Fair service

This article first briefly reviews the status of behavioral and social science research on fairness. Then, the results of research on service firm customer perceptions of fairness in four service businesses (fast food and fine dining restaurants, banks and a physician's office) are presented. Results reveal that three fairness themes previously noted in research on fairness emerge strongly when customers are asked to report on service experiences they considered to be fair. The three fairness themes that emerged were: outcome fairness concerning the quality of the core service itself (e.g., food, medical care), procedural fairness concerning service delivery (e.g., timeliness, flexibility) and interactional fairness concerning interpersonal relationships with service deliverers (e.g., friendliness, courtesy). The research also showed that 16 fairness principles are subsumed by these three major fairness themes and that these 16 principles generalize across the service businesses studied. The article presents examples of each of the 16 principles that make up the three major themes. In addition, correlational results from questionnaire research (previously reported) designed to operationalize the principles and themes presented here are reviewed. These results reveal that the three fairness themes each contribute independently to customer satisfaction and customer intentions to return for additional service. Finally, some management implications of the results are noted.