Serving the Highly Vulnerable Customer: The Awareness of Transformative Service Behaviors in Sensitive Populations

The purpose of this study is to identify ideal behaviors and attitudes that are needed by service providers that cater to highly vulnerable populations. While the conceptualization of customer vulnerability has been widely debated in business, marketing, sociology, and psychology scholarly literature, there has been little research conducted that specifically investigates how service providers should treat individuals who are highly vulnerable. Specific to this research, highly vulnerable customers are defined in this research as those consumers who participate in a service exchange with a firm during a time of individual or shared medical, physical, emotional, or spiritual necessity. Interactions between service providers and highly vulnerable customers have the potential to become transformational experiences for both parties, in that the provider and recipient may be left emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually changed as a result. Therefore, additional focus is needed in this area to increase awareness for transformational experiences in service as a result of exchanges between service providers and customers.