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From the Archives: The Lasting Power of One Positive Service Experience
When a consumer has relatively little personal experience with a service, positive information about a single employee can sway their overall interpretation of the service provider, leading them to believe that the firm's other service providers are similarly positive, according to a June 2003 Journal of Consumer Research article, titled "The Positivity Effect in Perceptions of Services: Seen One, Seen Them All?" Authors Valerie Folkes and Vanessa Patrick assert that a similar negative experience with a single service provider will be less likely to create similarly inclusive inferences about the overall negativity of the service firm.
Studies conducted by Folkes and Patrick showed significant variance between consumers' perceptions of products and services. Because there is relative homogeneity in consumers' experience with products, a positive or negative experience with a particular product is expected to influence overall perception, but because of the more "human" element involved in service industry experiences, it could be assumed that one positive experience would lose power given the implied heterogeneity. That is not the case. One amazing customer service experience -- or word of mouth about one amazing service experience -- can inform a consumer's overall impression of the service provider.