The customer service-encounter cyclical process and its impact on the customer

This is a conceptual paper that examines the effects of the customer service encounter on customers’ perceptual states. A cyclical process comprising five phases is proposed, with the main constructs of each phase being identified. A key element in all five phases is the persona of the customer, an element that ensures that every encounter, however uniform in principle, is perceived differently. The effect of changes made on customers various perceptual states as they proceed through the process is also acknowledged, which in turn affects the future purchase behaviour of each customer. The contribution of the paper is the five part model which describes the process in five phases, the holistic perspective of the customer service encounter cycle, and the role of persona and the changing perceptual states of the customer.