Purpose

The inherent characteristics of professional services (i.e. high in credence properties, customized and featuring information asymmetry) often cause difficulties for clients to confidently evaluate technical outcomes before, during or even after service delivery. This results in considerable client psychological discomfort. This study aims to blend a revised social interaction model and uncertainty reduction theory to investigate the role that service provider’s interpersonal communication style plays in establishing client psychological comfort and satisfaction in a health-care context.

Design/methodology/approach

The study draws on cross-sectional data collected from 355 hospital patients following visiting a physician plus an experimental design in an Eastern culture (Thailand).

Findings

The study reveals three key findings. First, an affiliative communication style is positively associated with psychological comfort, but not so a dominant communications style. When both styles are presented, the high-affiliative style overshadows the low-dominant style and creates the highest psychological comfort. Second, clients’ perceptions of professional’s affiliative and dominant styles influence psychological comfort differentially under varying conditions of clients’ cognitive social capital, collectivist value-orientation but not service criticality. Third, a competing model suggests psychological comfort acts as a partial mediator between affiliative communication style and satisfaction.

Research limitations/implications

To generalize the findings, further studies might be conducted in other professional services and in individualist Western cultures.

Practical implications

The findings have important managerial implications for the appropriate use of communication style to build psychological comfort and engage clients of professional services firms.

Social implications

The findings shed light on the important role of an everyday social function – interpersonal communications and how this impacts client psychological comfort and satisfaction.

Originality/value

This is one of the few studies in a services context that examines the impact of professionals’ communications style. Moreover, it examines the impact of cultural value-orientation, cognitive social capital, service criticality in moderating the communications style – client psychological comfort relationship.

中文翻译：

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专业人士的人际沟通方式：在建立客户心理舒适度方面是否重要？

目的

专业服务的内在特征（即高可信度、定制化和信息不对称性）往往导致客户难以在服务交付之前、之中甚至之后自信地评估技术成果。这导致相当大的客户心理不适。本研究旨在将修订后的社会互动模型和不确定性降低理论相结合，以研究服务提供者的人际沟通方式在医疗环境中建立客户心理舒适度和满意度方面的作用。

设计/方法/方法

该研究利用了从 355 名医院患者就诊后收集的横断面数据以及东方文化（泰国）的实验设计。

发现

该研究揭示了三个主要发现。首先，亲和沟通风格与心理舒适度呈正相关，但不是占主导地位的沟通风格。当两种风格都呈现时，高亲和风格掩盖了低主导风格，创造了最高的心理舒适度。其次，在客户认知社会资本、集体主义价值取向而非服务批判性的不同条件下，客户对专业从属风格和主导风格的感知对心理舒适度的影响存在差异。第三，竞争模型表明心理舒适度在亲和沟通方式和满意度之间起到了部分中介作用。

研究限制/影响

为了概括这些发现，可能会在其他专业服务和个人主义的西方文化中进行进一步的研究。

实际影响

研究结果对于适当使用沟通方式来建立心理舒适度和吸引专业服务公司的客户具有重要的管理意义。

社会影响

研究结果阐明了日常社会功能的重要作用——人际沟通以及这如何影响客户心理舒适度和满意度。

原创性/价值

这是在服务环境中检查专业人士沟通方式影响的少数研究之一。此外，它还考察了文化价值取向、认知社会资本、服务关键性在调节沟通风格——客户心理舒适关系中的影响。