Skip to main content

Influencing Customer Experience by Activating Relationship Norms

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers (AMSWMC 2018)

Abstract

There is a significant relationship between the relational models used by customers and the way they respond to organisational interventions and services. A clear relationship exists between relational models and customer experience in terms of consumption emotions, customer satisfaction, and recommendation intention. It is therefore obvious that organisations that want to improve their customers’ experience should seek tools that allow them to activate or influence relational models. A number of studies already showed that it is possible to activate relationship norms by priming customers with specific words and images. However, all of these studies used fictional relationships between individuals or between organisations and individuals. In our study we investigated the opportunities that organisations have to activate relational models and customer experience by priming existing customers with specific words and images. Our findings demonstrate that it is possible to activate or influence relationship norms among existing customers, but only when the cognitive capacity of the customer is limited and only if the images used fit within the intrinsic motivation of the customer to enter into the relationship with the organisation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aggarwal, P. (2004). The effects of brand relationship norms on customer attitudes and behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(1), 87–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 230–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research – conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2003). Consumer-company identification: A framework for understanding consumers’ relationships with companies. Journal of Marketing, 67(2), 76–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biber, P., Hupfeld, J., & Meier, L. L. (2008). Personal values and relational models. European Journal of Personality, 22(7), 609–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunner-Sperdin, A., & Peters, M. (2009). What influences guests’ emotions? The case of high-quality hotels. International Journal of Tourism Research, 11(2), 171–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dijksterhuis, A., Smith, P. K., van Baaren, R. B., & Wigboldus, D. H. J. (2005). The unconscious customer: Effects of environment of customer choice. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(3), 193–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiske, A. P. (1991). Structures of social life: The four elementary forms of human relations. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haslam, N., & Fiske, A. P. (1999). Relational models theory: A confirmatory factor analysis, 6(2), 241–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaltcheva, V. D., & Parasuraman, A. (2009). The PRR framework: A social-psychology-based framework for analyzing retailer-customer interactions. Journal of Business Research, 62(6), 601–608.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaltcheva, V. D., Winsor, R. D., & Patino, A. (2011). Alan P. Fiske’s relational models framework: Applications to customer’s relationships with service marketers. In Customer relations (pp. 1–37). New York: Nova Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaltcheva, V. D., Winsor, R. D., & Parasuraman, A. (2013). Do customer relationships mitigate or amplify failure responses? Journal of Business Research, 66(4), 525–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karremans, J. C., Stroebe, W., & Claus, J. (2006). Beyond Vicary’s fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(6), 792–798.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGraw, A. P., & Tetlock, P. E. (2005). Taboo trade-offs, relational framing, and the acceptability of exchanges. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(1), 2–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pine, J., & Gilmore, J. H. (1999). The experience economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pol, H. G. (2017). Mastering Meaningful Customer Connections (doctoral thesis. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands). ISBN 978-90-365-4345-3. Retrieved from https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/12814797

  • Reichheld, F. F., & Markey, R. (2011). The ultimate question 2.0: How net promotor companies thrive into a customer-driven world. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roccas, S., & McCauley, C. (2004). Values and emotions in the relational models. In N. Haslam (Ed.), Relational models theory: A contemporary overview (pp. 263–285). Mahwah, NK: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, B. H. (2003). Customer experience management. A revolutionary approach to connecting with your customers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S., & Wheeler, J. (2002). Managing the customer experience: Turning customers into advocates. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Front Cover. Financial Times Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic intervals for indirect effects in structural equations models. In S. Leinhart (Ed.), Sociological methodology 1982 (pp. 290–312). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuk, M. A., Verlegh, P. W. J., Smidts, A., & Wigboldus, D. (2009). Sales and sincerity: The role of relational framing in word-of-mouth marketing. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19(1), 38–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Bos, K., Peters, S. L., Bobocel, D. R., & Ybema, J. F. (2006). On preferences and doing the right thing: Satisfaction with advantageous inequity when cognitive processing is limited. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 273–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verhoef, P. C., Lemon, K. N., Parasuraman, A., Roggeveen, A., Tsiros, M., & Schlesinger, L. A. (2009). Customer experience creation: Determinants, dynamics and management strategies. Journal of Retailing, 85(1), 31–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vohs, K. D., Mead, N. L., & Goode, M. R. (2006). The psychological consequences of money. Science, 314(5802), 1154–1156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wan, L. C., Hui, M. K., & Wyer, R. S. (2011). The role of relationship norms in response to service failures. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(2), 260–277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harald Pol .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Academy of Marketing Science

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Pol, H., Galetzka, M., Pruyn, A.T.H. (2019). Influencing Customer Experience by Activating Relationship Norms. In: Rossi, P., Krey, N. (eds) Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers. AMSWMC 2018. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02568-7_56

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics