Customer control and evaluation of service validity and reliability

A control and attribution model of service production and evaluation is proposed. Service production consists of the stages specification (input), realization (throughput), and outcome (output). Customers may exercise control over all three stages of the service. Critical factors of service production are service validity (is the correct service produced?) and reliability (is the service correctly produced?). With more control, customers feel more responsibility for and satisfaction with the service outcome. If this is the case, there is less attribution of service outcomes to the service provider and more to the customer, as a party in the service production. Self-perceptions and perceptual and attributional biases play a self-serving role to justify customer service engagement. Attributions of service outcomes determine perceptions of service quality and behavioral responses such as (dis)satisfaction, complaints, repeat buying, and service loyalty. These customer control and evaluation processes are captured in a set of propositions, advanced to serve future research. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.