The role of customer contact employees as external customers: A conceptual framework for marketing strategy and future research

Existing streams of literature in marketing, management, and organizational behavior are integrated to propose a conceptual framework that highlights the customer contact employee's dual role as employee and external customer of the organization. Several iterative “cycles of success” are proposed whereby job satisfaction, the employee's patronage of the company's products (i.e., goods or services), and job performance (as customer contact employees) are all enhanced, ultimately leading to long-term relationships (with customers and employees) and profits for the organization. The framework highlights the role of internal marketing as a tool for enhancing the competitive advantage gained by strategically considering the customer contact employee's role as external customer.     

The Beautiful,the Cheerful,and the Helpful: The Effects of Service Employee Attributes on Customer Satisfaction

In contrast to prior studies examining only piecemeal aspects of employee attributes (i.e., physical attractiveness, displayed emotion, or helpfulness), the present research adopts an encompassing approach and considers these attributes simultaneously. These three attributes were selected as they represent the physical, emotional, and motivational aspects of the employee, respectively. This holistic approach provides an understanding of how these three dimensions of employee attributes exert differential effects and interact with one another on customer satisfaction. In order to validate the proposed framework and hypotheses, the authors conducted an experiment as well as a survey in an actual retail setting. Results show that even though all three employee attributes lead to customer satisfaction, employee helpfulness has the strongest impact. In addition, employees’ displayed emotion interacts with their physical attractiveness and helpfulness, respectively, to influence customer satisfaction. These findings not only contribute to the literature, but also have managerial implications for high‐contact services.     

What drives customer engagement after a service failure? The moderating role of customer trust

This study investigated the relationships between complaint handling, customer experience, and customer engagement, as well as the moderating effect of customer trust prior to a service failure. The results were obtained from 320 Indonesian consumers of courier, express, and parcel services. Favourable employee behaviour was found to be the most effective complaint handling effort that influenced customer experience, followed by organizational procedures and then compensation, indicating that positive customer experience led to customer engagement. Additionally, this study revealed that higher levels of customer trust prior to a service failure reduced the positive effects of complaint handling efforts on customer experience. This finding suggests that customers with higher levels of trust in a firm are less sensitive to that firm's complaint handling and recovery efforts. This article contributes to the literature on customer engagement in the service failure and recovery contexts, especially in developing countries. It examines the most influential complaint handling dimensions for predicting customer engagement following service failures. Furthermore, this study is one of the first to explore the moderating role of customer trust in service failure and recovery literature.     

The Desired Qualities of Customer Contact Employees in Complaint Handling Encounters

This paper explores the nature of complaint satisfaction with a particular emphasis on the qualities and behaviours that affect customers during the personal complaint handling encounter. The paper reviews the literature on complaint satisfaction and the role of the contact employee in the complaint encounter. An empirical study using the means-end approach and the paper-and-pencil version of the laddering technique provides a deeper understanding of attributes of effective customer contact employees and reveals the underlying benefits that complainants look for. The research indicates that complainants want contact employees to give positive nonverbal signals, to have sufficient product (service) knowledge and the authority to handle their problems adequately. They also want employees to be willing to try hard and spare no effort. Customers think that if employees take them seriously, this will lead to a problem solution and feelings of satisfaction. The paper concludes with suggestions to managers to introduce and improve active complaint management and reviews the limitations of the research method.     

Service Orientation: Its Impact on Business Performance in the Medical Service Industry

From the viewpoint of internal marketing, employees who are content in their job may be motivated to satisfy their customers better than ones who are not content. Another relevant premise is that the content employees, because of their work motivation, would eventually help improve the performance of their firm. To verify these relationships, some previous studies looked into the effects of organisational service orientation on employee's satisfaction. But only few of them investigated the mediating effects of variables such as service value and customer orientation for their role in linking service orientation to business performance. This study examines how an organisation's service orientation had an effect on its performance at hospitals. For this purpose, verification of the mediating role of service value perceived by employees as well as the role of customer orientation on the firm's performance was attempted. For this study, a total of 292 usable questionnaires were collected from hospital staffs located in metropolitan cities of Korea. The hypotheses concerning relationships among service orientation, service value, employee satisfaction and customer orientation were verified by covariance structural modelling, using SPSS 10.0 and AMOS 4.0 programs. The result is as follows. First, organisational service orientation had a positive effect on both employee satisfaction and service value perceived by hospital staff. Second, employee satisfaction had a positive impact on service value and customer orientation. Finally, service value as well as employee's customer orientation were found to exert positive influence on the medical firm's performance.     

Antecedents and consequences of role stress of retail sales persons

Given the central proposition in services marketing that service excellence is largely determined by the interaction between customer contact personnel and customers, we examine the antecedents and consequences of role stress in a retail context both from the employee and the customer perspective. We investigate the impact of the service control versus the empowerment model on role ambiguity and role conflict and we look at the effect of these role stressor on commitment towards the organization and to delivering service quality by retail sales persons. Finally, we explore the impact on customer perceived service quality. Empirical findings reveal, among other things, that both formalization and empowerment reduce role ambiguity. Role ambiguity in turn is negatively associated with both organizational commitment and commitment to quality. The latter type of commitment has a positive impact on customer perceived quality.     

Interactional service failures in a pseudorelationship: The role of organizational attributions

The current research investigates customer responses to interactional service failures, such as a service provider who is rude or inattentive, or unfriendly. We study interactional failures within pseudorelationships, which exist when a customer interacts repeatedly with the same firm but encounters different employees across service occasions. Empirical results demonstrate that customers’ responses to these interactional failures distinguish between the offending employee and the organization. Dissatisfaction with the organization critically depends on the customer's attribution of globality—how widespread the interactional failure is throughout the organization. Globality attributions and dissatisfaction with the organization can be lowered by excellent past experience with the organization; however, that same positive experience increases dissatisfaction with the offending employee. Thus, customers’ discrimination of the organization and employee in a pseudorelationship can work in the organization's favor after an interactional failure, and managing customers’ attributions of globality should be a managerial priority.     

The impact of high-performance work systems in the health-care industry: employee reactions,service quality,customer satisfaction,and customer loyalty

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the effects of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on employee attitude, service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in health-care organisations. The proposed research model was tested using structural equation modelling for hypotheses, based on data collected from 196 pairs of employee–customer respondents in four selected hospitals with more than 500 beds. The results indicate that hospitals can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through efficient operations, employee engagement, and service quality. One of the key findings of our study is that HPWS in health-care organisations influence employee reaction and service quality.     

Employee Flow as an Integrated and Qualitative System: Impact on Business-to-Business Service Quality

Purpose: This article develops and tests the effect of a complete model of employee flow on business-to-business (B2B) customer service outcomes.

Methodology: Employee flow in organizations refers to all inflows, outflows, and internal movements of staff, and is a crucial human resources area. However, research rarely deals with employee flow as a whole. Instead, studies generally limit themselves to individual employee flow aspects, such as employee turnover, and limit outcomes to internal organizational issues. This study employs hierarchical regression and structural equation to model the effect of an integrated and qualitative measure on B2B service quality through the INDSERV scale.

Findings: Employee flow, especially net outflows, affects service quality perceptions through various mediated relationships. Employee flow affects outcome quality through potential and soft process quality and impacts hard process quality through potential quality. Relationship frequency, supply chain integration of the customer, and environmental characteristics are significant moderators.

Research implications: The introduction of complete employee flow as a predictor variable is a research advance and can be extended to many research settings. Confirmation that INDSERV scales have an internal progression is new and informs future model building.

Practical implications: Managers, especially in bigger and service-oriented companies, might employ integrated employee flow indices as a practical management metric. The tendency of B2B processes to separate client and customer staff (e.g., through technological bridges and call centers) is discouraged by the finding that employee flow affects outcomes partly through soft process, relational quality. Managers should attend to frequency and customer integration.

Contribution: The use of integrated and qualitative employee flow models in modeling service outcomes, especially in B2B settings, is an original contribution, as is the hitherto untested progression within the subconstructs of the INDSERV B2B service quality scale.     

Factors influencing employee perceptions of customer service climate

This study examines the relationships between certain organizational variables and employees' perceptions of the customer service climate in their organization. In addition, the role of organizational commitment in this process is examined. Results indicate that rewarding employees for service excellence, allowing their voice to be heard by upper management, providing employees with the information and technology needed to do their jobs, providing adequate training to customer contact employees, allowing employees enough time to get their tasks done, and providing a work environment conducive to getting work done are all positively associated with employee perceptions of customer service climate. Based on mediated regression and a LISREL analysis, these relationships are all found to be partially mediated by organizational commitment. These results are consistent with previous customer service research, which has found organizational support and rewards to be positively related to customer service. We extend this literature by showing that organizational commitment may be a key variable linking organizational support and rewards to customer service. Implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.Lincoln National Corporation     

Investigating the Effect of Employee Empathy on Service Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Trust in and Satisfaction with a Service Employee

Abstract

This study examines the indirect effect of employee empathy on service loyalty through the intervening effect of trust in and satisfaction with service employees during service interactions. Data were obtained through a self-administered questionnaire from university students. A total of 410 useable responses were used to perform data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping for indirect effects were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results show a significant effect of employee empathy on trust in service employee and satisfaction with service employee during customer–employee interactions. Also, satisfaction with a service employee showed a significant effect on service loyalty during service interactions. The study enhances the understanding of empathy within banking services during interactions between service employees and customers. It also provides insights for service managers and frontline service employees on how empathy develops customer’s trust and satisfaction with service employee.     

The 11 Questions Every Donor Asks and the Answers All Donors Crave: How You Can Inspire Someone to Give Generously,by H. McKinnon

Organizational learning and customer orientation have been a focus of research for a number of years in both marketing and management literature. Customer learning orientation is conceptualized as three important components: management customer orientation, customer feedback, and employee learning orientation. By drawing from both marketing and organizational research theories, the authors propose a model of customer learning orientation in a public sector organizational setting. Customer learning orientation is hypothesized to have a significant effect on employee attitudes of role ambiguity and self-efficacy, which in turn affects job outcomes of job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors. Using a sample of 438 employees of a public sector organization, the authors test the model through a structural equation modeling technique. The results provide general support for the model. Implications for managers of public sector organizations and future research are discussed.     

好的表演需要好的观众——顾客察觉准确性在员工情绪劳动影响中的作用

基于385对顾客和员工的问卷调查的配对数据,考察了员工的情绪劳动如何影响顾客的信任和忠诚,以及顾客察觉准确性在其中的调节作用。研究结果表明员工的深层表演会促进顾客的信任,进而促进顾客忠诚;顾客对深层扮演的高察觉准确性会加强员工的深层扮演与顾客信任之间的正向关系,而当顾客对表面扮演察觉准确性低时,员工的表面扮演会对顾客信任有正向的影响;顾客的深层/表面扮演察觉准确性加强了深层/表面扮演、顾客信任和忠诚之间的中介效应。研究帮助从情绪的视角更好地理解服务情境中信任的前因变量,发现顾客的察觉准确性在情绪劳动影响过程中的重要作用,有助于服务企业从情绪劳动的角度来建立顾客信任和忠诚。     

The golden mean: Research on the mechanism of customer participation in employee service innovation

Service innovation is of importance in achieving business success. This study aims to understand how customer participation affects employees' service innovation through zhongyong thinking and verify the moderating role of leadership empowerment in the service section. Data were collected through a paired questionnaire survey with 352 valid frontline employees and their superiors in the starred hotel industry. Multiple linear regressions and bootstrap analysis were performed to examine the hypotheses. The results indicate that customer participation is positively related to zhongyong thinking and service innovation, and zhongyong thinking partially mediates the main effect. In addition, service innovation is more substantial when leadership empowerment is high, and customer participation has a weaker impact on zhongyong thinking when leadership empowerment is low. This study contributes to the employee service innovation literature by confirming that customer participation and employees' zhongyong thinking play vital roles in the Chinese service context. This study also helps service managers understand that empowering their subordinates can facilitate employees' service innovation.     

Organizational values,work norms,and relational role behaviours: an empirical retail assessment

We apply the relationship-marketing concept to a retail setting in order to determine if customer-contact employees' relational role behaviours (RRBs) (consisting of both trust-building and attachment behaviours) have organizationally influenced antecedents. Using organizational culture and value–norm–behaviour linkage, we posit that organizational values (consisting of customer orientation, employee orientation, and financial orientation) influence work norms for customer retention (solidarity and role integrity) and, ultimately, RRBs. Hypotheses and a model which illustrates the relationships between the constructs are presented. A study is conducted in a US regional drugstore chain (n=246). LISREL is used to analyse the results. Six out of eight hypotheses are supported. The findings are discussed as well as managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions.     

物流外包关系中物流服务需求方信任的影响因素研究

文章在国内外文献回顾的基础上构建了研究模型,并进行了实证研究,以探讨物流外包关系中物流服务需求方信任的影响因素及其对信任的作用。研究结论表明:物流服务需求方对以前交易经历的满意度是影响物流服务需求方建立信任的最重要因素,企业声誉和信息的共享是仅次于满意度的影响因素,而对关系进行的投资和合作的时间长度对物流服务需求方建立信任的影响最小或者没有影响。最后根据实证研究结果就第三方物流提供者如何赢得物流服务需求方信任提出了实践建议。     

内部营销与顾客满意关系的实证研究(英文)

为了确定内部营销、员工满意、服务质量和顾客满意之间的因果关系,本文在文献研究的基础上构建了内部营销—员工满意—服务质量—顾客满意关系模型,并以35家商业银行的员工和顾客为实证样本,采用因子分析、回归分析检验了模型的假设关系。     

Public sector corporate branding and customer orientation

The objectives of branding and marketing in the public sector can differ in nature from those in the private sector, to include an improved responsiveness to public needs, rather than an increase in customer numbers. In addition, the customer orientation (a disposition that will influence brand perception) of public services is often questioned. Drawing from prior work in the private sector on the relationships expected between employee and organization customer orientation (hereafter referred to as CO), corporate brand personality, and both employee and customer satisfaction, the authors propose a number of models. These models are tested using structural equation modeling on data from a study of the employees (n = 302) and customers (n = 200) of a public hospital. Corporate brand personality mediates the positive links between employee customer orientation (hereafter referred to as ECO) and satisfaction; ECO influences brand personality, which in turn influences satisfaction. However, while both the needs and enjoyment dimensions of ECO improve customer satisfaction, the former has an unexpected, negative effect on employees. Organization customer orientation (hereafter referred to as OCO) influences customer, but not employee, satisfaction. The paper discusses the implications for managing and researching corporate branding in the public sector.     

Linking employee and customer misbehaviour: The moderating role of past misdemeanours

Abstract

Traditionally, studies that examine the activities of misbehaving employees and customers have done so in a separate and unrelated manner. Drawing on research that explores deviance amplifications and deviant learning, the current study aims to address this identified gap in the literature and provide empirical evidence of the linkages between perceived employee deviance and the severity of customer misbehaviour. Utilising equity, power and differential association theories, a conceptual model is forwarded comprising four hypotheses between the constructs: perceived employee service deviance; customer repatronage intent; severity of customer misbehaviour; and past customer misbehaviour. Using survey responses from 380 consumers of bars, hotels and restaurants, the empirical results offer support for the forwarded research model. The results show that customers perceiving employee misbehaviour are profoundly affected. Such experiences erode their repatronage intentions and are linked (directly and indirectly) to the severity of dysfunctional customer behaviour performed. Consumers’ past experience of misbehaviour is also found to impact the hypothesised relationships. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the findings and outlining directions for future research.     

一蹶不振或再次出发？领导拒谏对员工行为动机的影响研究

员工谏言被拒绝是现实中常见的一种现象,领导拒绝谏言、选择沉默或没有给与回应都可以被认为是一种社会排斥行为。社会排斥相关理论能够为我们理解领导拒绝谏言后的员工行为动机提供一个好的理论依据。Williams在大量实验基础上提出的需要威胁时间模型是社会排斥研究中较成熟且适用广泛的理论模型。本研究将拒谏作为独立的排斥事件,在需要威胁时间模型下构建了领导拒谏影响员工行为动机的理论模型,探讨了在拒谏事件发生后,动态时间变化过程中,因拒谏这一排斥行为造成的消极情绪和需要威胁在不同个人特质和情境因素下如何影响员工的行为动机。通过厘清影响员工行为动机的相关因素和行为结果,丰富了谏言反应的相关研究,为组织获取长效、持续的员工谏言提供现实参考。