Stressful Life Events and Inter-Customer Social Support

Abstract

The majority of studies in services deal predominantly with the dyadic employee-customer interaction and its resulting effects upon perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, and post-purchase intentions (Bove et al. 2009). However, services literature appears to neglect the value of the customers’ presence and interactions in the creation and evaluation of service delivery (Verhoef et al. 2009). Although not all interactions between customers may be positive (e.g., Aronoff et al. 1992), services could benefit by fostering relationships among their customers.