Tell It in the Newspaper: Sharing Critical Incidents through WOM

This study takes a look at critical incidents occurred in service encounters as experienced by the customers. This is done by analyzing word-of-mouth communications on a forum for public opinion sharing in a newspaper. Majority of the messages sent for the discussion forum concern single events that consumers have experienced in local stores, hospitals or other service scapes. Therefore, it is fruitful to investigate the writings in detail as they represent critical incidents that have exceeded the customers’ zone of tolerance one way or the other. The findings show that in the light of triggering WOM, personal touch of service people become more critical than other elements of service encounters (product, process, and physical evidence).