Managing Nongranting of Customers' Requests in Commercial Service Encounters

Customers' requests and their satisfaction are the primary goal and purpose of interaction in commercial service encounters. Nongranting of service requests, however, is inevitable on some occasions, and its management can be a significant problem. This article examines how agents design their conduct when customers' requests cannot be granted. Using data from calls to an airline service, this article shows that agents can develop customers' requests in a grantable direction in and through sequences that make the request itself. They may shape customers' expectations in advance, rather than failing to provide the service overtly, so that customers will be made to request what the organization can provide.