ISSN : 1229-0696
This research has two aims- first to describe how service provider and customer interact at a car maintenance shop with use of naturalistic inquiry. Secondly, it tries to identify dimensions that people use in appraising and interpreting behaviors of the other party. The inquiry reveals that customers tend to find out whether provider's behaviors were made on the basis of their interest in a long-term relationship or the greatest profit of the current case, and of craftmanship or exaggerated display of their skill. Customer's behaviors seem to be taken as an index of their trust level and potentional intention to become future customers. The authors also find out that there are several features of the situation that affect the dyadic relationship, such as customer's anxiety about his own car, a skill gap between the two parties, and intangibility of services.