Guests’ stereotyping and quality evaluations of service delivered by employees with disabilities: does service failure matter?

Prior studies have examined customers’ reactions to service provided by people with disabilities solely within normal service conditions. This study expands current research by examining the impact of various disability types and stereotyping on guests’ perceptions of service quality in a service failure context and by comparing the two service contexts (i.e. normal and failure). A controlled experiment was implemented, and results showed, in a service failure context, no significant differences on guests’ service quality perceptions and stereotyping, but with a small exception. Customer characteristics (ethnicity, religiosity and relationship to persons with disabilities) influenced the ways in which quality of service was stereotyped..