A Perceptual Process Model of Customer Service Based on Cybernetic/Control Theory

A simple theory-based integrative model of the behavioral process of customer service is presented. The model is rooted in the principles of cybernetics and general systems theory. In the model, the supplier and customer are described as 2 separate but interdependent cybernetic systems. The supplier and customer are tied to each other by symmetric reciprocal behavior. Each system is willing to regulate itself in order to influence the other. This particular model gives more attention to the portrayal of the supplier as the creator of customer service stimuli and the customer as the cybernetic system that responds to the stimuli. The most important contribution of the proposed model is in its conceptualization of customer service from a relatively comprehensive and behavioral perspective.