Interaction Transition: How Managing Dynamics of Professional Service Conversations Influences Advice Adherence

Abstract

For many professional services, advice adherence is an important service outcome determining the service success for both customers and service providers. While service conversations are the main vehicle for value cocreation and greatly influence advice adherence, robust research shows that typical professional service conversations lead to low advice adherence. Drawing from common ground theory and power approach-inhibition theory, we examine how managing dynamic change in professional service conversations influences advice adherence. We use the term “Interaction transition” to capture the extent of change from providers’ dominance during the problem diagnosis-advice development stage to customers’ dominance during the advice deliberation stage. We show that interaction transition improves advice adherence because it enhances common ground of mutual understanding and shared knowledge. Providers’ (technical- vs. customer-) focused consultation and customers’ prior knowledge moderate this effect. Using mixed methods of analytical modeling of naturally occurring doctor-patient conversations, controlled and field experiments, we validate the model in contexts of healthcare, financial services, and fitness-wellness counseling. The findings offer important theoretical and managerial implications for managing professional service conversations and advice adherence. Keywords: professional service conversations, advice adherence, process dynamics.