Guest article by Maarten Volkers, finalist of the 2026 SERVSIG Best Dissertation Award.
Research on negative service encounters commonly assumes that customers remain voluntary participants and can leave when an experience becomes unsatisfactory. In many services, however, this assumption does not hold. Customers may be physically unable to exit, depend on the service outcome, or perceive leaving as socially inappropriate or psychologically costly. Ignoring this lack of perceived choice limits our understanding of why certain service encounters become particularly harmful and why customers sometimes continue participating despite wanting to leave. In my cumulative dissertation, comprising three related papers, I examine how customer lock-in emerges during service encounters, how it affects well-being, and how service providers can respond through service design [1].
Conceptualization of lock-in and effects on well-being
The first paper conceptualizes customer lock-in as a subjective experience at the level of individual service encounters [2]. Customers may feel locked in because of physical restrictions, dependency on the service, psychological barriers, or social expectations. These factors can arise across a wide range of services and may reinforce one another as the encounter progresses. The decisive issue is therefore not whether exit is objectively possible, but whether customers perceive it as a realistic and acceptable option within their particular circumstances.
This perspective draws attention to the perceived freedom to exit as a fundamental but previously underexplored element of the service experience that shapes customer well-being. The findings show that when customers feel compelled to stay, their autonomy and perceived control are reduced. In more severe situations, this can result in feelings of powerlessness, helplessness, and captivity. Lock-in can therefore intensify the adverse effects of a service problem beyond dissatisfaction alone. Customers may draw on different coping responses to maintain some sense of control; depending on the situation, however, service providers also need to support them in protecting or restoring their well-being.
Causes and effects of social lock-in
The second paper develops the concept of social lock-in [3]. It demonstrates that customers may remain in an unsatisfactory encounter even when they are physically free to leave because they anticipate disapproval from employees or other customers. This effect is shaped by the service setting, previous interactions, and customers’ sensitivity to social evaluation. Settings with clear behavioral expectations can make leaving appear impolite or embarrassing. Social norms thus have an ambivalent function: they coordinate behavior and make service processes predictable, but they can also constrain customers’ autonomy and expose them to experiences they no longer wish to continue. Social lock-in consequently extends explanations of customer behavior beyond economic costs and highlights the institutional and relational character of service encounters.
Alleviating lock-in in healthcare
The third paper examines healthcare, where patients are often unable to exit because of their medical condition [4]. It shows how organizational citizenship behavior by frontline employees can improve such inherently constrained encounters. Small gestures that respond to the patient as a person can create brief but meaningful moments of joy. These interactions support patients’ relatedness, autonomy, dignity, and trust and may also improve their willingness to participate in care. At the same time, they can strengthen employees’ sense of competence, fulfillment, and professional meaning. The paper shows that such behaviors depend on organizational conditions that provide employees with sufficient discretion, time, supportive leadership, and the ability to establish appropriate boundaries.
Implications for service design
Taken together, the dissertation advances a well-being-oriented understanding of negative service encounters. It shows that the perceived ability to leave is central to how customers experience a service. For managers, this means that lock-in should be considered explicitly across the service encounter. Where exit is possible, providers can reduce lock-in by offering flexibility, communicating exit options, and reducing unnecessary social pressure. Where exit is physically impossible, providers should focus on transparency, predictability, physical comfort, empathy, and credible signs that employees are acting in the customer’s interest. Service design should therefore address not only the delivery of the intended service outcome, but also the degree of freedom, control, and interpersonal support customers experience during service encounters.
Maarten Volkers
Research associate
Witten/Herdecke University
[1] Volkers, Maarten (2025), Customer Lock-in During Service Encounters, University of Hagen depository [DOWNLOAD]
[2] Fliess, Sabine / Volkers, Maarten (2020), “Trapped in a service encounter: Exploring customer lock-in and its effect on well-being and coping responses during service encounters”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 79-114. [DOWNLOAD]
[3] Volkers, Maarten (2021), ““Can I go or should I stay?” A theoretical framework of social lock-in during unsatisfactory service encounters”, Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 638-663. [DOWNLOAD]
[4] Volkers, M. (2026). Small gestures, big meaning: how healthcare staff engage in patient-directed organizational citizenship behavior to create shared moments of joy. Journal of Service Management, online first. [DOWNLOAD]
