Spotlight on customization: An analysis of necessity and sufficiency in services

This study aims to advance the service management literature by further illuminating the relationships between service employees' adaptive behaviors and customer satisfaction. Using data from a survey of 349 customers of an insurance company, this study employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to examine how distinct levels of service-offering adaptive behavior and interpersonal adaptive behavior relate to customer satisfaction. The results show that interpersonal adaptive behavior is a necessary condition or, in other words, a prerequisite for high customer satisfaction. In addition, the results show that a high level of service-offering adaptive behavior is a sufficient condition or, in other words, a guarantee for high customer satisfaction. These findings improve the understanding of the explicit connections between customization approaches and satisfaction in services and help guide service managers in developing effective and efficient service designs.