Assessing the Theatrical Components of the Service Encounter

The relative influence of setting, employees, other customers, and overall performance of a service on customers’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the service organization was the focus of this study. The results revealed that some service components were more important in customer assessments of satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Furthermore, three different segments of customers were discovered. While each segment differed in terms of the importance placed on the four service components, the segments did not possess distinct demographic profiles. The implications of these findings are then discussed.