Impact of Communication during Service Encounters on Customer’s Perception of Organization Image

Communication is an interactive process for building a relationship between the organization and the customer. Effective communication during service encounters has a definite impact on customer’s perception of the organization. This qualitative study attempts to explore how the customer’s perception of the organization image is impacted by the way the service engineer communicates with the customer during a service interaction and the receptionist’s manner of lodging a complaint at the call centre. There has been considerable research on the impact of service quality on consumer perception leading to loyalty towards an organization. However, not much material was found on the impact of verbal and non-verbal communication on service quality. The study was carried out in organizations providing cooling solutions to both individual as well as institutional customers. Telephonic interviews were conducted with both these types of customers. To reinforce the veracity of the conclusions drawn from the first set of interviews, a second round of telephonic interviews were also conducted with customers of two other multinational companies dealing with the same product. An interesting revelation of the study was that most organizations did not revert to the customer for feedback once the complaint was attended to. A follow-up call after the service encounter would certainly enhance the image of the company in the eyes of the customers. It would not only show the organization’s commitment to quality but also increase customer loyalty through relationship building.