Service Provider Empathy Quality

What it measures

Six five-point Likert-type items measure the degree to which a customer perceives a service provider as trustworthy, accepting, sympathetic, caring, honest, and attentive. Developed for use in the patient-physician service context, the scale captures the social and relational aspects of professional service encounters. Items use a blank to allow the provider type to be specified by the researcher.

Response format

5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree)

Scale items

• I trust my __________ judgment.
• I feel my __________ accepts me for who I am.
• My __________ appears sympathetic to my problems.
• My __________ seems to care about me.
• My __________ is honest with me.
• My __________ is very attentive with me.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alphas ranged from .92 to .94 across samples, with a combined alpha of .93. CFA supported convergent and discriminant validity. Developed specifically for healthcare service encounters (physician/patient) but adaptable to other professional service contexts by substituting the appropriate provider label in the blanks.

Citation

Hausman, A. (2004). Modeling the patient-physician service encounter: Improving patient outcomes. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 32(4), 403–417.

Keywords