The roles of co-clients and their influence on overall satisfaction during the service experience

The objective of this article is to show how co-clients – clients interacting with the customer during the service experience but unknown before it– impact customer satisfaction with service delivery. This exploratory research is based on a mix of qualitative methods in the context of rail transport and fitness classes. It identifies six roles that have an impact on satisfaction and four mechanisms by which these roles influence satisfaction. Co-clients give information about the forthcoming service, set the standards for social rules, provide a standard for comparison, distract, perturb and help to participate. Through these roles, other customers impact satisfaction by modifying customer expectations and perceived service performance, as well as perceived service equity. The authors propose situational variables that moderate this relationship.