Exploring the UK high street retail experience: is the service encounter still valued?

Resnick, S ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4471-7594, Foster, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2462-5155 and Woodall, T ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8949-5577, 2014. Exploring the UK high street retail experience: is the service encounter still valued? International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 42 (9), pp. 839-859. ISSN 0959-0552

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Abstract

Purpose: The relationship between service quality, the service encounter and the retail experience is explored within a changing UK retail environment.

Design: Data was gathered from forty customers and twenty staff of an established UK health and beauty retailer with a long standing reputation for personal customer service. A qualitative analysis was applied using both a service quality and a customer value template.

Findings: Customers focused more on the utilitarian features of the service experience and less on ‘extraordinary’ aspects, but service staff still perceived that the customer encounter remained a key requisite for successful service delivery.

Research implications: Recent environmental developments - involving customers, markets and retail platform structures - are challenging traditional service expectations.

Practical Implications: Retailers may need to reassess the role of the service encounter as part of their on-going value proposition.

Originality/value: There has been limited research to date on the perception of shoppers to the service encounter in a changing retail environment and to the evolving notions of effort and convenience.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
Creators:	Resnick, S., Foster, C. and Woodall, T.
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing
Place of Publication:	Bingley
Date:	2 September 2014
Volume:	42
Number:	9
ISSN:	0959-0552
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1108/ijrdm-05-2013-0090 DOI 432719 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 10:00
Last Modified:	31 May 2021 15:14
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6212

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