Employee-customer Interactions Research Articles

The role of a smile in customer–employee interactions: Primitive emotional contagion and its boundary conditions

AbstractBy investigating emotional contagion in customer–employee interactions using the emotional facial action coding system, this study offers a means to separate primitive emotional contagion from its conscious counterpart. As an empirical validation of primitive emotional contagion and its impact on customer satisfaction, the multifaceted research approach, involving an experimental laboratory study and two field studies in hospitality and retail settings, reveals consistent findings. Additionally, the influence of emotional contagion on customer satisfaction is moderated by the esthetic appeal of the interior design. This work advances the theoretical understanding of the dynamics of primitive emotional contagion; it also offers practical insights regarding the importance of interior designs and busyness for enhancing service interactions.

What’s in it for them? The role of social curiosity and social needs in motivating and retaining hospitality employees

Retaining hospitality employees and encouraging them to perform well has long been a popular topic for hospitality scholars and practitioners. Hospitality employees engage in numerous interpersonal interactions as part of their daily work. Interacting with customers and guests plays a vital role in shaping the hospitality work environment. While extensive research has examined the customer's perspective in service interactions, there has been limited attention given to understanding the employees’ viewpoint and the benefits they derive from these interactions. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the positive effects of employee-customer interactions as part of the hospitality work environment on the employees themselves. Online survey responses were collected from 285 U.S. employees, and structural equational modeling was performed. Grounded on McClelland's Needs Theory, the findings of the present research suggest that social needs mediated the positive relationship between guest-employee exchange and employees' job performance. Additionally, social needs mediated the negative relationship between guest-employee exchange and turnover intention. Moreover, social curiosity mediated the positive relationship between diverse customers and job performance. Hospitality managers can leverage the characteristics of their customer groups, such as diverse customers and the existence of guest-employee exchange, as a competitive advantage in recruiting suitable employees for their organizations.

Employee–customer interaction and emotional intelligence to impact emotional labor: does interaction type play any role?

PurposeGrounded in emotional dissonance and social presence theories, this study examines whether the characteristics of employee–customer interaction (frequency, routineness and duration) and emotional intelligence (EI) have an impact on emotional labor (surface acting (SA), deep acting and naturally felt emotions (NFE)) and whether the type of interaction (face to face, voice to voice and online) moderates this relationship.Design/methodology/approachA survey method was employed to collect data from employees working in hotels, customer care and e-booking services (n = 604). The model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsThe study showed that EI was positively linked to deep acting and NFE but negatively associated with SA. Frequency of interaction had a negative relationship with deep acting and NFE but a positive association with SA. Duration of interaction (DOI) had a positive relationship with deep acting and NFE but a negative association with NFE. Routineness of interaction had a negative relationship with deep acting and NFE but surprisingly had a negative relationship with SA. Online interaction moderated the relationship between EI and deep acting.Originality/valueThis pioneering study examines the relationship between EI and characteristics of employee–customer interaction with emotional labor in the Indian hospitality context. While the association between EI and emotional labor has been studied, this study is unique in substantiating the moderating effects of interaction type and is among the first to do so empirically.

An Experimental Study of How Missing Employee Empathy in Failed Service Interactions Affects Empathetic Customers’ EWoM-Giving Behaviour

Empathy as an influencing factor of consumer behaviour has mostly been analysed from an empathetic employee’s perspective. Empirical investigations into customer empathy in the context of failed service interactions are still scarce. This study investigates customer–employee reciprocity related to a failed service interaction and its meaning as a predictor of electronic-worth-of-mouth (eWoM)-giving behaviour. The eWoM phenomenon in the context of online purchases is well researched, but the (a) impact of failed service interactions and (b) empathetic customer service agents still needs to be explored. For this purpose, two situational experiments of customer–employee interactions (n = 260) were conducted. Both situations depict disgruntled customers who are looking for help and call the customer support centre after an online purchase. They experience negative customer–employee interaction. The experiments test (a) the impact of employee and customer empathy on eWoM-giving behaviour after failed service interactions and (b) the mediating role of negative emotions. The results show that in service situations, negative emotions fully mediate the relationship between customer empathy and eWoM-behaviour. In addition, empathetic customers seem to be more sensitive to a poorly empathetic employee in comparison to non-empathetic customers. The research enriches the service understanding of empathy in eWoM research and provides practical implications for the management of complaint handling, such as how to consider customer empathy as a complainer’s characteristic to improve the customer service experience, effectiveness, and efficiency.

An Innovative Tool to Measure Employee Performance through Customer Satisfaction: Pilot Research Using eWOM, VR, and AR Technologies

Recent research reflects the assessment of customer satisfaction from different perspectives, an important aspect in all sectors that must be expressed in measurable parameters of organization performance. By reviewing the literature, we noticed the lack of a specific indicator to quantify the tripartite relation: customer satisfaction—employee performance—company performance. Therefore, based on Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma methods, the paper introduces an innovative measurement tool named the Spc indicator (The Assessment System of Employee Performance according to Customer Satisfaction) and the related implementation methodology (named ITA). The aim of the paper is to implement an innovative tool to improve the efficiency of employee performance assessment systems in relation to company performance in services and industry sectors through customer satisfaction assessment. By using AR and VR as implementation technologies, our present results extend and compare the results from other pilot research made by authors in the e-commerce sector. The results point out that mystery shoppers and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) applied in e-commerce are more efficient than AR and VR technologies applied in services and industry, as reflected in the company’s performance. Furthermore, customer–employee interactions and communications with eWOM in e-commerce are more efficient than WOM used in services and industry. This paper contains both theoretical and practical contributions by offering a new, short-time innovative tool for the continuous improvement of the company with applications in different fields.

Enhancing Value Co-creation Behaviors Through Customer Engagement In The Moroccan Hotel Context: How Does It Influence Customer Satisfaction And Brand Image?

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to analyze the effects of customer-employee interaction and digital attributes of engagement on customer value co-creation behaviors (CVCB), which in turn affect their satisfaction and the brand image of luxury hotels in Morocco. The research data was received through an online questionnaire from 583 tourists and analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 and Smart PLS 3.3. The findings strongly support that customer-employee interaction and digital attributes of engagement are positively and significantly related to CVCB, which consequently determine their satisfaction and thus reflect a positive hotel image. Furthermore, the bootstrapping procedure shows that CVCB significantly mediate the relationship between engagement platforms and brand image, and customer satisfaction. This research adds to the current literature on cocreation and tourism marketing and provides managers who design service encounters with insights to properly manage cocreation activities and improve customer perceived use-value.

From customers' fingertips to employees’ well-being: The impact of mobile application ordering from a job demand-resource perspective

Service is entering a 2.0 transformation where service no longer simply involves customer-employee interactions, but customer-technology-employee interactions. However, previous literature predominantly focuses on customers from a marketing approach, failing to incorporate employees' perspective in the face of technology-enabled changes in a service encounter. Building on Job demand-resource model, this study proposes mobile applications as a job resource and examines their impact on restaurant employees. This study conducts interviews and qualitative content analysis in Study 1 and further employs a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design in Study 2. The results indicate that mobile orders may assist frontline employees to invest less cognitive and emotional effort, even in the condition of higher order complexity, leading to enhanced employee workplace well-being. This study newly introduces mobile apps as job resources and a potential way to improve employees’ well-being at work. This study contributes both JD-R and the well-being literature with practical implications.

Customer verbal aggression and employee service sabotage: The mediating role of perceived discrimination

The five-star hotel context highlights the differences in social identity between employees and guests as a factor that impacts how employees handle customer verbal aggression. Considering this point, the present study employs the social cognitive theory of social class to propose a social-class-based customer–employee interaction model to explain the relationship between customer verbal aggression and employee service sabotage. We examine whether the Eastern cultural tradition mitigates this effect by instilling different perceptions of traditional hierarchical systems. A two-level (employees, supervisors) data collection/analysis model is applied to treat data from 309 employee–supervisor dyads from nine five-star hotels in China. The results indicate that frontline service employees’ perceived discrimination mediates the effect of customer verbal aggression on service sabotage. Thus, the Eastern cultural tradition, directly and indirectly, acts as a boundary condition for these effects. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are also discussed.

How Does Customer Personality Shape Customer-Employee and Customer-Firm Interactions?

In recent decades, the banking industry has undergone several changes implying the need for banks to differentiate themselves This research examines the effect of the Big Five on relationship quality and customer loyalty on both employee and firm levels in retail banks. A total of 210 online surveys were collected via the convenient sampling method. The findings showed that openness to experience, extroversion and neuroticism influence relationship quality on both levels. Conscientiousness affects relationship quality at the bank level while agreeableness affects relationship quality at the customer contact employee level. Relationship quality displayed significant influence on customer loyalty on both levels. Several implications are derived for service research and service encounter management. The findings provide valuable insight for matching retail bank customers and customer-contact employees based on their personality profiles to ensure long-term relationship quality and customer loyalty. Insights into the relationship quality-customer loyalty link can act as a starting point for academics who are interested in understanding the role of frontline employees in services management.

Effect of Customer Experience Quality on Loyalty in Fitness Services

Abstract Customer experience quality is an important and relatively new concept for service businesses in gaining a sustainable competitive advantage. Although the literature on customer experience quality is expanding, there is a gap concerning the antecedent and consequences of customer experience in fitness services. In this context, we tested a model that explains the precursors and implications of customer experience quality in the context of fitness services. This study was based on a non-experimental, depictive, and descriptive design. Within the scope of this study, 287 participants (216 male, 71 female) selected through a convenience sampling technique applied a self-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation model. The findings show that service result quality, customer–employee interaction quality, and customer–customer interaction quality affect customer experience quality, which in turn affects customer loyalty. These results show that improving the service outcome quality results in customers who experience high-quality customer–employee and customer–customer interactions becoming loyal customers.

Effect of Employee-Customer Interaction Quality on Customers' Prohibitive Voice Behaviors: Mediating Roles of Customer Trust and Identification.

Given that customer voice behaviors are confused with customer complaint behaviors in usage, this study thoroughly explains the essential differences between the two constructs. On that basis, this study investigates how employee–customer interaction (ECI) quality affects customers’ prohibitive voice behaviors, which is an crucial type of customer voice behaviors, by examining customer trust and identification as mediators. Data from 395 restaurant customers are collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that ECI quality positively affects customers’ prohibitive voice behaviors. In this effect, customer trust and identification play direct and sequential mediating roles. This study contributes theoretically to the current knowledge by clearly distinguishing customer voice behaviors from customer complaint behaviors and by providing new insights into the mechanism of customers’ prohibitive voice behaviors from the perspectives of service interaction and relational benefit enhancement. The practical implications of this study can help pointedly foster customers’ prohibitive voice behaviors.

Customer experience can play a strategic role for wineries

PurposeThis paper aims to consider how customer experience can be used by wineries to enrich their value proposition and improve their competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approachQualitative research, using a semi-structured interview approach, was conducted on four small sized wineries located in the Bolgheri area (Tuscany, Italy). This study was based on the theoretical model of Pine and Gilmore.FindingsAll the wineries in the sample are committed to enriching wine – the tangible product. They focus on customer experience to make the process unique and meaningful. They seek to provide a rich experience, but have chosen one experience dimension to create a specific identity for themselves. It is evident, based on interviews and online reviews, that the customers appreciate the efforts of the wineries.Research limitations/implicationsThis study can be further developed, using dimensions such as brand awareness and by building a larger sample, to understand how wineries can further improve their value proposition.Practical implicationsThe adoption of marketing experience requires flawless execution of the experiences, starting from first employee-customer interaction. For this reason, it is essential for companies to invest in the training and development of their employees, who represent the experiential offer, and act as the link between the internal and external world. It is also important to identify new trends and be proactive.Originality/valueVery few studies in the literature focus on customer experience in wine sector.

WeChat mobile-payment-based smart retail customer experience: an integrated framework

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of WeChat mobile-payment (m-payment)-based smart technologies in improving the retail customer experience and to develop an integrated framework of the smart retail customer experience including antecedents, consequences, and moderators. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) paradigm, we investigated the relationships among socio-technical stimuli, the smart retail customer experience, and relationship quality. We also developed hypotheses regarding the moderating role of customer lifetime value (CLV), which is considered an important customer characteristic. The proposed framework was empirically tested based on transaction and survey data of 462 WeChat m-payment retail customers. The results showed the following. (1) WeChat m-payment-based smart retail technology can enhance the customer experience by improving customer-perceived relationship orientation, employee-customer interaction, and communication effectiveness. (2) CLV has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between socio-technical stimuli and the customer experience. (3) The customer experience has a positive influence on relationship quality in the retail industry. Retail managers should make full use of smart retail technologies to improve the customer experience. In addition, they should emphasize the increase in CLV, as this increase enhances the positive relationship between socio-technical stimuli and the customer experience, making customer experience management more efficient.

Positive gender congruency effects on shopper responses: Field evidence from a gender egalitarian culture

This field study examined how customer-employee interactions are affected by the congruency between an employee's gender and the perceived gender image of the consumption context in one of the most gender equal cultures in the world (Scandinavia). Mystery shoppers had a service encounter with an employee across a set of physical commercial settings that were classified according to their gender image. The mystery shoppers noted the gender of the employee, provided employee evaluations, and indicated word-of-mouth (WOM) ratings. Shoppers who had a gender congruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “feminine” consumption context) reported more favorable employee evaluations and WOM ratings than shoppers who had a gender incongruent service encounter (e.g., a female employee in a “masculine” consumption context), with the impact of gender congruency on WOM ratings mediated by employee evaluations, particularly with respect to competence inferences. These findings highlight the ethical dilemma of a positive gender congruency effect, as it can generate superior consumer responses but also risks resulting in gender occupational segregation.

The Impact of Customer Gratitude Expression on Employee Working Outcomes and Its Mechanism

In recent years, research on customer behaviors has raised increasing attention among scholars. Totally, the focus of customer research witnessed a conversion from customer-company relationship to customer-employee interaction. However, existing studies in the customer-employee interaction domain have mostly discussed the negative outcomes of customers’ negative behaviors, and few of them have examined customers’ positive behaviors. In reality, companies, employees, and customers are not enemies; rather, they can create and share value through mutual understanding and civilized interaction. Therefore, it is necessary to deeply explore customers’ positive behavior in addition to customers’ negative behavior. Drawing on the Emotions as Social Information Model, this paper focuses on customer gratitude expression–a positive customer behavior which refers that customers express their gratitude to employees for employees’ service and contribution–and explores its impact on employees. Based on a sample of 304 leader-subordinate dyads, our findings suggested that customer gratitude expression promoted employees’ cognitive crafting, which further helped to improve employees’ working outcomes（i.e., deep acting in behavioral dimension and job performance in outcome dimension）. In addition, employees’ prevention focus–which represented more sensitivity to negative information and more intention to maintain the status quo–weakened the effect of customer gratitude expression on employees’ cognitive crafting and working outcomes. Our research made contributions in several aspects. Firstly, by examining the effect of customer gratitude expression on employees’ working outcomes, our research filled in the blank in customer-employee positive interaction domain, which not only inspired researchers to pay attention to “the other side of the coin”, but also offered practical implications for managers to build civilized customer-employee relationship. Secondly, our paper enriched the research about gratitude. Previous studies mostly identified customer gratitude as emotional states and examined its effect on customer per se. Our research, on the contrast, revealed the interpersonal effect of gratitude by exploring the impact of gratitude expression on receivers. Thirdly, our study answered the call of further investigating cognitive crafting by examining the antecedent（i.e., customer gratitude expression）and outcomes（i.e., employee working outcomes）of cognitive crafting, which also enlarges studies in the job crafting domain.

Luxury Branding in the Hospitality Industry: The Impact of Employee’s Luxury Appearance and Elitism Attitude

Some of the luxury consumption literature suggests that luxury consumption is a beneficial social signal for the actor which facilitates social interaction. However, a different stream of recent research suggests that luxury consumption bears social costs to the actor. In the employee–customer interaction context, wearing luxury brands can either benefit or backfire for the employee depending on the situation whether luxury status or warmth is necessary. Based on the gaps in the literature, this study examines the impact of employee conspicuous cues by utilizing luxury consumption and elitism attitude on employee–customer rapport and behavioral intentions. The study results show that employees wearing luxury brands increase customers’ perceived impression management toward the employee. Such perception is strengthened when employees show an elitism attitude. In addition, when employees wear luxury brands, customers are more likely to build rapport with employees when they show a democratic attitude, as they perceive the employees are less likely to involve in impression management than showing an elitism attitude. The results build upon the luxury hospitality literature, aesthetic labor, impression management, and rapport literature.

The Role of Cultural Differences in Customer Retention: Evidence from the High-Contact Service Industry

Current tourism landscape and dynamism of the business environment have increased market competitiveness in the high-contact service industry. Hotel operators must now pay greater heed to customer retention by exploring ways to improve customer engagement and experience. Toward this end, this study aimed to examine the interplays between relationship marketing, perceived service quality, corporate image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty, as well as the moderating effect of cultural difference between Asian and Western tourists. Using a questionnaire, data were collected from 400 international tourists and analyzed with the structural equation modeling technique. While the direct relationships pertaining the variables of interest were found to be significant, Asian tourists appeared to hold stricter standards in employee–customer interactions and satisfaction-based loyalty than Western tourists. Discussion and implications are provided to promote the development of fruitful hotel–customer relationships in this industry with a heightened customer orientation.

Masked smiles matter – employee verbal expertise and emotion display during COVID-19

ABSTRACT Throughout the customer journey, the employee-customer interaction drives customer responses. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically influenced shopping behavior with face masks playing a major role. This research investigates how consumer behavior has changed and how frontline employee (FLE) non-verbal (emotional facial expressions) and verbal cues (verbal expertise) influence customer responses dependent on whether FLEs wear a face mask or not. Semi-structured interviews among consumers, an open association study among students and an experimental study using Panel data were conducted. Findings of these online studies with German-speaking consumers show that face masks do not exclusively cause negative feelings and problems; they also reduce the perceived risk of a COVID-19 infection. Importantly, customers can correctly decode FLE smiling even when wearing face masks; however, the relevance of verbal expertise increases compared to FLE emotion displays. This state-of-the-art research during COVID-19 provides novel insights into dyadic service interactions for research and management.

The Impact of Environmental Stimuli on Hotel Service Employees’ Service Sabotage—Mediation Role of Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Dissonance

While scholarly inquiries into Service Sabotage (SS) have received ample attention in the literature of various industries, the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Dissonance (ED) in employee-customer relations in the context of Environmental Stimuli (ES) in the tourism accommodation sector has remained unexplored. The role of employee–customer interaction in tourism is paramount for a hospitality organization’s growth, sustainability, and profitability. We hypothesized hotel service employees’ EI and ED can be influential factors to SS. Adopting the Mehrabian–Russell model (M–R) and Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework as conceptual paradigms, we tested the effect of hotel ambiance on employees’ emotions, which can have significant effects on SS. The study revealed that ES links to behaviors and elicits EI and ED as human emotional responses to environments that have a parallel mediating effect on mitigating or neutralizing the negative effect of SS in an organization. The findings provide important insights into an organization’s awareness of the provision of ES as a positive factor for employees, subsequently forming their behavioral consequences of EI and ED which can mitigate the negative impacts of SS. The study yields important implications on how hospitality organizations should pay attention to the impact of rule-breaking behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Emotional Labor of Frontline Employees: Generational Differences and Intention to Stay

ABSTRACT Emotional labor often takes the form of displaying fake or genuine feelings toward customers, showing interest in customer needs, and engaging in employee-customer emotional interactions. The purpose of this research was to investigate the emotional labor states adopted and practiced by frontline employees in the hospitality industry. We analyzed significant differences of emotional labor among Generation X and Y, and socio-demographic characteristics of frontline employees. The influence of emotional labor states on frontline employees’ intention to stay is also examined. The emotional labor states applied here were surface acting, deep acting, genuine acting and emotive dissoance. A quantitative approach was adopted and data were collected from three-, four-, and five-star hotels in Hong Kong. The study found that Generation X respondents adopted genuine acting and emotional dissonance more often, while Generation Y respondents used surface acting and deep acting more frequently. The findings suggest that although surface acting has a significant effect on employees’ intention to stay, genuine acting and sincere feelings toward one’s job have a stronger effect.