Kathryn Frazer Winsted, Ph.D.
Pace University
861 Bedford Road
Pleasantville, NY 10598
914/773-3905
FAX: 914/773-3908
email: winsted@pace.edu
Does good service mean the same thing the world over? Or do consumers expect different types of treatment in different countries? This study examines perceived importance of different dimensions of service encounters in two very different cultures: The United States and Japan. It proposes a model linking cultural values of a country to service encounter expectations, and suggests ways in which managers of service firms may need to adjust training programs and approaches in different cultures.
Literature reviews, focus groups, and expert interviews are used to determine eight dimensions important to consumers in evaluating service encounters, and to identify differences in relative importance of the different dimensions in different cultures. The dimensions identified are authenticity of behavior, caring, perceived customer control, courtesy, formality, friendliness, personalization, and promptness. Hypotheses are posed regarding the relative importance of each of these dimensions in Japan and the United States, and underlying cultural values influencing these differences. A model is suggested for predicting relative importance of these dimensions to consumers in different cultures based on cultural values.
Specifically, the model states that authenticity is likely to
be very important in individualistic cultures and not very important in
cultures where harmony, privacy, and roles are important. Caring is expected
to be most important in cultures emphasizing empathy. Control is likely
to be most important where consumers believe they are masters of their
own destinies and less important where harmony and predictability are key.
Courtesy and formality are expected to be most important in cultures that
stress harmony and status. Formality is also expected to be most important
in cultures that emphasize predictability, privacy and roles. Friendliness
is expected to be least important in cultures that stress privacy, roles
and status. Personalization should be most important in individualistic
cultures and least important where empathy, predictability and roles are
stressed. Promptness is expected to be most important in countries that
have M-time cultures and that stress achievement.
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