CUSTOMER CONTACT AND THE EVALUATION OF SERVICE EXPERIENCES - PROPOSITIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DESIGN OF SERVICES

A contingency framework is developed as a means of understanding the r elationship between the level of customer contact and service satisfac tion. Level of contact is defined as the extent of interpersonal inter action between the service customer and the service provider's boundar y personnel. Consistent with Oliver (1997), perceived service satisfac tion reflects the customer's judgment that the service delivered a pla usible level of consumption-related fulfillment. The article offers a series of research propositions derived from prior research and writin gs from the marketing, psychology, and operations literatures. Implica tions for the design of service strategies in efforts to improve custo mer satisfaction are also discussed. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.