S2: let me see you’re supposed to be in the
<salmon>
@ <name of conference room>
C: the salmon all right
S2: and you are benny
C: yes
S2: yes / m do you want to have a coffee
break or
C: no we don’t
C: mm what do you serve for lunch
S2: <> I cannot really say / I could call down
and ask what they are serving for lunch
@ <gesture: looks away and sighs>
C: eh (...) // do you have any special offers
S2: the line to the restaurant is busy
C: m
S2: would you like me to go and fetch you a
menu downstairs
C: yes would you
S2: (I’ll) just open up first
C: mm
customer s-prov/other
(A) (B) (a) (b)
ET
IT
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ITD
DT
ET
ET
ET
IT
DT
ET
IT
DT
ITD
ET
ET
DT
ET
ECO
CON
INF
INF
INF
DES
HES
HES
DES
INF
CON
INF
CON
CON
HES
CON
EXP
INF
INF
HES
EXP
HES
32
33
33a
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
43a
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51

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that we have assigned to the coded utterance of the respective speaker.
Similarly, class (B) and (b) both reflect the “content” of the coded utterances.
By coding utterances with these functions we are able to show when
utterances contain cues that another speaker has attended to, and in what
way these cues are attended to. Studying sequences of utterance exchanges
that go from one focus of attention to another will yield insight into the
communicative patterns that each context creates. We must ask ourselves
who introduces the cues that are attended to, who chooses to elaborate on
these cues and who does not, and why? What causes a focus of attention to
shift or to terminate altogether? These issues can be addressed by our
molecular coding scheme. Moreover, the content message of an utterance
reflects the contextual meaning that an utterance has been interpreted to have
in the communication. Based on information from the self-assessment
interviews, participants’ behaviour can be explained with regard to intentions
and contextual influences.
Moving from single utterance codes to looking at pairs or sequences of codes
will render us insight into the dynamic nature of the communication. This is
illustrated in the excerpts by linking together the circled content codes of an
utterance exchange which we have referred to as communicative cues (see
section on theoretical foundation above). Each circle is thus meant to
correspond to an “atom” in the molecular scheme.
We consider an utterance exchange to begin when one speaker is trying to
focus attention by introducing a topic or image (a neutral or emotionally loaded
cue in a person’s communication). Utterance exchanges that are initiated by
service providers are referred to as an S-focus. Those that are initiated by
customers are termed C-focus. When a speaker tries to focus attention but his
utterance is not attended to, this is termed a 0-focus (or zero focus). The
utterance exchange in Figure 1 contains several different foci. First, an S-focus
to establish communication is initiated by “hi”. Then a C-focus that introduces
new information, the company name, into the encounter. Thereafter, the focus
changes back and forth a couple of times. The exchange ends when a topic or
image is no longer elaborated on, meaning that the focus of attention has shifted
or that communication has terminated altogether. The molecular structure of
the connected atoms will thus be disrupted as soon as a new topic or image is
focused on. Instead, a new sequence of atom connections will commence.
Since utterance exchanges are marked by clear beginnings and endings it is
possible to analyse entire communicative processes in service encounters by
studying:
• who focuses attention on certain topics or images;
• how these topics or images are attended to;
• why the focus of attention shifts or ends;
• how often the focus of attention in the communication shifts;
• how many utterances each exchange consists of.

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How to read the transcription excerpts (Figures 1, 2 and 3)
The presentation format of our transcriptions consists of seven columns (see
Figure 1). The first column displays a sequential line number that has been
awarded to each utterance. This is to provide a system for reference. It is
followed by an indication of the speaker in the next column. Each speaker has
been designated a letter that corresponds to the role they have in the activity,
followed by “:”. All customers are labelled “C”, while service providers are
individually marked “S1”, “S2”, and “S3”. Moreover, the same column is used to
announce additional comments, which is marked by “@”. In the transcriptions,
this column sometimes features the character “§” to announce the title of a
particular short episode.
The third column gives an account of the actual verbal and non-verbal
contents of the communication which has been transcribed. The language that
is spoken on the tapes is mainly Swedish. However, the excerpts that we will use
as examples have been given an idiomatic English translation. Parts of
utterances or words that have been marked between “()” are not clearly audible.
When the symbol “(…)” is used, then that part of an utterances is not audible at
all. Furthermore, the use of “/” indicates a small pause, “//” and “///” are longer
pauses (not included in excerpts). The use of capital letters in the transcriptions
indicates that this part of the utterance is being stressed in accordance with the
participant’s voice level (not included in excerpts). When a certain part of an
utterance is commented on, that part is marked between “<>”. The comments
are printed below and are also indicated between “<>”. Comments indicate
when a person uses body language, whether a person is laughing, coughing,
joking, or appears sad. They can indicate when a certain word is an
abbreviation or stems from a foreign language. Moreover, comments have been
given labels that indicate what particular feature of the communication that
they report on, for instance, the labels are termed gesture, mood, loan (foreign
words), name, and so on.
The communicative setting
Conference department
The hotel in our study is a hotel for business travellers. It has its own conference
facilities. The office space of the conference department is located in the middle
of the conference facilities and includes a help desk for conference guests. We
have recorded the office space that includes the actual help desk. The conference
rooms vary in capacity, they fit everything from ten to more than 100 guests. All
rooms have been named after fish. Apart from conference rooms, this floor also
includes a couple of lounges where guests are served coffee and snacks during
breaks. Meals, however, are served in the hotel’s restaurant, which is situated on
the second floor. The department has been organized in such a way that
customers are served directly by conference staff, from the time that the
facilities are discussed and ordered until the order has been paid for.
The service provided by the staff during actual conferences can be divided
into several sub-activities. At the beginning of each conference the customer,

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who usually is the organizer of the conference, will be briefed on the agreements
that have been made. During these briefings, the staff and customer will
typically run-through information such as: which room has been booked, how
many people will participate in the conference, whether or when coffee-breaks
are planned, whether lunch has been ordered in the hotel restaurant and other
particular arrangements.
These briefings are actually the only time that both parties meet and discuss
the preconditions of the service process; they present a rare opportunity for
service providers to influence customer expectations. Other service encounters
at the department are more unidirectional in the sense that customers come to
the help desk to express certain requests. Such service encounters are triggered
by the activities in the various conferences. During breaks, some conference
participants come to the help desk for personal matters, e.g. to buy cigarettes
and beverages, to book flights or taxis, or to send faxes. Others need to make
photocopies of documents, use the department’s computer, or make reservations
for lunch.
Participants
The staff of the department consists of three employees, one manager and two
hostesses, all female. The manager has worked at the hotel for five years and is
27 years old. Her job is based on a nine to five schedule. The main duties include
managerial work, therefore she only occasionally works directly with customers
during conferences. In her own words:
Good communication with guests means uninterrupted communication. Guests should
always get our undivided attention and feel that they are being taken seriously. That is not the
case at our department all the time. Our staff is not large, and we are needed at many different
places at the same time. A stressful environment, with telephones ringing all the time, can be
perceived as inconvenient.
The two hostesses, however, are responsible for providing all the services that
the department offers to clients during conferences. They work on a schedule
that is made up of a morning and an afternoon shift. The hostesses work every
other morning shift. One of the hostesses has worked at the hotel for almost
four years, is 25 years old, marked (S1) in the transcriptions, and signals her
view on communication:
Good communication with guests means that we have time to spend. Whenever you feel that
the customer wants your time, you should never appear to be in a hurry and just rush off. No
matter how stressed you are, you always have a few minutes to spare. When one asks a
customer if everything is well, one should have the time to listen to their answer and to what
they have to say.
The other hostess (S2) began to work at the department just a few months prior
to the recordings and is 22 years of age. This hostess has the same professional
duties as her colleague. On a private level she is clearly bothered by the fact that
she stutters, and in her work she appears to make a big effort to hide it from
customers. She adds:

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Good communication to me is when I don’t stutter at all during a conversation with a
customer. Then I’m really proud! When I get to say what I want to say instead of just
drivelling. So I guess good quality is when I get my message across. I can see that from the
feed-back people give me.
The relationship between customers and service providers at the department is
characterised by the providers’ role of trying to satisfy customers’ “wants”. In
order for providers to achieve this goal, communication must be effective in the
sense that the right questions must be asked and/or answered. Providers must
find out exactly what it is that their customers want. Consequently, the
character of the communication at the conference department is that of a
continuous information exchange. The hostesses either ask or listen to
customers’ requests, inform them of the department’s ability to meet those
requests, and serve customers as best as they can. This pattern of information
exchange is then repeated in various formats in most of the encounters. In
between tasks, they also try to indulge individual conference guests whose
requests vary from taking photocopies and sending faxes to ordering taxis and
booking tickets. This has the effect that hostesses have developed a very
efficient, brief and to the point, style of communicating with their clients. We
will illustrate the contextual influences on communication by describing three
service encounters. First, we give a brief outline of events and proceed by
analysing emerging communicative patterns.
Findings: communication dynamics during service encounters
Briefing
The activities in this encounter (see Figure 1) took place early in the morning,
just before the designated conference was about to begin. The customer (C) and
conference hostess (S2) go through some final practical details for the
conference arrangements. This encounter is a typical standardised activity at
the conference department that takes place before almost every conference, as
discussed above. Despite the fact that most arrangements for conferences are
agreed upon with the customer in advance, the staff make sure to run-through
the schedule with customers to confirm prior agreements and to work out
remaining details. In this way, both the customer and service provider should
come to an understanding of the provisions that conference guests can expect
during the day.
The staff characterise the client in this episode as a first time customer,
which means that he is not familiar with the routines of the department. The
hostess in this episode is the youngest and least experienced of the conference
staff. From the self-assessment interviews we also know that she works hard to
conceal the fact that she stutters. After establishing communication, the
information exchange starts. The customer indicates the name of the company
he represents, in line 34. While the hostess is looking for the file of the
conference booking, she confirms that she has understood the name of the client
correctly and welcomes him. In line 38, the hostess indicates that the conference
will be held in “the salmon”. The customer’s response is rather hesitant, which

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causes the hostess to ask him whether his name is “Benny”. That is the name
indicated in her file to be the conference organizer. The hostess proceeds by
asking him whether he is planning to have a coffee-break, which he obviously is
not. Instead, the customer inquires about the lunch menu, which seems to come
as a surprise to the hostess. She cannot answer the question immediately, but
tries to phone the restaurant. The line is busy so the hostess suggests that she
goes to fetch a menu in the restaurant.
We find this encounter a little jumbled for a briefing that more or less should
be standardised. During the encounter, this results in hesitant responses from
the client who does not seem to follow, what should be, the hostess’s briefing to
the client. He becomes the one who is asking for information instead of listening
to information from the hostess’s checklist. Normally, when a new guest arrives,
he is given the key to the conference facility, shown the way to it, and briefed on
the arrangements that have been made. In this case, the communication
appears to be somewhat vacillating. This is echoed by another hostess who
watches the episode. She finds her colleague in this episode very incoherent.
Our point is illustrated by the customer’s hesitant response at the end of this
encounter, see line 51.
Air tickets and taxi (Figure 2)
In contrast to the previous encounter this information exchange is not a typical
daily activity. One of the conference guests has asked the help desk to try and
reschedule his flight. When this encounter begins, the customer wants to know
if the hostess managed to change his flight plan. The hostess at the help desk
Figure 2.
Air tickets and taxi
Line
No.
Spea-
ker
Contents Code Class
Air tickets and taxi§
C: how did the re-booking go
S2: m it was ulrika who worked on that she
has written I think it was okay / let’s see
what she has written down
S2: / tickets re-booked
C: great
S1: four thirty
C: great
S1: check-in // taxi ordered for three thirty
C: yes super
S1: m
C: (thank you)
S1: here you are
C: (thank you)
customer s-prov/other
(A) (B) (a) (b)
ET
II
RI
RI
RI
ET
ITD
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
INF
INF
INF
INF
SUP
INF
HES
POS
POS
POS
POS
CON
359
360
360a
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369

13. IJSIM
9,5
428
cannot answer him immediately, because it was her colleague who handled the
matter. However, she quickly finds a note from her colleague indicating that the
flight has been rebooked, see line 360a. The customer appears to be very happy,
which we derive from his positive image. The hostess continues to read from the
note that contains his new flight schedule and a message saying that a taxi has
been ordered at the time that was requested. In summary, we here see an
example of how the output of a previous information exchange is presented to
the customer. As it were, the customer is confronted with the result of his
previous request. Several client utterances indicate positive images. The hostess
manages to support those images and concludes the encounter on a
confirmative utterance from her client.
Where to print? (Figure 3)
The following excerpt (see Figure 3) reflects the final part of a very long service
encounter. We will therefore give a brief account of the entire encounter’s
outline. The events occurred on a Monday morning and involve a client who
had booked the conference facilities until the end of the week. The objective of
this conference was to produce a document. During this particular encounter, at
the beginning of the week, the customer wants to make sure that arrangements
are made to have the document printed-out and put into a binder at the end of
the week. It is so important to him that he already had asked his secretary to
call in advance to make arrangements with the hostesses. The problem is the
following. The conference department does not have a word processor that is
compatible with the client’s computer, and the client needs a specific binding
system, since he has already brought the necessary materials for it. At first, the
client explains the entire matter to one of the hostesses (S1) who obviously is not
informed about it. After a while another hostess (S2) joins the discussion. This
Figure 3.
Where to print?
Line
No.
Spea-
ker
Contents Code Class
Where to print?§
S1: what do think about it
C: well it might work
S1: yes otherwise you just tell us (...)
C: yes no (...)
S2: then we will help you find another way
C: yes right m m no but so far it’s ok
S1: ok
C: m thank you
S1: yes <bye>
@ <laughing>
customer s-prov/other
(A) (B) (a) (b)
DI
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
ET
DT
ET
HES
INF
INF
CON
CON
ACT
HES
HES
HES
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328

14. Communication
in the service
encounter
429
hostess is the one that has attempted to find a company that can provide the
task. She gives the name and address of a few companies to the customer, and
expects him to make the final arrangements himself.
The customer has a very “slow” style of communicating. He is asking the
same questions over and over again, and does not seem to be getting anywhere.
Both hostesses are communicating with him. They seem to be getting a little fed
up with this customer who will not let go. In the end, the hostess asks the client
what he thinks about it, line 320. She clearly wants the client to give some sort
of indication if he is satisfied or not. The customer is hesitant in his response.
When the hostess continues to focus on the question if he is happy, the
responses from the customer remain hesitant. It is almost as if he is waiting for
the conference hostess to say: “give the disc to me when you’re done and I’ll
arrange the rest for you”. One hostess (S1) had this to say about the episode in
the self-assessment interviews:
It really looks bad when you read it on paper. The communication is poor. It seems as if we are
not talking the same language. The customer finally gets what he wants, but not in a good
way. Perhaps I should have let my colleague handle the entire matter since she knew all about
the arrangements.
The first time her colleague (S2) watches the encounter, she says:
Oh it’s him, he was being really difficult! Do you understand how somebody can be so anxious
about the way a document is put into a binder? I’ve told him three times now already, and he
still won’t give in.
But after reading the transcriptions as running text (and not the entire coding
scheme as outlined in Figure 3) she changes her mind:
Oh God, I didn’t get the impression that he kept nagging about this so many times! It appears
that he didn’t really believe that we knew what we were doing. The fact that my colleague did
not know much about this arrangement may have confused him. I understood quite well what
he wanted, but he didn’t seem to trust me either. This document must have been extremely
important to him.
After watching the recordings she is convinced that her own performance and
that of her colleague were not satisfactory. It appears as though both hostesses
had begun to dislike the customer’s attitude, and therefore, focused too much on
his personal style of communicating. They never explicitly addressed the
urgency of his request. Instead of offering the customer to help him at the end of
the week, they explain in detail how the customer can go about solving his own
problem. The fact that two hostesses got involved in the encounter was not very
useful either, since one of them knew very little about these particular
arrangements.
All in all, the communication in this encounter displayed several flaws.
However, we want to stress that we had no experimental intent to expose
participants to different kinds of verbal or non-verbal stimuli to gauge ex post
reactions to recordings. Self-assessment interviews were expressly used to
substantiate coding. Therefore, although interesting, these findings of changed
reactions of participants will not be elaborated further.

15. IJSIM
9,5
430
Emerging communicative patterns
The open coding of utterances has resulted in a number of content categories
(see Table II). The first column contains information about the utterances’
function and content categories that have been found in the transcriptions. The
second column shows abbreviated codes that have been assigned to these
function and content categories in the molecular coding scheme. Moreover, the
so-called coding classes in the third column correspond to the location each
code has received in the coding scheme. As we explained earlier, functions and
content categories of client utterances are termed class (A) and (B) respectively,
while the corresponding classes of service provider utterances have been
termed (a) and (b). The last column shows which combinations, in total, of
function and content codes we have discovered in the transcriptions from the
study of the conference department. To exemplify, customers’ utterances that
introduce topics (IT) have been found in combination with the content codes
(INF), (ACT), (SOC), and (ECO); the customer’s utterance content termed
“positive image” (POS) has been found in combination with utterance function
codes (II) and (RI).
The content categories match those that were found in another study (Den et
al., 1997): hesitation, confirmation, negative confirmation, and direct follow-up
messages. However, in contrast to the results of that study, the content
categories that reflect general responsiveness are more predominant here.
Communication at the conference department contains a flow of information
between the client and service providers. As information is given or requested,
these categories of responsiveness become important indicators of how
utterances have been perceived by the other person. The feedback from
communicators will e.g. indicate whether or not the content messages have been
understood. Confirmation (CON) and negative confirmation (NON) signal a
definite feed-back. Hesitation (HES) and direct follow-up (DIR) utterances
indicate an unsure response.
Moreover, we have identified content categories that are specific to the
activities at the help desk. In the case of customer utterances these include five
topics: informative topics (INF), expression of desire (EXP), general activity
topics (ACT), socialising topics (SOC), and expressions that establish the
communicative process (ECO). The occurrence of negative (NEG) and positive
(POS) images confirms the emotional involvement of customers in these
utterance exchanges. Utterances of service providers have been found to
contain the following categories: informative topics (INF), inquiring about
customer desire (DES), general activity topics (ACT), socialising topics (SOC),
and expressions that establish the communicative process (ECO). We have also
discovered a category that we have chosen to term “supporting images that are
introduced by customer” (SUP). This content category is found when service
providers respond to their customers’ positive images. These utterances of
service providers maintain a focus on customers’ appreciative content
messages.

16. Communication
in the service
encounter
431
Code Found combinations of utterance
Utterance categories Code class functions and contents
Customer utterance functions
Introduction of topic IT (A) INF, ACT, SOC, ECO
Introduction of topic with
demand for elaboration ITD (A) INF, ACT, SOC, ECO
Demand for elaboration on topic DT (A) INF, EXP, ACT, SOC, HES,
CON, NON, DIR
Elaboration on topic ET (A) INF, EXP, ACT, SOC, HES,
CON, NON, DIR
Introduction of image II (A) POS, NEG
Reintroduction of image RI (A) POS, NEG
Customer utterance content
Information INF (B) IT, ITD, ET, DT
Expression of desire EXP (B) IT, ITD, ET, DT
General activity topic ACT (B) IT, ITD, ET, DT
Socialising topic SOC (B) IT, ITD, ET, DT
Establishing communication ECO (B) IT, ITD, ET, DT
Positive image of activity POS (B) II, RI
Negative image of activity NEG (B) II, RI
Hesitation HES (B) ET, DT
Confirmation CON (B) ET, DT
Negative confirmation NON (B) ET, DT
Direct follow-up to maintain
communication DIR (B) ET, DT
S-provider utterance functions
Introduction of topic IT (a) INF, ACT, ECO
Introduction of topic with demand
for elaboration ITD (a) INF, DES, ACT, ECO
Demand for elaboration on topic DT (a) INF, DES, CON, HES, DIR
Elaboration on topic ET (a) INF, SUP, CON, HES, DIR
Demand for customer image DI (a) ACT
S-provider utterance content
Information INF (b) IT, ITD, DT, ET
Establishing communication ECO (b) IT, ITD, ET, DT
General activity data ACT (b) IT, ITD, RT, DT, DI
Inquiring about customer desire DES (b) ITD, DT
Supporting image introduced
by customer SUP (b) ET
Hesitation HES (b) ET, DT
Confirmation CON (b) ET, DT
Negative confirmation NON (b) ET, DT
Direct follow-up to maintain
communication DIR (b) ET, DT
Table II.
Coding scheme of
the functions and
contents of utterances

17. IJSIM
9,5
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Contextual influences on communication
We earlier described the communicative pattern of the activities at the help desk
as a process of information exchange. Since the purpose of the activities is to
satisfy customer requests with regard to conference arrangements, it follows
that the most relevant utterance exchanges are those that concern expression of
customers’ requests (EXP), inquiries about their desires (DES), and informative
topics (INF). By studying individuals’ responses to these utterance categories
we should be able to grasp the dynamics of communication. We believe that
whenever information is given or requested, the general content categories of
utterances become important. After all, feedback will e.g. indicate whether or
not the meaning of the informative message has been comprehended or not.
From the excerpts that we have shown above, it becomes clear that hesitant
(HES) responses to content categories (EXP) and (DES) often are an indication
of the fact that communicative difficulties are developing in the utterance
exchange. We have found hesitant customer responses to be caused by service
providers’ misinterpretation of customer desire, unclear or insufficient
information, and unfamiliarity with procedures. Conversely, confirmative feed-
back messages are regarded as indicators of good communication (CON) and
(POS). They indicate various degrees of acceptance on behalf of the
communicating individuals concerning the information they have received, or
the agreements they have made. They show that customers’ evaluation of
quality in this service environment is related to the output of the communicative
process.
Communication at the help desk takes place in a stressful office environment,
where the phones are constantly ringing, staff have many different assignments
to carry out, and guests arrive to ask favours. This means that the hostesses
often feel they do not have the time to listen to their customers. The encounter
illustrated in Figure 3 appears to be the result of service providers
misinterpreting customer intentions due to stressful circumstances. Had there
not been much to do at the office, then one of the hostesses might have offered
to make the necessary arrangements for the customer. Instead, the customer
was asked to do it himself. One of the hostesses (S3) explains:
Sometimes, you don’t actually perceive what it is the customer wants, because you don’t take
the time to listen to them. It could be that one has a lot of paper work on one’s desk and
honestly one doesn’t have the energy to take on another assignment from the customer. On
those occasions you just want the customer to leave!
Summary and conclusions
Revisiting our theoretical foundations
This study has focused on the dynamics of communication between service
providers and their clients. We argued that service encounters, because of their
specific and purposeful nature, are particularly suited for evaluating the
communicative process. Prior research in this area has primarily focused on role
theory as a framework for explaining communicative behaviour (Solomon et al.,
1985).

18. Communication
in the service
encounter
433
We now believe that role theory alone does not provide enough insight to
evaluate the quality of communication. Role theory views communicative
behaviour as an enactment of standardised sets of behaviours. However, every
human being has a unique perspective on themselves, others, and on the events
that influence their interaction with others (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). In
service encounters, service providers and their clients have different
perspectives on the interaction they are part of. Communication is influenced by
the activities that clients and service providers jointly pursue, and,
consequently, these activities give rise to communicative roles that are “acted”
out again and again.
We suggest that individuals, in communicating with each other, interpret the
meaning of utterances in relation to the activity that is being pursued. Attention
is focused on behavioural cues that are considered to be relevant to the activity.
This notion is supported by evidence from our empirical studies, indicating that
activities create a sort of cognitive readiness for certain cues while it causes
individuals to disattend others. We suggest that an individual’s interpretation
of, and response to behavioural cues is managed by his cognitive appraisal and
coping processes, which become accessible through communication.
Evaluating our approach to study communication dynamics
Communication at the conference department in our hotel study resembles an
exchange mechanism, in which customers express their desires and service
providers inform them to what extent those desires can be met. The core service
that is being delivered is the actual conference itself including additional
facilities, meals and accommodation. Customers arrive at the help desk because
they wish to change their lunch-order or because they wish to make
photocopies, the tangible meal and photocopies are the outcome of the
communicative process, and as such, must be taken into consideration when the
quality of communication is evaluated.
The outcome of communication is evaluated by analysing service providers’
statements in self-assessment interviews. Their indications as to what is
perceived in terms of “good” or “poor” attributes of communication are
valuable. These statements then influence how utterance exchanges are coded.
Therefore, our approach is based on analyses of utterance exchanges.
Utterances are not considered to be prescribed by systematic professional role
play. Instead, activities are believed to influence participants’ expectations and
provide rules for permissible behaviour through the formation of
communicative roles. Each activity generates communicative patterns that
indicate how the purpose of the activity is usually pursued by its participants.
We have argued that by studying these patterns (as modelled by our molecular
coding scheme) it is possible to link perceptions of good and poor
communication to sequences of particular verbal and non-verbal expressions.
We believe that the methodology developed here can make service providers
more aware of how their behaviour influences the outcome of communication in
instances that are most crucial to achieving the purpose of the service

19. IJSIM
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encounter’s underlying activity. The methodology consists of a number of
different features. First, we have advocated the use of audio and video
recordings in obtaining dynamic data from real service encounters. Since
grasping communicative processes is a prerequisite for being able to study the
service experience, we have explored a linguistic approach to process verbal
and non-verbal communication. Second, we have developed the “molecular”
coding scheme as a model to make visible the dynamic interplay between the
functions and contents of participants’ utterances. Utterance exchanges are
believed to display what communication cues individuals focus on, respond to,
and elaborate on in particular activity contexts. The functions that an utterance
is coded for thus reflect its task in the exchange. Moreover, the content code
indicates the meaning that each utterance is interpreted to have had during the
actual exchange. Third, the content of each utterance should, therefore, be
coded after the self-assessment interviews had been carried out.
However, there are a number of limitations with our approach. It is time-
consuming and resource-demanding both with regard to planning and
implementation. Technical issues related to audio and video recordings need to
be considered in detail. Moreover, ethical questions must be taken into account
so that full consent and support from participants are secured in advance. This
will enhance the ecological validity which is of prime concern for the grounded
theory approach advocated here.
The selection of the service encounter and its participants also need careful
consideration. A limitation in this study is that customers were not included as
full participants because of practical reasons (foreign travellers). It is preferable
if all participants who figure in recordings also can take part in the self-
assessment interviews to enrich and further validate interpretation.
Nevertheless, a great benefit of the method advocated here is that it allows
the communication to be “deconstructed” into a sequence of interconnected
functional and content categories (codes) that form the essential elements of
how the encounter is experienced contextually. This allows for deeper
understanding of how the service encounter is mentally structured and should
be of great value for developing service operations. We believe that the
approach may be particularly useful for managers of service operations in
which the quality of communication is paramount. Examples of this may be air-
traffic control and the servicing of complex and important installations such as
nuclear power plants.
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