THE EFFECT OF SURPRISE ON CUSTOMER DELIGHT AND THE ROLE OF EXPLANATIONS FOR MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

Given the extremely competitive nature of the current global service industry, the transition from merely satisfying customers to delighting customers has become a strategic objective for many service firms. As previous studies have reported, many service organizations pleasantly surprise their customers in order to provide memorable consumption experiences.However, delighting customers through a pleasant-surprise strategy is likely to heighten expectations for future consumption experiences. Such raised expectations might negatively impact customer satisfaction and future purchase intentions, particularly when the surprise event does not occur on the next visit. This dissertation focuses on determining whether heightened expectations following a surprise-delight event decrease the effectiveness of surprise strategies in ensuring customer loyalty in the long term and on exploring whether this possible negative effect, can be mitigated by using explanations as part of a surprise-strategy design. It was expected that the presence of explanations would help maintain realistic expectations and prevent customers from considering surprises as a normal part of the service process.The empirical investigation of the hypotheses was conducted in two different service contexts: utilitarian and hedonic. Overall, the results support both the role of surprise in enhancing customer delight and the role of explanations in preventing an escalation of expectations in regard to future service. Therefore, this study can be used to help service firms effectively delight their customers over the long term without becoming engaged in a process whereby every shopping experience must include some kind of surprise experience. The relationship between expectations and customer satisfaction is also tested, and both the theoretical and managerial implications of the studys findings are presented.