A Research Study On Service Encounters

“Etiquette is all human social behavior. If you’re a hermit on a mountain, you don’t have to worry about etiquette; if somebody comes up the mountain, then you’ve got a problem…” This quote from American journalist, Judith Martin, illustrates the concept that the presence of others creates or inspires expectations. Social norms, or specific cultural expectations for how to behave in a given situation, are practiced throughout various societies and cultures across the planet. People relay on social norms to provide order and predictability in social situations. Social roles are the part people play as members of a social group. With each social role one plays, the behavior changes to fit the expectations both you and others have of that role. It is most common for people to conform to the guidelines provided by the roles we perform. When one does not conform to the social norms, it is considered abnormal behavior. For this assignment, I faced the challenge to disregard expectations of social roles and norms in society.

Consider a black person, or any other minority, who enters a room for an interview in hopes of earning a position within an aerospace company at an entry level position. Sitting across from him or her could be three white employees: possibly one from human resources, another was the area supervisor, and lastly the teams’ lead in the area looking to hire. Consider the applicant a black man who grew up in Southern Georgia; however, he then sat at a table in Norther California seeking employment. Understanding the difference in culture and region, the panel of interviewers diverge the conversational tone to accommodate the applicant. According to Ayoko, Härtel, and Callan (2002), “Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) examines the

Does the race/ethnicity of Saint Mary’s students affect the interactions to the Sodexo workers? This question was inspired through a book called, The Hungry Cowboy, by Karla A. Erickson, who participated in her own observations in a restaurant viewing the social interactions among the people in the restaurant. The idea of observing and participating in social observations involved more than just asking people questions or sending out a survey, it is actively being a part of the observation and interacting with others that are also being influenced by the social norms of the restaurant. Race/ethnicity at Saint Mary’s is an issue being ignored by many, but also being addressed in small ways which provokes an interesting concept in viewing interactions among the people who work for the students versus college students who may or may not take it for granted.

This is a campaign to stop lack of respect show to service users and to ensure that their dignity is maintained through good and positive service. It encourages challenging of poor service or lack of respect.

Traylor wrote, “I can help myself by serving others” (p 109). As a Christian, service is a common theme. Jesus Himself served people by healing them, showing them kindness, and physically serving them (ex. washing his disciples’ feet). I have also found through personal experience that acts of service help me feel good (not to mention others!). But the current culture is all about serving yourself. This lesson about serving stuck out to me because I currently have a job in retail. In the retail business, customers can be rude and sometimes get a little violent when they don’t immediately get what they want. There are some nice customers, but there are customers who follow the culture as

The following paper is an analysis of different societal conditions that impact the individual’s manners and the civility of the interaction between members of the society. The studies that were reviewed in the following paper cover many variables and scenarios that may affect the way a person interacts with another member of society.

Explain how different social, professional and cultural contexts may affect relationships and the way people communicate.

Over the course of the last several decades, the polarization of American society’s use of positive and negative social etiquette in all interactions has reached its greatest level in recorded history. Never before have we been more aware of the greater events taking place in the world, yet ignorant and uncaring of the smaller more personal intricacies of our daily lives. At least, this is what freelance writer Todd Schwartz would lead us to believe in his thought provoking paper “American Jerk”. The majority of statements Schwartz’ makes in this article are accurate for the majority of American society, yet he draws several flawed parallels and fails to provide the necessary information to prove his greater accusations. This results in

Judge Paul Heath Till’s essay “Morals, Manners, Customs, and Public Perception” has a very unique structure that helps the effectiveness of the authors argument. He starts off by giving reasons why people are lacking manners in everyday life. He also gives definitions of the words manner, manners, moral, and customs and then goes further to discuss the true meaning of these words. He also relates his life experiences and his personal beliefs to the topic at hand.

The interaction that I encountered happens ten years ago. When I moved to the United Stated, everything was still new to me. I had to adjust into many different things in the American's society in order to be at a social standard norm level here. In addition, my English was acceptable to get the message delivery to the other person. I clearly remembered one day as I was working out in a strange neighborhood that far away from my house, I started to get lost at a moment. I began to panic and could not figure out a way out to get to the main street. Therefore, my goal at that time was to get approach to one of the neighbor's house asking for a direction to get home. I want to interact with a complete stranger person and see how they would respond to help me. I chose this interaction because it gives chance to practice small talk with unacquainted person whenever there is an unexpected situation arises as well as to overcome the language barrier.

The staffs made us feel very uncomfortable so we decided to leave the store. In addition, I have noticed that people tend to stayed within their race and culture. For example, some white people stay within their race, they form relationships within their own race, they live in neighborhoods where white people predominate, and they have their own life style, and consider other races lower than theirs. This makes me think about my own Mexican culture. I have heard some of my Central American friends say that Mexicans think they are better than they are. I do not say anything but I know many Mexicans who have said that we are better than other cultures. I have to say we are different in the way that we do integrate and have close friendships with people from other cultures. Unlike some white people, who say they have close relationships with other races, when in reality they do not. Anderson and Collins, stated, “We want readers to understand that race, class, and gender are linked experiences, no one of which is more important than the other; the three are interrelated and together configure the structure of U.S. society.” (Anderson and Collins, 2010)

Epistemology addresses how we perceive the world and raises questions about both how we understand it and how we communicate this knowledge to others (Burrell and Morgan, 1985). The means to obtain knowledge about the world may vary with the social context and different phenomena; consequently, no single epistemology is right or wrong. Applied to service research, different epistemological approaches can be used to describe how to view the world and explain the activities and interactions that form the basis for the research processes.

UBS Group is a worldwide financial advice and solutions provider. One of the main reasons why UBS Group is standing in the leading position in the global financial market is that it embraces the concept of service design and as a result improves its organization’s performance.

A service encounter is simply defined as a customer’s actual interaction with a service company. Shostack (1985) defined service encounter as the period of time that a customer interacts with a service. Merritt (1977:198), a linguistic scholar, views a service encounter as an instance of face to face interaction between a server who is ‘officially posted’ in some service area, that interaction being oriented to the satisfaction of the customer’s presumed desire for some service and the server’s obligation to provide that service. The service encounter is also known as the ‘moment of truth’ in which the customer often develops a perception about the business and often creates a differentiation from other competitors. Solomon et al (1985)

We have learnt from Servicer Strategy that service means to provide guidance on design, and how to implement them according to the needs of the customer. From the service lifecycle Service Design comes after the service strategy (Annexure A). The service design is not limited to new services, but also to old services which are need to improve the service design which are necessary to maintain the value to customers. The main objective of service design is designing an innovative idea or to change an existing design into a live environment. To change a design or to implement there are several requirements. These requirements are taken from the service portfolios and they are analyzed. There are teams which will indulge in this process and