A Generic Analysis of Service Encounters in Greengrocers’ and Grocery Shops in Bangladesh

Abstract

The research aims at investigating and describing the generic structure of staging of service encounters in the context of Bangladesh in the light of Halliday and Hasan’s (1985) and Ventola’s (1987) service encounter frameworks. A total of 20 service encounters (10 from greengrocers’ shops and 10 from grocery shops located at Shantinagar Bazar in Dhaka, Bangladesh) were collected as the primary research data. The service encounters were audio-recorded and transcribed using Roman English, and some commonly used Phonetic Transcript Symbols by following Jeffersonian (2004) Transcript Symbols. The frequency and infrequency and linguistic and non-linguistic enactment of different stages were analyzed in comparison with the existing literature in this field. The results show that Sale Enquiry (SE), Sale Request (SR), Sale Compliance (+SC), Purchase (P), and Goods Handover (GH) are the frequent/obligatory stages, and Greeting (G), Sale Initiation (SI), Sale Compliance (-SC), Resolution (R), Purchase Closure (PC) and Finis (F) are infrequent/optional stages. The stages of SR, SE, S, P, PC and GH in greengrocers’ and grocery shops consisted of the same pattern, features, and almost the same frequency. S stage is always linguistically realized. -SC is more frequent in the service encounters in the grocery shops compared to greengrocers’ shops. Although the R stage is present in only 10% of the service interactions taking place at the greengrocers’ shops, it is 30% higher in the grocery shops. The infrequent presence of interpersonal talks (G and F), which is in line with the findings in the existing literature in the context of South, East, and South-East Asia, indicates a lack of conversational politeness among Bangladeshi customers and service providers besides their inclination towards task-focused service encounters. The stages that were mostly realized non-linguistically were GH, P and PC, and the stages of G, SI, SR, SE, -SC, S, R, and F are exchanged linguistically every time. +SC is realized both linguistically (85%) and non-Gomes viii linguistically (40%) in the service encounters. Although the presence of non-verbal enactment of stages supports existing researchers’ identification of Bangladesh as falling under the category of high-context culture, further research is required for drawing a comprehensive outline of the role of non-verbal communication in service encounters in the context of Bangladesh and to strengthen the classification of Bangladesh as a high-context culture.