How to Deal with Uncertainty While Interacting with Professional Services Clients: The Role of Communication Style and Uncertainty Disclosure

摘要

Professional services providers often have to make advice and take decisions without being sure which option will eventually work out and best address their clients' needs. For example, physicians face uncertainty when treating patients with non-specific or complex symptoms, amongst others, with regard to the choice between alternative medications and potential outcomes of alternative treatments (Blanch et al. 2009). To tailor the interaction to the needs of their clients, professional services providers need to know how and to which extent their clients want to be informed about such uncertainty. As the issue of dealing with uncertainty is embedded in a professional services provider's communication style, the latter should play a pivotal role when it comes to the question of whether and how uncertainty should be disclosed. However, previous research falls short of linking the concepts of communication style and uncertainty disclosure (e.g., Liu et al. 2015). This study addresses three research questions: (1) How should professional services providers deal with uncertainty during the service encounter? (2) What is the role of the professional services provider's communication style in this respect? (3) How do these two aspects affect the client's service encounter satisfaction, trust, and loyalty?