Emotion Regulation at Service Encounters: Coping with the Behavior of Other Customers

Hospitality consumption often involves sharing the physical environment with other customers. The social nature of the service environment calls for a better understanding of the impact of other customers on a focal customer's consumption experience. In two studies, the current research examined consumers' emotional reactions to the behavior of others in a restaurant setting and explored the underlying emotion-regulation mechanism in coping with the behavior of others and its effect on encounter satisfaction. The results of the two experimental studies showed that, in general, other customers had a social inhibition effect on consumer behavior at service encounters, reflected in the reduced levels of emotional expressiveness and positivity of emotional responses. The results also suggested that coping moderates the effect of other-consumer-elicited emotional responses on encounter satisfaction: The effect is more pronounced when consumers engage in problem-focused coping. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings also are discussed.