Murielle C. G. R. Câmara
Potiguar University, Brazil
E-mail: murielle@unp.br
Kleber Cavalcanti Nobrega
Potiguar University, Brazil
E-mail: klebercn@unp.br
Thereza A. B. S. Santos
University Center of Rio Grande do Norte - UNI-RN,
Brazil
E-mail: therezangelica@gmail.com
Submission: 09/06/2015
Revision: 24/06/2015
Accept: 28/06/2017
ABSTRACT
Hiring
a service is a moment of great importance once it builds perception of service
value and quality. Some companies may deal with that, assuming a greater
importance when elaborating their service contracts. Usually law professionals
elaborate these documents, but this may prioritize legal attributes, not
considering the customer service orientation, as well as the customers’ point
of view. In times of increasing on customer focus, market and service
orientation, a question can be posted: to what extent company contracts show
service or customer orientation? This paper compares the service orientation
degree for Cable TV contracts from five companies, based on a theoretical model
developed to this purpose. From a conceptual model for service-oriented
contract, four dimensions were assessed: physical aspects, reasonableness,
intelligibility and customer focus. After evaluation by eight judges, analyzing
the content validation index (CVI), it was found that the contracts show
moderate orientation for serving. Furthermore, results show that the five
surveyed company’s contracts showed a similar overall performance, i.e., none
stood out over the other. The study presents important practical efficacy, because it
can guide Cable TV companies to adopt improvement strategies in elaboration of
contracts, so that contractual instruments be would reviewed of clauses that
promote the sensation of better service to their customer. Thus, this
article directs managers to the aspects that deserve more attention, i.e.,
which dimensions require further refinement and serving orientation.
Keywords: Adhesion
Contracts, Service Orientation, Customer oriented contract; service-oriented
contract
1. INTRODUCTION
With
service sector great evolution in many countries all over the world, a global
change in focus of service provision has been noticed in last years,
considering the competitiveness in the market and the need for the survival of
the companies through periods of economic crisis. According to Kotler (2013),
surviving companies will be those that understand target markets’ needs and
expectations, and, so, stand more capable than others to ensure customer
satisfaction.
But
business contracts tend to include, more and more, clauses which put customers
in a dependent condition. Contracts carry on customers’ duties in a greater
proportion than their rights. This issue keeps relation with the use of the
sense for serving (NÓBREGA, 2010). The author points two different attitudes
for a company: to serve versus to be served.
Serving
oriented companies are those which put themselves in a condition to better
serve customers, having so, a customer serving orientation. Otherwise, there
are company’s products or self-oriented, transmitting an image that, when
attending people, they seem to be interested only in financial results from
transactions. This way, they act as if they want to be served by customers.
There
is not, yet, a widely accepted term for these kind of postures. It is tempting
make use of the term “servant contracts”, but word relates to servility,
slavery, inferiority. So, for the purpose of this paper, the terms “customer
service oriented contract”, and “serving orientation” will be preferably
adopted.
Considering the moment of contracting a
service, Marques (2005) highlights that, with industrial revolution and the
significant population increase, contracts tend to be, more and more, mass
contracts, signed as adhesion contract available to public in a uniform model,
with unilaterally fixed clauses by the economically stronger contractual
partner.
At
the same time, services management presents a current approach beyond the
simple service provision. The service package recognizes several dimensions
that go beyond the service itself and
analyze all aspects that permeate its installment, including accessories
aspects, operational and psychological process (FITZSIMMONS; FITZSIMMONS, 2005).
Moreover,
related to the sense of service, come the theoretical constructs for serving
oriented company and serving oriented processes, in which indispensable
characteristics that seek to facilitate user’s life, like informative aspects,
flexibility and customer focus (NOBREGA, 2009), have been considered.
So,
if by one side there is a tendency for serving customers more and more, towards
typified Silvestro’s (1992) professional service, on the other hand, mass
contracts seem to be more related to typified Silvestro’s mass services,
specially due to increasing volumes of customer contacts.
In
this context, this present research is motivated by the confrontation of these
two movements: to what extent operations with serving orientation matches
serving orientation on contracts establishment?
Thus,
this research presents a conceptual model for service oriented contracts
characterization, and has, as major objective, to evaluate the existence and
identify the level of serving orientation in adhesion contracts offered by Cable TV companies
operating in a determined region.
2. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
2.1.
Adhesion
contract under the perspective of the consumer’s right
Contract refers to a
bilateral legal act with at least one declaration of intent, which purpose is
to create, modify or provide extinction of rights and duties. Classification
related to this study refers to the categorization that considers the content
negotiation by distinct parts. In this aspect, there are the parallel
contracts, in which the involved parts have the opportunity to discuss
previously their clauses. In counterpoint, there are adhesion contracts, in
which terms are predetermined or predisposed, like in the case of standard
contract and contract forms. In these cases, one part imposes the negotiating
content, leaving the other part, the adherence, with only two options: to
accept or not to accept the standardized business content (TARTUCE, 2011).
Brazilian legal system,
with the Consumer Protection Code, reinforced the concept of contractual balance,
which reveals itself indispensable to the consumers relationships, considering
the usual practice of mass contracts, through which service customers adhere to
the terms and conditions established unilaterally by the supplier, without the
opportunity of discussing contracts’ content (BRAZIL, 2014).
It is noteworthy that,
in contractual material, due to the balance between the parts, the customers,
the consumers, service users, have the right to transparency and information at
the time of contract, as well as the of legal relationship. In this sense,
written adhesion
contracts will be drafted in clear terms and with ostensible and legible
characters, whose font size are not less than twelve, facilitating their
understanding by the consumer (BRAZIL, 2014).
Furthermore, among the Principles of Contract Right,
the Good Faith Principle stands out as it refers to the subjective concept of
fair conduct of the contracting parts, as a duty to be attached to the
obligations of the contract itself. According to Marques (2005), in contracts,
the verification of the contractual good faith concerns the analysis of
existence of abusive or excessively onerous clauses to the consumer, which in
some cases, are subject to nullity.
On the other hand, the duty of loyalty, clarity and
transparency do not mean burden to suppliers, since by legal imposition,
contracts must ensure correct, clear, accurate, visible and characteristics
like quality, quantity, composition, price, warranty, validity period and
origin, among other dates, as well as the risks posed to health and safety of
consumers (BRAZIL, 2014). Briefly, in the perspective of contractual protection
given to consumers, a good adhesion contract must include, in a perfect way,
four dimensions: Balance, Transparency, Clarity and Good Faith.
Balance dimension suggests the idea of equality of
rights and constant contract obligations, so that it is proportional in terms
of tax and duty to the customer and to the supplier. Transparency and Clarity
dimensions are part of the inherent supplier’s information duty, and remit to
highlight any clause that suggests consumer rights restriction, as well as the
facilitation of information, so that the customer gets full access to the terms
of the contract and, of course, for any service that he or she is hiring.
Finally, good faith, principle of contractual right and basic dimension
established by the Consumer Protection Code, reflects contractual duty of
loyalty on both sides to service provider, the good faith is guided by the duty to be faithful to contract
proposal, and not to offer excessive tax to contractor.
2.2.
Adhesion
contract under the perspective of management service
Service is an activity
or set of activities characterized by certain intangibility offered as a
solution to customers’ problems or needs (GRÖNROOS, 2009). To Lovelock, Wirtz
and Hemzo (2011, p. 21) services can be defined as "economic activities
between two parts, involving an exchange of value between seller and buyer in a
market".
Fitzsimmons and
Fitzsimmons (2005, p. 30) conceptualize service claiming that it refers to a
"perishable experience, intangible, developed for consumers who plays the
role of co-producer". To Parasuraman (2006), services are not objects, but
are provided through the performance of service providers. Thus, most services
cannot be counted, measured, inventoried, tested and verified before the sale,
to ensure quality. The referred author also states that, in the absence of
tangible evidence, based on the evaluation of quality, the consumers evaluate
other tips.
In Service Package,
proposed by Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons (2005), services present tangible and
intangible aspects under the tangible aspects, services are comprised of
installations and equipment (support facilities), in other words, the available
physical resources before offering the service and delivered materials
(facilitators goods), which would be provided materials during the provision of
service. Moreover, concerning the intangible aspect of service, service splits
in service process (explicit services), i.e., activities and execution stages
to attend customers’ needs and expectations, and service product (implicit
services) which would be the benefits, including psychological, which result
from the process of service provision.
According to Nóbrega
(2013), in a considerably special way, it is necessary to define service
provision product, i.e., establish what sensation is needed to influence the
consumer. Therefore, it is necessary to put oneself in the customer's place as
well as strengthening people training for the process of service provision.
There are several
important and decisive moments in the relationship established between the
service provider and the consumer. Among these important and decisive moments,
one stands out, namely, the act of hiring. Although many companies do not
consider it relevant, it is pacific that the act of hiring is, in many cases,
moments of intense interaction, where the consumer will come across different
nuances of the package that will make him or her decide whether to hire or
not.
Therefore, for the
contract to contribute to a positive psychological effect on the consumer, it
must meet conditions that remit reliability, clarity, information, security,
and fairness, among other sensations that benefit the customer on the act of
hiring. The quoted requirements makes up Servqual dimensions theoretical
construct proposed by Parasuraman, and Berry Zeithaml (1990), which applies to
a concept of a good contract under the perspective of service management.
In adhesion contracts, tangibility can be
verified when the contractual instrument contemplates the physical aspects,
considering that the client meeting with the referred aspects may not have
occurred at the time of contracting the service interpreting the reliability
dimension as the ability to meet the promised. It is verified that, for the
contract to achieve its purpose, to fulfill its promise, that is, establish and
clearly state the terms of an agreement, it is necessary to present a simple
language, conspicuous and legible characters, free of error and satisfactorily
explain the technical terms. The security for contract purposes can be glimpsed
when establishing a proportional number between clauses that present rights and
obligations to the contractor, considering that it interferes with consumer
expectations and his or her perspective of self-safety and self-conscious of
not having only obligations. On the other hand, contractual responsiveness can
be interpreted as a prediction deadline and the expectation that the service
will be held within a reasonable time, since it is solution to any customer’s
problem. And finally, empathy can be glimpsed in the contract when it
contemplates, a personalized service to its customers.
2.3.
Adhesion
contract under the perspective of sense of serving
Reflecting service
concept in an etymological context, the word “serve” suggests subservience,
slavery, servant character, among others, so, it is possible to glimpse the
necessity of the organization to adopt a “spirit of service,” where it is
possible to identify customers’ necessities and attend them consequently (NÓBREGA;
RIBEIRO; MARQUES, 2006).
Yoshimura (1996) calls
"spirit of service" the behaviors that reveal sensation of well being
to the customer, through readiness, cordial attitude, willingness to help,
which does not necessarily mean subservience or inferiority behavior.
Molnar (2007) states
that serving leadership relates to the concept of an ethic based on virtue,
which emphasizes the agent’s personal moral character. Nóbrega, Ribeiro and
Marques (2006, p.3) define serving as "performing activities with the aim
of providing benefit to those who are being served”. The strategy, with the aim
of satisfying the customers, therefore, inserts itself as the organization’s
behavior modification tool.
In this sense, it is
important that servant behavior in organizations develops itself spontaneously,
without sense of obligation and ensures transformation and personal growth of
those involved (ZEITHAML; BITNER, 2003).
So, what can be pointed
as servant behavior? Nóbrega (2009) lists some attributes for the servant
behavior, including responsibility, simplicity, renunciation, initiative,
willingness to help, welfare practice and utility.
In this sense,
analyzing the strategic option for the sense of serving, Nobrega (2009)
idealized the theoretical construct of serving oriented company, through which
the sense of serving is revealed by the union of six dimensions, namely,
servant behavior, service strategy, serving oriented products,
serving oriented processes, service culture and service leadership.
However, considering the act of
hiring as part of the service-process for contracts effects, it is relevant to
study the dimensions of serving oriented process in an adapted way. Thus, for
an adapted application of the theoretical construct for serving oriented
process to adhesion contracts, regarding orientation for serving specific
contract, the dimensions of simplicity, flexibility, customer focus and
information should be considered.
Nóbrega (2009) when dealing about
the sense of serving, presents, as an example for a book author: when writing a
text the author should keep in mind the clarity, objectivity of ideas and ease
of understanding by the reader. He should endeavor to make it easy and
affordable. The benefit of the reader is to understand clearly the content of
the read text. If the author makes use of serving sense, he will write the text
clearer and easier to understand.
For the purpose of a contract,
simplicity dimension, which in theoretical construct of the serving oriented
process suggests no formalities, complements clarity and transparency
requirement addressed by Consumer Rights.
About flexibility in contracts,
this can be interpreted with the prediction possibility of contractual clauses
that visualize unpredictable situations, without giving the customer excessive
burdens. In this aspect, the focus on customer, a contractual analysis, can be
glimpsed when the contract covers exhaustively their rights and not just their
obligations, in a way that there is a balance between rights and obligations.
Thus, the informative character,
present in the theoretical construct of the serving oriented process and
equally assured by the Consumer Protection Code, is reinforced by thesis
related to the sense of serving, since the information is indispensable,
including, for the success of service provision.
In synthesis, from the perspective
of service-process, it seems interesting that contractual clauses visualize unpredictable
situations, without giving the customers excessive burdens, inform the stages
of execution of the service and the required behaviors of the customer,
thoroughly present the rights of the contractor and are simple, direct,
objective, with a less elaborated language, to fulfill the enlightening role of
the service stage, namely hiring.
3. SERVICE ORIENTED CONTRACT THEORETICAL CONSTRUCT
The conceptual model of a
service-oriented contract is the result of analysis of the interfaces between
the serving oriented contract dimensions under the perspective of the Consumer
Right, Service Management and Sense of Serving. The Figure 1 shows the
Theoretical Construct of a serving oriented contract:
|
Theoretical Construct of aserving oriented
Contract |
|
DIMENSIONs and ATTRIBUTES |
|
DIMENSION: PHYSICAL ASPECTS A1. Contract includes
aspects of Physical Structure (Tangible Dimensions - Zeithaml, Parasuraman
and Berry, 1990; Adapted) A2. Contract includes
equipment used / needed (Tangible Dimensions - Zeithaml, Parasuraman and
Berry, 1990; Adapted) A3. Contract includes The
documents used / needed (Tangible Dimensions - Zeithaml, Parasuraman and
Berry, 1990; Adapted) A4. Contract includes
number of employees (Tangible Dimensions - Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry,
1990; Adapted) |
|
DIMENSION: REASONABLENESS A5. Proportionate number
of clauses which present rights and obligations to the client / contractor
(Security Dimension - Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990; Adapted); A6. Proportionality
between the rights and obligations of the contractor (Balance Dimension -
Marques, 2013 Tartuce, 2011 and CDC - Brazil, 2014); A7.Predictable situations
of unpredictability, without giving excessive burden to the customer
(Flexibility Dimension - Nobrega 2013 and Lopes Nobrega, 2013 Adapted); A8. Making contractual
cost of the contractor to be flexible. (Flexibility Dimension - Nobrega 2013
and Lopes Nobrega, 2013 Adapted); |
|
DIMENSION: INTELLIGIBILITY A9. Language simplicity
(Clarity Dimensions / Transparency- Marques, 2013 Tartuce, 2011 and CDC -
Brazil, 2014) A10. Legible contract and
conspicuous characters (Clarity Dimensions / Transparency - Marques, 2013
Tartuce, 2011 and CDC - Brazil, 2014) A11. Lettering in
readable size (Clarity Dimensions / Transparency - Marques, 2013 Tartuce,
2011 and CDC - Brazil, 2014) A12. Comprehensive
information on features, quality, quantity, composition, price, warranty,
terms of validity and origin, among other data, as well as on the risks posed
on health and safety, if any. (Clarity / Transparency Dimensions - Marques,
2013 Tartuce, 2011 and CDC - Brazil, 2014 A13. Contract objectivity
(Reliability Dimension - Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990; Adapted) A14. Technical terms
clarification (Reliability Dimension - Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990;
Adapted) A15. Process
clarification, with the explanation of the stages of execution of the service
(Information Dimension / Simplicity -Nóbrega 2013 and Lopes Nobrega, 2013
Adapted) A16. Customer conduct
explanations (Information Dimension / Simplicity Nobrega 2013 and Lopes
Nobrega, 2013 Adapted); A17. Harmful clauses
highlights to the customer (Clarity Dimensions / Transparency Marques, 2013
Tartuce, 2011 and CDC - Brazil, 2014 |
|
DIMENSION: CUSTOMER
FOCUS A18. Abusive terms
elimination (Good faith Dimension - Marques, 2013 Tartuce, 2011 and CDC -
Brazil, 2014); A19. Proposed service
with possibilities of execution as promised (Good faith Dimension - Marques,
2013 Tartuce, 2011 and CDC - Brazil, 2014); A20. Highlighting of
clauses that present rights to the client / contractor (Customer Focus
Dimension - Nobrega 2013 and Lopes Nobrega, 2013 Adapted); A21. Prediction deadline
(Responsiveness Dimensions / Empathy -Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990;
Adapted); A22. Reasonable time
prediction for service execution (Responsiveness Dimensions / Empathy
-Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990; Adapted); A23. Service
personalization prediction (Responsiveness Dimensions / Empathy -Zeithaml,
Parasuraman and Berry, 1990; Adapted); |
Figure 1: Theoretical construct of a serving oriented contract.
Source: 2014 Research. Marques (2013), Tartuce (2011), CDC (Brasil 2014), Nóbrega (2013), Lopes
e Nóbrega (2013), Zeithaml, Parasuraman e Berry (1990); Adapted
Physical aspects, part of the service tangible aspect,
consists on verification if the contract includes aspects of physical
structure, equipment, necessary documents, persons, specially for services
where such requirements are necessary and relevant.
Reasonability dimension is related
to analysis of balance and proportionality of clauses that deal with rights and
duties for the contractor. Apart from that, in the perspective that can be
considered reasonable, verification of an excessive burdensome to the customer
and the inclusion of clauses that protect, in some way, unpredictable
situations, without the cause of loss to the contractor, may be glimpsed to
this specific dimension.
However, intelligibility brings a
conceptual notion of that, which is intelligible, is something that is easily
understood, simple comprehension. Thus, it transmits clarity and accessibility
ideas. Therefore, it is the dimension that covers the type of contract
language, presence of conspicuous and legible characters, lettering size,
amplitude information, simplicity, objective character, explanation of
technical terms, information about the stages of service process, instructions
directed to client, highlights of harmful clauses to the contractor and
exemption of errors.
Finally, the proposed conceptual
model suggests a fourth and final dimension, called customer focus, which
refers to the concepts of good faith, responsiveness and contractual readiness.
It is justified by verification of abusive clause or that which presents
burdensome to customers, as well as analysis if contract thoroughly exposes
customers’ rights. It also includes study of loyalty of contractual proposal
and established deadline. Moreover, even if the proposed theoretical construct
is destined to adhesion contracts, elaborated unilaterally by organizations
providing service, it is somehow possible that, the contractual instrument
glimpse forms of service personalization, showing focus on serving the
customer.
Thus, based on the theoretical
model for service oriented contract, a research was carried out, which scaled the
degree for the sense of serving adhesion contracts proposed by companies
providing subscription TV service.
4. METHOD
This research was conducted
regarding 5 Cable TV companies, whose services are commercialized through
subscription, in order to analyze their adhesion contract profile. Companies
with greater activity in Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Norte were selected,
and their contractual instruments were analyzed, aiming to verify to what
extent company contracts show service orientation. Although the studied
companies also include, in their services overall offer, telecommunication and
mobile phone services, this research was limited to Cable TV services.
The analysis consisted of
evaluation of each adhesion contract, in total of five, by eight law professionals,
named judges. These judges were chosen by accessibility criteria, once this
study required a specialized knowledge (Law Graduation), and it would count
with deepen analyze. Although this context, some care was taken, such as: they
could not be professional related with any of the companies; they should be
graduated for more than 10 years; they should be preferable related to Law
teaching; they would not access the company names, minimizing possible bias.
There was a script with 4 dimensions, corresponding to 23 attributes,
related to the theoretical construct for the service-oriented contract (Figure
1). The research instrument provided, for each attribute, three options of
response, corresponding to: a. the
contract does not contemplate the attribute; b. the contract contemplates
moderately the attribute; c. the contract adequately contemplates the
attribute. Besides the attributes, there was an additional question, regarding
an overall evaluation about the contract level of serving orientation. A scale was used, going from 1.0 for option a
(does not contemplate), to 3.0 (adequately contemplates), presenting 2.0 for
the option “contemplates moderately”.
Data were collected through
disposal of printed forms instrument, and the researcher waited nearly for the
complete answer. Eventually some orientation was needed at the beginning of the
process, but the researcher took care in not discussing content of the
attribute. Considering that 23 attributes of 5 five companies should be
evaluated, an amount of 115 items were analyzed by each judge.
By opportune, taken the data from
the judges evaluations, it was noticed, initially, that all the 24 items
evaluated by the 8 judges obtained an Cronbach's alpha ranging between 0.722
and 0.762, alias, with data consistency rated as satisfactory (NUNNALLY, 1978).
To verify the concordance degree of
the judges (specialists) for the evaluated contracts, Kappa test was applied,
which resulted in a poor or regular concordance among the judges value 0.31),
considering the variations analysis and provided response (LANDIS; KOCH, 1997).
Thus, to give greater security to
the results, the Content Validation Index (CVI) was used, calculated by
comparing the individual assessment of a judge with the assessment of others,
calculating the CVI for each pair of judges (WALTZ; STRICKLAND; LENZ, 1991).
The overall average of CVI was
0.73, when the validation value cutoff point is above 0.78 or 9.0 (ALEXANDER;
COLLUCI 2011). So, some simulations for attributes exclusions were made. By
excluding A3, A4, A7, A18 and A20 attributes, a CVI of 0.81 was found,
attending referred minimum of 0.80 (DAVIS, 1992; GRANT; DAVIS, 1997) but this
meant eliminating 5 variables. So, finally with attributes A3, A4, and A7
exclusion, a CVI of 0.78 was obtained, attending referred recommendations (ALEXANDER;
COLLUCI 2011; POLIT; BECK, 2006; LYNN, 1986).
5. RESULTS
According to the CVI and the
overall evaluation of the requirements for Cable TV contracts, 41.71% of them
were considered adequate, presenting serving orientation, as it is shown in
Table 1.
Table 1: Content Validity
Index
|
Classification |
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
Contract does not contemplate |
159 |
16.58 |
|
Contract insufficiently contemplates |
400 |
41.71 |
|
Contract adequately contemplates |
400 |
41.71 |
|
Total |
959 |
100.00 |
Source: Research
From the overall 959 evaluations,
559 (58.29%) of the items presented an unsatisfactory analysis from the
evaluators, since they remit to aspects “not contemplated”, or “insufficiently
contemplated”. It is tempting to affirm that the researched contracts are
non-servant oriented, due to this level of non-contemplation. But it seems to
be recommendable conduct more researches, including more services for the same
studied companies, as well as the inclusion of other companies, is a future
research. It is also necessary register the innovative character of this
research.
However, even if the overall
evaluation has not revealed satisfaction in the contracts evaluation, after the
application of parametric statistical tests MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of
Variance) and Tuke test, it was found that, among the four dimensions
evaluated, two of them presented better performance: intelligibility and
customer focus. Table 2 shows the arithmetic averages, in decreasing order, of the
questions relating to the four dimensions:
Table 2:
Descriptive statistics of the researched dimensions
|
Dominances |
Minimum |
Maximum |
Median |
Mean |
SD |
CV |
|
Intelligibility |
2.00 |
2.89 |
2.56 |
2.52 |
0.27 |
10.56 |
|
Customer Focus |
1.83 |
2.83 |
2.33 |
2.31 |
0.26 |
11.41 |
|
Reasonableness |
1.25 |
3.00 |
2.00 |
1.97 |
0.47 |
23.92 |
|
Physical aspects |
1.00 |
2.75 |
1.75 |
1.81 |
0.44 |
24.38 |
Source: Research
Taking both mean values from Table
2, the best-ranked dimensions were: intelligibility (2.52), customer focus
(2.31). To both dimensions, standard deviation were smaller (0.27 and 0.26).
This reveals some concordance with literature regarding serving and costumer
oriented approach (NÓBREGA, 2013; GRÖNROOS, 2015, LEFAUVE, 1994; SHAMMA; HASAN,
2013). A possible justification for that may be the increasing care with
clearness, notably due to consumer rights respect and quality conscientiousness
by customers. It seems also revealing to look at the minimum values for both
dimensions, which were the biggest minimum values (2.00 and 1.83,
respectively), both bigger than the theoretical median (1.5).
On the other hand, physical aspects
ranked in fourth position (1.81) corroborates Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman’s
order of importance for Servqual dimension “physical aspects” (1991),
reasonable (1.97) and physical (1. 81) were observed.
Reasonableness and Physical aspects
dimensions, with average ranked in third and fourth positions (1.25; 1.00),
presented minimum values around the theoretical minimum (1.00), as well as the
biggest standard deviations (0.47; 0.44). A possible explanation for that is
the great variety for points of view on defining reasonableness –
reasonableness may be unreasonable? (ZEITHAML; BITNER, 2003; TARTUCE, 2011;
MARQUES, 2013), and, in case of “physical aspects”, the difficulty in making
service tangible (ZEITHAML; BITNER, 2003).
6. CONCLUSIONS
To serve versus to be served: what
is most present in service companies? Which one tends to be more present in
service companies contracts? This was the motivation for the present research.
Through joining two great research
fields - law and service management, this research faced the challenge of
constructing a theoretical construct and use it to evaluate the existence and
identify the level of serving orientation in adhesion contracts offered by
Cable TV companies operating in a determined region. Four dimensions compose
the proposed construct: Intelligibility, Customer Focus, Reasonableness and
Physical Aspects.
Results indicated that, as an
overview, the researched contracts presented low serving orientation, and that,
among them, none of the companies releases a contract that can be considered
best rated or best serving orientated.
On evaluating service oriented
contract dimensions, it was possible to identify that the dimensions pointed
out as better evaluation were Intelligibility and Customer Focus. On the other
hand, Reasonableness and Physical Aspects dimensions presented the lowest
serving orientation.
From the perspective of management
implications, the study presents important practical efficacy, because it can
guide subscription TV companies to adopt improvement strategies when
elaborating contracts, so that the contractual instruments can be fulfilled
with clauses that promote sensation of better service to their customer. At the
same time, the research presented results that can direct managers to the
aspect that deserves more attention, i.e., which dimensions require further
refinement and direction to serve, naturally according to each operation nature
and segment of service.
It was objective of the present
study to deal with adhesion contracts, as a first study on serving orientation.
Due to this reason, a segment of service was chosen: Cable TV. But there are
several other service segments, which also make use of adhesion contracts, like
credit card, bank account, health plans, life insurance and others. By
expanding the list of such organizations, the utilization of this theoretical
construct may be applied to other companies, other segments, and other
services, adopting and/or adapting the presented attributes.
The companies considered in this
researched also offer telecommunications and mobile phone services, it is
suggested that future researches evaluate the contract for the other provided
services.
Due to the innovative
characteristics of this research about service oriented contracts, it seems
important to point that frequent argumentations about the tendency to elaborate
law directional content, assuming a posture to defend providers, much more than
deliver clear information, describing service results and benefits to customers
might be a topic for research.
In this sense, the fact of not
having included customer point of view, in this first moment, can be defended
by the argument that contracts evaluation by law professionals would be a
representative starting point. But including customers, in a future moment, may
be an enrichment approach.
Finally, it is indicated that
future researches can analyze which dimensions and attributes are considered
more relevant to the general perception of the contracts like to analyze the
relevance of the service oriented contract to the customer and the influence of
contracts on service quality.
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