Humour at the opening and closing phases of service encounters in small cafeterias and bars in Seville

Abstract

In an interactive context like service encounters, humour becomes essential because of the positive feelings that it generates. These contribute to an amicable ambiance and tighten bonds of union. Hence, humour greatly impacts customer satisfaction, revisit intention and, ultimately, customer loyalty. Although individual skills and sense of humour come into play, awareness of the role of humour often prompts many baristas and customers to use it in their transactions. Its various forms and functions in distinct service encounters have already received some attention, but its use at the opening and closing phases of these encounters with a phatic purpose still remains an underexplored issue. This chapter will compare data from two previous studies in order to determine the types of humour wherewith such encounters were opened and closed at small establishments in Seville. It aims to ascertain how humorous tokens achieved proximity and strengthened social relationships, and to elucidate whether their use to create phatic communion was affected by factors like the interlocutors’ age and the time segment when the encounters took place.