Implementation and Outcomes of Customer Value: A Dyadic Perspective

This study examines the concept of customer value based on the views shared by service firms and their consumers. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, the study reveals customer satisfaction and retention as outcomes of front-line service employees' value delivery practices. Our results suggest that service employees' efforts to deliver customer value, even when based on a dyadic view, do not necessarily lead to customer retention. Rather, customers become more loyal when the value provided by service employees is matched by consumers' satisfaction. In other words, satisfaction is an important and necessary mediating variable between employees' efforts and customer retention.     

The effect of employees' politeness strategy and customer membership on customers' perception of co-recovery and online post-recovery satisfaction

Customer participation is crucial for online service providers to gain and maintain competitive advantages through service recovery. Focusing on the interactive nature of customer participation, this study explored the relationships among employees' politeness strategies, customer membership, perceived co-recovery, and online post-recovery satisfaction. We found that perceived co-recovery was significant for online post-recovery satisfaction. Compared to non-members costumers, members' perceived co-recovery was more positive. Finally, member customers preferred employees to adopt positive politeness strategies, whereas non-member customers preferred negative ones. This study provides valuable suggestions for online service providers to improve online recovery performance.     

High-involvement human resource practices,affective commitment,and organizational citizenship behaviors

Although understanding the concept of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in a service context is important, very few studies have investigated what motivates frontline service employees to exhibit such behaviors. This study examines how high-involvement human resource (HR) practices influence affective commitment, which contributes to citizenship behaviors in service settings from the employees' point of view. Based on previous studies, this study proposed a conceptual model and hypothesized that five constructs of HR practices (i.e. recognition, empowerment, competence development, fair rewards, and information sharing) facilitate the development of frontline employees' affective commitment. This kind of organizational commitment in turn contributes to OCB (i.e. loyalty, participation, and service delivery). Data were collected from 172 contact employees of Taiwanese restaurants. The result indicated that high-involvement HR practices play an important role in determining contact employees' affective commitment. Moreover, affective commitment was found to be an effective linkage between high-involvement HR practices and contact employees' citizenship behaviors.     

Employees' overestimation of functional and relational service quality: A gap analysis

This study extends previous research on gap analysis of service quality by including not only functional service quality but also relational benefits. To this end, a field study was carried out in 36 hotels and 35 restaurants. The samples consisted of 213 employees and 657 customers. A questionnaire format was used to measure both functional and relational service quality, as well as customers' loyalty. When comparing employee and customer perceptions, gaps potentially range from ‘overestimation’ (employees' perceptions are greater than customers' perceptions) to ‘underestimation’ (customers' perceptions are greater than employees' perceptions). In general, the results indicated that the employees surveyed overestimated the service quality they offer to customers, although gaps were greater for certain service attributes than for others. In addition, some gaps were more related to customer loyalty than others. The findings also showed that employees' overestimation of relational benefits plays a moderating role, increasing the negative relationship between employees' overestimation of functional service quality and customers' loyalty. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed further in this paper.     

Service quality and the congruency of employee perceptions and customer expectations: The case of an electric utility

Understanding how the quality of customer service is impacted by employees is essential to managing and improving customer service quality. This article develops a model that looks at the relationship between a series of two important customer service gaps. The first series of gaps (service provider gaps) is a result of the difference between consumers' and employees' expectations based on various dimensions of the customer service encounter. The second series of gaps (service quality gaps) occur when a difference exists between consumer expectations and the service they actually receive based on specific aspects of the customer service encounter. This study found a positive significant relationship between these two series of gaps. This significant relationship provides empirical evidence as to the importance of keeping employees informed about the expectations of consumers. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The role of organizational service climate in generating control and empowerment among workers and customers

Previous studies have found a relationship between service climate and customers’ satisfaction. This paper presents two studies that used structural equation modeling to examine the role of control and empowerment in mediating this relationship. In the first study, questionnaires were administered to 113 pairs of customers and service workers. The results show that service climate is related to a customer's satisfaction through the mediation of a service worker's self-reported control of the service situation. In the second study, the service worker's sense of empowerment was predicted with service climate and the supervisor's empowering behavior. The data was gathered with questionnaires administered to 255 workers in service roles. Service climate was found to have a positive effect on empowering leadership behaviors of the service worker's supervisor which, in turn, enhance the service worker's sense of empowerment. The results are discussed in regard to the role of control and empowerment in service organizations.     

Innovation patterns and their effects on firm performance

This study aims to identify various innovation patterns and understand their effects on firm performance across business service sectors. By collecting empirical data from 198 Korean business services firms, we explore these firms’ major innovation patterns, conceptualized as combinations of different service innovation dimensions: service concept, service delivery, customer interaction, and technology. Then, in accordance with the innovation patterns they display, we group these firms into four clusters: ‘service delivery-based high-technology', ‘service delivery and customer interaction-integrated', ‘customer interaction-based high-technology', and ‘strongly balanced’ innovators. Last, we investigate whether these patterns influence firm performance. Our findings are three-fold: (1) the innovation patterns in business service firms result from the creation of new combinations of major service innovation dimensions, (2) four independent innovation patterns emerge in business service firms, and (3) these patterns lead to different levels of firm performance. Practically, our findings highlight the importance of highly qualified employees, customer interaction, and technology in improving financial performance.     

The authentic service employee: Service employees' language use for authentic service experiences

This study analyzes how service employees' language use influences the authenticity of a service. The extant service literature on language use remains exclusively focused on the customer's perceptions of first language use in direct communication. Shifting the focus to the service employee, this paper posits that language could exert a wider influence, contributing both to how customers perceive the authenticity of the service and the entire service experience. Analyzing language use in service encounters, the paper addresses this research gap in the literature from the perspective of the service employee. In many service settings, authenticity is an important part in customers' construal of their experience. The study analyzes how service employees in British pubs outside the UK may use English with local customers who frequent these pubs to get a taste of Britain and British culture, contributing to the service literature by introducing a typology to align the service employees' language use with authenticity to strengthen the customer experience. The paper further contributes to service theory by extending the understanding of service sabotage by showing how, why, and in which circumstances service employees may use a language switch to sabotage the customer experience. Finally, the study extends the extant human resources literature on the effects of allowing service employees to be themselves to show that this managerial practice not only benefits the service employees also results in a more authentic customer experience.     

What makes a good citizen in service settings?

As service firms face intense pressure to improve service quality, contact employees have been asked to do more with less. It is important that managers understand the concept of organisational citizenship behaviours and attempt to motivate employees to exhibit such behaviours. This study developed and tested a model of how employees' perception of organisational support affects affective commitment (AC), which contributes to their citizenship behaviours in service settings. Questionnaire data from matched pairs of 318 contact employees and their supervisors demonstrated that both perceived organisational support (POS) and AC play strong, central roles in determining contact employees' exhibition of citizenship behaviours. In addition, AC was found to be an effective mediator linking contact employees' perception of organisational support to their citizenship behaviours.     

Hope and positive affect mediating the authentic leadership and creativity relationship

The study analyzes how authentic leadership (AL) predicts employees' creativity both directly and through the mediating role of employees' positive affect and hope. Two hundred and three employees working in Portuguese retail organizations participate in the research. Employees report their hope and positive affective states, as well as the AL of their supervisors. Supervisors report the employees' creativity. The main findings are: (a) AL predicts employees' creativity, both directly and through the mediating role of employees' hope; (b) AL also predicts employees' positive affect, which in turn predicts employees' hope and, thus, creativity. The study enriches the understanding of the processes through which AL improves employees' creativity, and provides valuable insights for both scholars and practitioners. By promoting AL, and employees' hope and positive affect, organizations may increase employees' creative performance, creativity being an important path to organizational performance.     

Collaborating online: the roles of interactivity and personalization

Collaborating with customers is considered a new source of competitive advantage so customer participation and involvement are emerging as key strategic factors. This research studies how interactivity and personalization influence both customers' participation during the online purchase of information services and their intentions to continue participating. It also analyzes whether personalization and interactivity improve customer involvement with the service purchased in online environments. Results verify the importance of interactivity and personalization to foster customer participation, involvement and intentions to continue participating. Moreover, it is found that interactivity moderates the effect of personalization, increasing its influence on service involvement and intentions to participate. This paper demonstrates the convenience of analyzing involvement and participation together in order to understand customer collaboration, as well as the importance of the purchase context from a participation and socialization perspective in the services arena.     

Examining the impact of service robot communication styles on customer intimacy following service failure

With the growing use of robots in the service industry, service failures have increased. This study applies the Communication Accommodation Theory to examine how robot employees' communication style can foster perceived intimacy, reducing customer anger and negative word-of-mouth. The study also tests if this relationship varies based on failure severity. Results show that an informal communication style significantly reduces negative word-of-mouth through intimacy, but only for low severity failures. These findings offer valuable insights for service providers using robots, emphasizing the need to adapt communication styles based on failure severity to effectively manage negative customer experiences.     

Between a rock and a hard place: Seizing the opportunity of demanding customers by means of frontline service behaviors

Service businesses are increasingly facing more demanding customers as a result of a shift in power from the service providers' side to the customers' side. Related literature predominantly examines the negative side of this ongoing trend, while overlooking the positive side. The major aim of this paper is to examine how frontline employees — investment account managers — deal with the ongoing increase in customer demandingness. To address this, we draw on adaptability performance theory to test the facilitating effect of frontline employees' post-transaction service behaviors (SBs) — diligence, inducements, information communication, sportsmanship, and empathy — as a means of adaptation to higher levels of customer demand. Findings indicate that frontline employees adapt most of their SBs' intensities to match customers' demands. The results show that some SBs actually increase the effectiveness and efficiency of frontline employees' service performance, leading to an increase in customer value and satisfaction. Customer value is found as a mediator in some of the relationships between SBs and customer satisfaction. Contrary to the conception of the negative outcomes of customer demandingness, service firms need to consider taking advantage of customer demandingness by stressing the role of frontline employees in adapting to customers’ demands.     

The Climate for Service

SUMMARY

We develop a framework in which internal employees' diagnoses of their firm's service climate determine their role behavior towards customers and, ultimately, customer satisfaction, loyalty, retention and shareholder value. Elements of the framework include: (1) foun dation issues (fundamental human behavior issues like the presence of necessary resources and the quality of leadership), (2) internal service (the quality of service employees report they receive internally from others), (3) service climate (the degree to which management emphasizes service quality in all of its activities), and (4) customer-focused service behavior. How this research is done is reviewed and research supporting elements of the framework is described. How the approach can be adapted for promoting CLV goals is explicated and answers to some frequently asked questions about change to an organization with a service quality and CLV focus are described.     

The Antecedents of Prosocial Service Behaviours: An Empirical Investigation

Frontline employee attitudes and behaviours during service encounters influence customers' perceptions of service quality. For this reason, the identification of variables that influence service behaviours is important. Much remains unknown about the factors affecting service behaviours in service settings. This study investigates service employees' attitudinal (job satisfaction and organisational commitment) and behavioural (prosocial service behaviours) responses to management strategies (internal communication, professional development and empowerment). One hundred and eighty-eight service employees contributed data, which were analysed using a structural modelling methodology. The authors found that management strategies influence service behaviours directly but the mediating role of job attitudes is not supported.     

Volunteer High Performance Work Systems and Service Performance: An Empirical Study of Beijing Olympic Volunteers

This study examines the key human resources factors that affect volunteers’ service performance from the perspectives of volunteers and managers in the Beijing Summer Olympic Games of 2008. Survey data were collected from 1,727 volunteers and 243 managers at the Beijing Olympics test events held at 10 venues between November 2007 and April 2008. Regression analyses and a moderation test were combined to test the hypotheses. A set of high performance work systems (HPWS) for volunteers in the Beijing Summer Olympic Games were developed which include performance management, training, recognition, teamwork and volunteer participation. Volunteer HPWS were positively related to psychological empowerment, which was in turn positively related to service recovery performance. Moreover, transformational leadership moderates the relationship between volunteer HPWS and psychological empowerment in such a way that the relationship is stronger when transformational leadership is at a higher level than when it is at a lower level. Implications and limitations were also discussed.     

Customer desire expectations about service employees: An analysis of hierarchical relations

This article proposes a hierarchical model of customers' desire expectations about service employees, and of the motivations underlying the expectations. The model is based on recent developments in means–end chain theory. A paper-and-pencil laddering methodology is applied to collect data among 231 customers in Austria concerning their desire expectations about service employees of clothing stores. Additive tree and social network analyses reveal three orientations in customer desire expectations, covering the process, outcome, and relational aspects of service encounters. Meanings within orientations are mutually linked and hierarchically organized from desire expectations about specific service employees' behaviors, via customer goal attainments and feelings, to behavioral responses. Implications for service marketing theory and practice are offered. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Customer response toward employees’ emotional labor in service industry settings

In the current study, we develop and test a moderated mediation model that explores the mechanisms that underlie the influence of employees' emotional labor on customer loyalty by considering affective reactions and cognitive appraisals simultaneously and illustrating moderating factors that alter their effectiveness. A sample of 259 individuals from across the United States over 20 years old were recruited on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to participate in the survey. Our emotions as social information based model clarifies the distinct roles of customers' detection of employees' deep acting and surface acting in influencing customers' affective reactions and cognitive appraisals. The current research also reveals that impact of customers' detection of employees' emotional labor on customer outcomes varies as a function of the employees' nonverbal communication.     

THE EMPOWERMENT OF FRONTLINE SERVICE STAFF IN 3PL COMPANIES

Research on third‐party logistics (3PL) service providers has focused more on managing customer relationships than on managing the frontline personnel who interact with customers on a daily basis. Thus, even though the overall need for 3PL's to be market‐oriented is well‐recognized, relatively little is known about how 3PL companies support and develop frontline service staff to provide better service. This study draws on 3PL company site managers' responses to a postal survey that examines the influences of internal communication, customer service training and managerial coaching for customer contact employees on the relationship between market orientation and frontline service recovery empowerment.     

The impact of staff empowerment and communication style on customer evaluations: The special case of service failure

Empowering front-line staff to deal with service failures has been proposed as a method of recovering from service breakdown and ensuring greater customer satisfaction. However, no empirical study has investigated consumer responses to empowerment strategies. This research investigates the effect on customer satisfaction and service quality of two employee characteristics: the degree to which the employee is empowered (full, limited, and none), and the employee's communication style (accommodative–informal and personal, and underaccommodative–formal and impersonal). These employee characteristics are studied within the context of service failures. Subjects were shown videotaped service scenarios, and asked to complete satisfaction and service quality ratings. Results revealed that the fully empowered employee produced more customer satisfaction than the other conditions, but only when the service provider used an accommodating style of communication. Fully empowered and nonempowered employees were not judged differently when an underaccommodating style of communication was adopted. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.