Critical Incident Technique as an Instrument for Assessing the Service Quality in a Chosen E-Shop

Abstract

Abstract The development of e-commerce and communication technologies has allowed changes in the traditional trading system, currently customers can use both stationery shops and e-shops. People no longer need to leave their homes to go shopping, even everyday groceries. They can use the e-shop at any time of day or night, at home or at work. There are no queues, they can get to know other people’s opinions, compare products and services with each other. They can shop while sitting on the sofa in front of the TV and sipping tea. Shopping can be done in the e-shop up to thousands of kilometers away. Especially in the current Covid-19 pandemic, online shopping has become very popular. The aim of the paper was to assess the quality of services offered by the research e-shop. During the research the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) was used. A direct interview was conducted with the customers of the research e-shop who, after using its services, agreed to share their impressions and opinions. They were supposed to describe incidents or situations related to the research e-shop, which they have in their memory, and which caused special satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The analysis allowed to indicate that less than 50% of the incidents described by the customers were positive incidents that cause customers’ high satisfaction, which is not a good situation for the research e-shop. Improvement actions are needed.