Human aspect in service quality: EPSI benchmark studies

Abstract

This article presents an integrated approach for analysing interaction between employee and external customer satisfaction. It is generally accepted that satisfied employees would support and enhance satisfaction among external customers, which in turn should further strengthen the employee relationship with the employer. However, empirical evidence for such positive circles is rare in a broad sense, although such circles have been illustrated for individual companies and other organisations. The present article takes as its starting point a model where employee satisfaction drives customer satisfaction. It is applied to Swedish data at the industry level. The empirical part is based on major studies of Swedish employees and customers in 2007, conducted within the EPSI Rating, combined with some results from the previous two years. It is found that strong correlation from the employee side to external customer satisfaction constructs exists. Improving employee satisfaction will have a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction, and, in particular on the perceived service quality as reported by customers. From the empirical results it is possible to specify priority maps for aspects within the employee sphere to concentrate on when the maximal effects on the customer satisfaction should be targeted. These vary to some extent from industry to industry and between stakeholder groups, while some more general patterns are also found. As a complement to the industry level study, the same approach is also employed by a small sample of companies within the Swedish banking sector. Here a positive correlation is also found, but this is less significant, and the time pattern is also more difficult to estimate from the small dataset currently available. From the analysis it is still possible to point out the main drivers for increasing customer satisfaction and consequently also loyalty on a company level. The study points out a number of challenging issues for further research in order to validate causal relationships between employee satisfaction and customer results.