Employee satisfaction trajectories and their effect on customer satisfaction and repatronage intentions

Does improving employee happiness affect customer outcomes? The current study attempts to answer this question by examining the impact of employee satisfaction trajectories (i.e., systematic changes in employee satisfaction) on customer outcomes. After accounting for employees’ initial satisfaction levels, the analyses demonstrate the importance of employee satisfaction trajectories for customer satisfaction and repatronage intentions, as well as identify customer-employee contact as a necessary conduit for their effect. From a macro perspective, employee satisfaction trajectories strongly impact customer satisfaction for companies with significant employee–customer interaction, but not for companies without such interaction. From a micro perspective, employee satisfaction trajectories influence customer repatronage intentions for frequent customers, but not for infrequent customers. These effects are robust to controlling for previous customer evaluations and recent employee evaluations. Overall, these findings extend the dominant view of examining static, employee satisfaction levels and offer important implications for the management of the organizational frontline.

     

As they sow,so shall they reap: customers’ influence on customer satisfaction at the customer interface

Extant research provides valuable knowledge about how firms can satisfy their customers. However, it is unclear how customers themselves contribute to their satisfaction. From a basis in the job demands–resources model, the authors propose a customer demands–resources model. In this model, customer demands (negative customer behaviors) and customer resources (positive customer behaviors) affect customer satisfaction through frontline employees’ customer-oriented attitudes and customer-oriented behaviors. Using dyadic data from 141 frontline employees and 375 customers, this study identifies customer behaviors as an important source of customer satisfaction. Customer demands impede frontline employees’ customer-oriented attitudes and customer satisfaction through frontline employees’ emotional exhaustion, whereas customer resources indirectly increase customer satisfaction. Customer resources also buffer the negative effect of customer demands on frontline employees’ customer-oriented attitudes.     

Don’t just fix it, make it better! Using frontline service employees to improve recovery performance

This study examines how frontline service employees (FSEs) can learn from recovery services and improve their performance accordingly. While research recognizes that FSEs can fulfill an innovation role by sourcing customer knowledge and developing ideas for performance improvement, it remains unclear whether such a role benefits or impairs the FSE’s primary recovery service role of providing efficient and thorough solutions to customer problems. This research models both FSE roles and explores under which conditions it is beneficial for FSEs to engage in an additional innovation role. The model is tested using survey and objective data from 134 FSEs. PLS results reveal that the innovation role is detrimental because sourcing knowledge from customers takes time and effort, but also beneficial because knowledge sourcing triggers FSEs to develop ideas for improvement, which positively influence their recovery speed and recovery quality. Managers can strengthen these positive effects of knowledge sourcing by optimizing an FSE’s service portfolio (i.e., the combination of products, customers, and failures an employee is responsible for), which leverages the effects of knowledge sourcing on ideas for improvement.     

Unpacking the relationship between empowering leadership and service-oriented citizenship behaviors: a multilevel approach

Drawing on empowerment theory, this study examines the effect of empowering leadership on frontline employees’ service-oriented citizenship behaviors and the process by which this effect occurs. The authors conceptualize empowering leadership at two levels: individual level and group level. Using multi- and cross-level modeling based on multi-source data (frontline employees and their supervisors) from a national automobile dealership at two different time points, this study finds that group-level empowering leadership explains unique variance in service-oriented citizenship behaviors above and beyond what is explained by individual-level empowering leadership. Further, psychological empowerment and customer learning climate partially mediate the empowering leadership–service-oriented citizenship behaviors relationship at the individual and group levels, respectively. Finally, the results indicate that a climate for customer learning accentuates the positive effect of psychological empowerment on service-oriented citizenship behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications for improving frontline employee’s service-oriented citizenship behaviors are discussed along with directions for future research.     

Frontline employee motivation to participate in service innovation implementation

Companies today face the challenge not only of designing innovative customer-focused service strategies to compete and grow but also of translating such strategies into results through successful execution. Experience and research demonstrate the difficulty of such an execution, but little research in marketing has focused on strategy implementation, particularly at the employee level. Prior research has suggested that frontline employee participation is critical to successful innovation implementation, especially in service contexts. We develop a theoretical model to investigate the complex role of motivation in engaging employee participation in service innovation implementation and test it with field data from a real-world context. The study contributes to motivation research in marketing by adapting and extending a hierarchical conceptualization from psychology that incorporates three levels of motivation: global, contextual, and situational. We also investigate the antecedents managers can control to increase employee motivation to participate in implementation efforts and subsequently to improve participation behaviors that are critical to the successful implementation of a customer service innovation.     

The role of brand communications on front line service employee beliefs,behaviors, and performance

Frontline service employees often vary in their delivery of the brand promise, leaving service firms with less direct control on other stakeholders’ brand perceptions. Internal branding efforts have been suggested as a way to improve employee performance. With this in mind, we develop a two-process model based on identification and internalization theories to explain how internally disseminating brand-relevant information to frontline employees enhances performance. Using multi-source data from the employees, managers, and customers of a business-to-business firm in the hospitality industry, we find that providing brand-specific information directly to frontline employees increases their identification with the brand (as evidenced in perceptions of firm authenticity) and enhances their internalization of brand values. Additional results suggest that firms should make an extra effort to communicate brand-specific information to frontline employees if they desire brand-consistent performance that is observable to managers and customers alike.     

企业生命周期和平衡计分卡视角下的绩效考核方法对组织绩效影响研究

以478家企业数据为样本,用SPSS15.0和阶层回归分析方法,探讨了不同员工绩效考核方法在企业生命周期不同阶段对组织绩效的财务构面、顾客构面、业务流程构面、学习与创新构面的影响。研究结果表明:(1)在初创期,特质类绩效考核方法对组织绩效的财务构面、顾客构面、业务流程构面、学习与创新构面的影响都达到显著性水平。(2)在成长期,特质类绩效考核方法对组织绩效的财务构面、顾客构面、业务流程构面、学习与创新构面的影响都达到显著性水平;行为类绩效考核方法对组织绩效的财务构面、顾客构面的影响达到显著性水平。(3)在成熟期,特质类绩效考核方法对组织绩效的顾客构面、业务流程构面、学习与创新构面的影响达到显著性水平;行为类绩效考核方法对组织绩效的财务构面、顾客构面、业务流程构面、学习与创新构面的影响都达到显著性水平。结果类绩效考核方法对组织绩效的顾客构面、业务流程构面的影响达到显著性水平。(4)在衰退期,特质类绩效考核方法对组织绩效财务构面、顾客构面、业务流程构面、学习与创新构面的影响都达到显著性水平;行为类绩效考核方法对组织绩效业务流程构面的影响达到显著性水平。     

整合客户关系管理:打造商业银行的竞争力

通过对整合客户关系管理及其运作过程的介绍 ,指出了我国商业银行应对其客户资源进行整合 ,以此克服客户关系管理的种种缺陷。在此基础上 ,提出了商业银行实施整合客户关系管理所应进行的重点工作 ,从而达到保留现有客户和发掘潜在客户并提高商业银行盈利能力 ,打造其竞争力的目的。     

Gaining and leveraging customer-based competitive intelligence: the pivotal role of social capital and salesperson adaptive selling skills

This study explores the generation and use of competitive intelligence (CI) within the buyer–seller exchange process and its influence on salesperson performance. Using the concept of social capital as a theoretical foundation and multilevel data collected at three time points from 686 customer–salesperson dyads, the authors empirically test a conceptual framework that proposes both antecedents and consequences of CI sharing between customer and salesperson. The results of the study demonstrate that CI sharing by customers is a function of salesperson customer orientation, customer-centric extra-role behaviors, and relationship quality. CI sharing translates into increased perceived value, share-of-wallet, and profit margins when the salesperson utilizes the information to position and differentiate his or her product; however this occurs only when the salesperson has strong adaptive selling skills. Surprisingly, CI negatively influences these outcomes among low-adaptive salespeople, indicating that CI can actually work to a firm’s disadvantage if the salesperson is not equipped to respond to it. These findings suggest that CI must be examined differently than general market knowledge and that firms may leverage CI to their tactical advantage at the salesperson–customer interface if managed effectively.     

Customer knowledge creation capability and performance in sales teams

Drawing on substitutes for leadership theory, this study examines the relationship between a sales team manager’s empowering leadership and his or her sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability. The authors develop and test a model that positions task interdependence, outcome interdependence, and their interactions as substitutes for empowering leadership. Further, the authors explore two perspectives of team-level performance—customer relationship performance and financial performance—as consequences of a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability. Using matched data collected from sales team managers and sales team members, the authors find general support for their hypotheses. The study finds that a sales manager’s empowering leadership has a positive effect on a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability. However, the results also suggest that the positive effect of empowering leadership on a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability is mitigated when either outcome interdependence or both task and outcome interdependence are high. Further, as outcome interdependence and the interaction between task and outcome interdependence increases, a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability also increases, which suggests that outcome interdependence and the combination of task and outcome interdependence replaces the role of empowering leadership. The study also finds that the greater a sales team’s customer knowledge creation capability is, the higher its customer relationship performance and sales team financial performance will be. Implications for customer knowledge creation in sales teams in the presence and absence of empowering leadership are discussed.     

Unlocking the power of marketing: understanding the links between customer mindset metrics,behavior, and profitability

Recent evidence about the central role played by perceptual constructs in driving performance outcomes has produced a renewed interest in studying customer mindset metrics (CMMs; e.g., satisfaction, service quality, and loyalty intentions). However, we still lack a proper understanding of how (i.e., process) and to what extent (i.e., magnitude) these CMMs ultimately translate into profitability at the customer level. In this study, we integrate CMMs into an individual-level framework of customer behavior and profitability and provide a conceptual understanding of the process through which these metrics influence customer profitability. Specifically, we propose three mechanisms through which CMMs affect customer behavior and profitability: behavioral effect, marketing effectiveness effect, and marketing efficiency effect. We empirically test this framework across two distinct contexts, a B2B high-tech firm and a B2C telecommunications firm. The results demonstrate that these unobservable CMMs have a significant and multi-dimensional impact on customer behavior and customer profitability. Furthermore, we compute the increases in customer behavior and customer profitability that each firm can expect due to increases in CMMs to help firms improve resource allocation and make better decisions about how much (and when) to invest in CMMs.     

宾馆内部环境因素对员工的影响

广州市两个宾馆进行了一次实证研究 ,通过问卷调查和因果关系分析 ,探讨管理人员的管理风格、服务设备质量、授权、培训、顾客导向、角色冲突、员工合作精神等七个内部环境因素对员工工作满意感、工作积极性与宾馆外部服务质量的影响     

The influence of corporate character on customers and employees: Exploring similarities and differences

Should the same corporate brand imagery appeal to both internal and external stakeholders? The authors explored similarities and differences in how the dimensions of corporate character affect the satisfaction and perceived differentiation of customers and employees of two successful retail organizations. Using multigroup structural equation modeling of survey data (N=1,252), the authors found significant differences on two dimensions: enterprise and competence. Enterprise (e.g., imaginative, innovative) was positively associated with customer satisfaction, had no significant impact on employee satisfaction, and was negatively associated with employee perceived differentiation. Competence (reliable, leading) was positively associated with employee perceived differentiation but had no impact on customer perceived differentiation. The influence of chic (stylish, prestigious) was similar for both customer and employee satisfaction and differentiation. This analysis shows how certain dimensions of corporate character can be usefully promoted to both customers and employees, while other dimensions would benefit from a stakeholder-specific approach.     

Using a customer-Level marketing strategy to enhance firm performance: A review of theoretical and empirical evidence

It is becoming increasingly apparent from the literature that marketers need to consider customer-level information when they generate a marketing strategy for the firm. In this article, the authors develop a customer-focused framework that uses a marketing strategy with an overall objective of maximized financial performance. This strategy is driven by seven customer-level marketing tactics and shows how actual customer data can be used to generate an actionable marketing strategy leading to optimal levels of profitability, customer equity, and shareholder value. In addition, the authors discuss a successful implementation of this strategy for several business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms and offer insights as to how to customize an implementation strategy for any firm, along with presenting potential challenges a firm may encounter during the implementation process. Several suggestions for future research are offered to explore and harness this newly available evidence. V. Kumar (VK) (vk@business.uconn.edu) is the ING Chair Professor of Marketing and the executive director of the ING Center for Financial Services at the University of Connecticut. He spends his time by transferring his knowledge (however little it may be) to his two daughters about customer lifetime value, diffusion models, forecasting sales and market share, retailing, and marketing strategy. J. Andrew Petersen (apetersen@business.uconn.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the University of Connecticut. His research interests include customer lifetime value, word-of-mouth effects, and customer-level marketing strategy. His research has been published inMarketing Research Magazine and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science.     

It’s a matter of congruence: How interpersonal identification between sales managers and salespersons shapes sales success

In recent years, marketing research and practice have recognized the importance of managing frontline employees’ identification. However, investigations so far have focused on identification at the collective level of the self, such as organizational identification, thereby largely neglecting important interpersonal identification processes at the relational level. Using a large-scale dataset comprising information from sales managers and salespeople as well as company data on customer satisfaction and sales performance, the authors make a first attempt to address this neglect by exploring important phenomena of interpersonal identification in the sales manager–salesperson dyad. Results show that initial increases in the level of identification congruence between sales managers and their respective salespeople yield positive incremental effects on sales performance and customer satisfaction. Findings also show that interpersonal over-identification and identification incongruence are negatively related to both outcomes. Results demonstrate how sales managers could mitigate these negative effects.     

关于公众对金融知识、产品及消费习惯的调查报告

随着金融行业的不断发展和壮大,金融服务的质量和业务范围对居民金融需求的影响逐渐增强,客户对金融产品、金融服务的需求越来越多样化和个性化。只有了解顾客的消费习惯和对金融产品的需求,开发新的金融产品,提升金融服务质量,才能更好地吸引客户,提升金融企业的竞争能力。     

基于平衡记分卡的国有商业银行绩效测评体系研究

平衡记分卡是顺利实现国有商业银行从单纯的绩效考核转向战略性绩效管理改革的一种有效方法。根据平衡记分卡的思想，可将我国国有商业银行的绩效考核体系分解为4个要素：财务目标、顾客目标、财务流程目标、员工学习与创新目标，而每个要素又分解为若干指标，共形成4个要素16项指标的测度体系。运用单构面尺度检验、信度检验和效度检验对这一绩效测评体系进行检验，得出以下结论：该模型可以为我国国有商业银行实施平衡记分卡战略提供可靠的理论平台；顾客目标、内部流程目标、学习与创新目标均与财务目标存在较高相关性；人均利润率对财务目标的实现、顾客满意度对顾客管理目标的实现和风险控制能力对内部流程目标的实现均存在较大的影响。     

Multiple emotional contagions in service encounters

This paper investigates the dynamic impact of multiple sequential emotional displays by employees on customers’ negative emotions. Using video-based stimuli to manipulate emotional displays by employees, this study shows the sequential occurrences of negative and positive emotional contagions in service failure and recovery encounters. The results suggest that higher levels of employees’ negative emotional displays lead to a greater increase in customers’ negative emotions through the process of negative emotional contagion during service failure. More importantly, we find that positive emotional displays by employees can decrease customers’ negative emotions through the process of positive emotional contagion during service recovery, i.e., higher levels of employee positive emotional displays lead to a greater decrease in customers’ negative emotions. In addition, no matter whether customers experience higher or lower levels of employee positive emotional displays during service recovery, their final negative emotions cannot fully return to their emotional levels prior to service failure. However, for customers experiencing higher levels of employee positive emotional displays, their final negative emotions can be greatly mitigated and are closer to their initial emotional levels, as compared to customers experiencing lower levels of employee positive emotional displays. The results further indicate that susceptibility to emotional contagion increases the effect of employees’ negative (positive) emotional displays on customers’ negative emotions during service failure (recovery). The findings of this study suggest that service firms should provide effective training to their frontline service employees so that they can display proper positive emotions during service encounters.     

基于模糊方法的企业绩效评价

本文建立了由财务评价指标、过程评价指标、客户评价指标、员工评价指标等要素组成的企业绩效评价指标体系,根据指标具有模糊性的特点,提出采用模糊评价法进行评价,并举例说明了方法的应用。     

上司支持对饭店企业一线员工工作家庭冲突及工作绩效影响研究

以饭店一线员工为例,探讨了工作家庭冲突与员工敬业度和工作绩效的关系以及上司支持对减轻员工工作家庭冲突和提高员工敬业度方面的作用。研究结果表明,工作家庭冲突对敬业度产生了消极影响,上司支持减轻了饭店一线员工的工作家庭冲突,增加了他们的敬业度,并对工作绩效产生了正面的积极影响。因此,饭店管理者应建立完善的上司支持体系,帮助员工有效平衡工作与家庭的关系,既提高员工生活质量和幸福感,又提高员工敬业度和工作绩效,达到双赢。