The determinants of service recovery in the retail industry

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret J. Crabbe ◽  
Moses Acquaah
Keyword(s):  
Work Environment ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Service Orientation ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Behavioral Skills ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Excellence ◽  
And Training

Purpose – Service recovery strategies are efforts used by organizations to bring back dissatisfied customers to a state of satisfaction with the organization. It has been argued that successful service recovery by organizations is dependent on the effectiveness of front line employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine a model of service recovery performance (SRP) of front line employees in the retail industry in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses personally administered survey data collected from 136 employees in 20 micro and small retail enterprises in Ghana. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis is used to test the direct and interactive effects of organizational variables such as perceived managerial attitudes and work environment factors on the SRP of front line employees. Findings – The findings indicate that the SRP is influenced by employee empowerment, interaction between customer service orientation and empowerment, interaction between customer service orientation and training for customer service excellence, and the interaction between empowerment and training for customer service excellence. Research limitations/implications – Focussing only on the antecedents of SRP, and using cross-sectional data based on the self-assessments of the front line employees from one country. Practical implications – Empowering front line employees to deal with service failures should be combined with training them in job related and behavioral skills to attend to the needs of customers. Moreover, it is critical to combine perceived customer service orientation with training front line employees in job related and behavioral skills. Originality/value – First study to examine the antecedents of SRP of front line employees in a sub-Saharan African environment. Moreover, study examines the interactive effects of organizational and work environment variables on SRP.

Foreign or domestic: who provides better customer service?

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Poddar ◽  
Timucin Ozcan ◽  
Ramana Kumar Madupalli
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Service Excellence ◽  
Customer Evaluations ◽  
Interaction Factors ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Service Representative

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of customer service employees’ (CSEs) competence and service recovery outcomes on service evaluations of foreign and domestic CSEs. Design/methodology/approach – Three experiments were conducted to test and validate the proposed hypotheses. The participants were told a cover story that they were either listening to (Study 2) or reading (Studies 1 and 3) a real conversation between a customer service representative of a bank and a customer and the authors wanted their views about the service encounter. While country of origin (COO) and competency were common independent variables across three studies, Study 2 included service recovery with a full refund and Study 3 had both full and partial refund and apology offered or not. Findings – Results from three experiments show that while competent CSEs are evaluated the same, regardless of their COO, the domestic CSE is evaluated more negatively than the foreign CSE when both are incompetent. The authors also find that when competent CSEs deliver no service recovery, the foreign CSE evaluations are significantly lower than the domestic one. Study 3 results show that this effect is mediated by participants’ ethnocentric beliefs. Research limitations/implications – For implications, this study provides a deeper understanding of the role of COO in services contexts. Future researchers can utilize the findings to investigate the important role that expectations play in determining service excellence and how it affects the COO effect. Practical implications – The paper provides managers in both offshoring client and provider firms with an understanding of the effects of offshoring on employee evaluations. It discusses the relevance/irrelevance of COO on the customer evaluations of service employees. Originality/value – The study investigates an under researched phenomenon – offshoring of services. This paper is one of the few looking at the role of different interaction factors, such as competence, recovery on service evaluations.

Software entrepreneurs’ competencies based on business growth

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Iman Sudirman ◽  
Joko Siswanto ◽  
Atya Nur Aisha
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Service Orientation ◽  
Achievement Orientation ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Technical Competencies ◽  
Chi Square Test

Purpose This study aims to identify the competencies of small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) entrepreneurs in the software sector and the perceived level of attainment in each competency. It also examines whether these competencies and their levels affect business turnover and growth (in terms of business scale and duration). Design/methodology/approach To accomplish this purpose, the study took a quantitative approach, involving a survey of 33 SME entrepreneurs, which was then processed using statistical tests, including chi-square test, Kruskal–Wallis test and ordinal regression. Findings There were four findings of the study. Firstly, software SME entrepreneurs need 17 competencies, with high levels of soft competencies being required and average levels of technical competencies. Secondly, there are significant differences in perceived levels of customer service orientation (p = 0.089) depending on the scale of the business and in perceived levels of project management (p = 0.087) depending on the duration of the business. Thirdly, customer service orientation (p = 0.031) and project management (p = 0.01) both have a significant influence on business revenues. Fourthly, there were significant gaps in perceived levels of competency (p < 0.05) in achievement orientation, customer service orientation and project management. Originality/value There is existing research that conducts competency mappings at the managerial level in large-scale organizations; however, this sort of research in relation to SME entrepreneurs is still lacking. The present study seeks to fill this gap. It also maps integrated entrepreneurial competencies, including soft and technical competencies; a focus that is lacking in previous studies.

Employee engagement insights from Jamaica's hospitality industry: compounding the benefits of a service orientation through customer service training

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-46
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Employee Perceptions ◽  
Service Orientation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Levels ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Customer Service Training ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Pertinent Information

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper concentrates on the employee perceptions of service orientation and customer service training, and how these impact upon employee engagement levels within all-inclusive hotel businesses in Jamaica. The results reveal that a strategy of pursuing service orientation and running customer service training rewards the employer with increased engagement and positive attitudes among staff, which translates to a commercially valuable boost in customer service levels. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

scholarly journals How to measure the efficacy of VET workplace learning: the FET-WL model

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 602-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pilar Pineda-Herrero ◽  
Carla Quesada-Pallarès ◽  
Berta Espona-Barcons ◽  
Óscar Mas-Torelló
Keyword(s):  
Work Environment ◽  
Workplace Learning ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organization And Management ◽  
Quantitative Design ◽  
Probabilistic Sample ◽  
And Training

Purpose – Workplace learning (WL) is a key part of vocational education and training (VET) because it allows students to develop their skills in a work environment, and provides important information about how well VET studies prepare skilled workers. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and validate an instrument to evaluate WL efficacy in VET. Design/methodology/approach – The research presented in this paper was based on a quantitative design, after having identified factors that influence training efficacy. The factors to evaluate transfer in WL (FET-WL) questionnaire was formed of 57 items (five-point Likert scale) and applied to a stratified probabilistic sample of 1,026 VET students in the Barcelona area (Spain). Findings – After conducting an exploratory factor analysis, the model explained 48.42 per cent of the variance and six factors merged: coherence of the training of the school with the WL, school tutor’s sole, host company tutor’s role, the possibilities of developing the WL, integration into the company and student’s motivation. Originality/value – Results show that the FET-WL may be a useful tool for the various agents involved in WL since it may improve the organization and management of VET and thereby increase its efficacy.

An examination of interactive effects of employees’ warmth and competence and service failure types on customer’s service recovery cooperation intention

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 2429-2451
Author(s):  
Yingying Huang ◽  
Meng Zhang ◽  
Dogan Gursoy ◽  
Si Shi
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Process Failure ◽  
High Competence ◽  
Hospitality Managers ◽  
Failure Types

Purpose Drawing from the compensation effects in social cognition theory, this study aims to investigate the interactive effects of employees’ warmth and competence and service failure types on customer’s service recovery cooperation intention after a service failure and before service recovery is completed. Design/methodology/approach This study used a scenario-based experiment with a 2 (high vs low) warmth × 2 (high vs low) competence × 2 (outcome failure vs process failure) service failure between-subjects design. Data were collected using an online panel. Findings This study finds that employees’ low warmth and high competence in outcome failure situations and high warmth and low competence in process failure situations are most effective at increasing customers’ service recovery cooperation intention. The findings further suggest that customers’ cooperation intention is prone to tradeoffs between customers’ perceptions of employees’ warmth and competence as suggested by compensation effects in social cognition theory, such that the effectiveness of employees’ warmth (competence) is curtailed by employees’ competence (warmth). Practical implications The findings of this study provide insights to hospitality managers for effective service recovery management. Hospitality companies can enhance customers’ behavioral intentions by training employees to demonstrate appropriate warmth and competence combination that meet customers’ expectations for a specific failure type. Originality/value This study argues that customer’s service recovery cooperation intention depends on the combination of warmth and competence displayed by employees after a service failure. The expected combination of warmth and competence varies depending on the service failure context.

Employee adaptive and proactive service recovery: a configurational perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 1581-1607
Author(s):  
Graca Miranda Silva ◽  
Filipe Coelho ◽  
Cristiana R. Lages ◽  
Marta Reis
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Service Recovery ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Adaptive Behaviors ◽  
Proactive Behavior ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Managerial Practices ◽  
Configurational Approach

Purpose This study aims to investigate the configurations that drive employee service recovery. Rather than analyzing the net effects of individual antecedents of service recovery, which is the common approach in the literature, this study uses a configurational approach to investigate how five antecedents (customer service orientation, rewards, teamwork, empowerment and customer service training) combine to yield employee adaptive and proactive service recovery behaviors. Design/methodology/approach The study collects responses from 90 frontline employees through an online survey. Building on configurational theory, the authors developed and empirically validated four research propositions by using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Findings Three equifinal configurations of managerial practices result in either employee proactive or adaptive service recovery behaviors. Two of these three configurations result in both adaptive and proactive behaviors. In addition, the findings show that two out of the three configurations that lead to proactive behavior in service recovery also lead to the simultaneous existence of proactive and adaptive behaviors in service recovery. None of the sufficient configurations require the presence of all managerial practices. These results underscore that managers do not have to act on every single managerial intervention area to promote service recovery. Research limitations/implications The study advances the knowledge on the antecedents of employee behavior in service recovery by investigating how these antecedents combine to yield different recipes for developing either employee adaptive or proactive behavior in service recovery. Practical implications The findings provide insights for managers into the different combinations of practices that can be used to develop employee proactive or adaptive behavior in service recovery. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that relies on a configurational approach to understand the combinations of managerial practices that result in employee proactive and adaptive behaviors in service recovery.

What a performance! the influence of call centre workflows on workers’ skills and emotional wellbeing

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Alexander Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Social Skills ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Emotional Labour ◽  
Labour Process ◽  
Interactive Nature ◽  
Front Line Workers

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to use the concepts of performance and emotional labour to shed new light on the skills workers use on two workflows in one call centre. In addition, the paper demonstrates how different workflows impact on workers everyday emotional experiences and wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach – Using an auto-ethnographic approach to data collection the paper provides insights by focusing on both the self and others as objects of research. The underpinning theoretical inspiration is drawn from Labour Process Theory but considering the interactive nature of front-line call centre work, it adopts Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical concepts and draws on micro-sociological analyses of the labour process, particularly Hochschild (1983). Findings – The case study illustrates how workers use social skills, through the performance of emotional labour, to different extents on contrasting workflows. The concept of performance is also used to demonstrate how management rely on worker's social skills to deliver fast and quality customer service. Contrary to other research, this study finds that the greater time front-line workers spend on calls and the wider scope they have for exercising discretion does not necessarily mean they experience greater levels of satisfaction and emotional wellbeing. Rather, the workflow with the tightest scripting and shortest call cycles – which inhibit the need to perform emotional labour – offered the greatest protection from the emotional demands of the job. Originality/value – This paper is the first to apply Goffman's theatrical metaphors and concepts of performativity to unpack the nature of front-line call centre workers’ skills.

Redeploying public librarians to the front-lines: prioritizing digital inclusion

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 370-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siobhan A. Stevenson ◽  
Caleb Domsy
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Librarians ◽  
Public Librarian

Purpose This paper aims to draw attention to the quiet, if inadvertent, disappearance of the front-line public librarian, as libraries make difficult organizational choices in the struggle to survive the relentless pressures to cut costs on one side while supporting a market ethos of customer service on the other. Design/methodology/approach Informed by the preliminary findings of a pan-Canadian study of labour in large urban public libraries and a review of professional and academic literatures dealing with contemporary service trends, four models/proposals [(1) participative, (2) community-led, (3) managerial/leadership and (4) digital inclusion] are critically reviewed with respect to their positioning of the front-line professional librarian. Findings The paper concludes with an argument in favor of one of these proposals because it supports the relevance of public librarians in service to their communities while remaining true to the democratic aspirations of this vital public service within our increasingly complex information societies. Research limitations/implications The implication of this work is that by drawing our attention to the contradictions inherent within contemporary and popular library initiatives, the disconnect between formal education and professional practice is highlighted, thus providing a foundation for new empirical research into the changing nature of waged work (professional and non-professional) in public libraries. Practical implications Failure to situate the professional public librarian strategically and unambiguously within the rapidly evolving roles of the public library has implications for LIS educators, employers and, as significantly, current and future students. Social implications Despite the high rates of connectivity among Western nations and the increasing sophistication of their populations, the digital divide persists among a growing urban and rural underclass. Building, maintaining and promoting a strong and accessible municipal information infrastructure, one could argue, is what public librarianship is all about. Originality/value This paper’s identification and critical review of the four dominant service models proposed for the present public library represents the first time that these literatures have been assembled together and critically interrogated for their implications for the work of public librarians. Given the importance of the question “what is the future role of the public library”, a critical analysis of the key contenders is a necessary exercise, as is shifting the subject of the conversation away from the customer and onto the professional public librarian.

Operational impact of collaboration and resource specificity: the moderating role of technology context

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 387-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karthik N.S. Iyer
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Operational Performance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Supply Chain Partnerships ◽  
Resource Specificity

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to enhance understanding of the sources of relational rents in supply chains and the nature of their relationships with performance. Using the relational view framework and contingency perspective, the study develops a model and hypotheses to understand the nature of the relationships of collaboration and resource specificity with operational performance under technology context contingencies. Design/methodology/approach – Data for testing the hypothesized relationships in the conceptual model were collected through a survey of managers in the Hoover’s database of manufacturing firms. The survey sample included 115 responses from a wide variety of manufacturing forms. Findings – Findings support the conventional wisdom relating collaboration and operational improvements. Notably, technological turbulence has a differential interactive influence on collaboration and resource specificity in predicting operational performance. In the former, the strength of the performance relationship is enhanced, while in the latter, it diminishes. Product complexity enhances the collaboration–operational performance linkage. The results, however, have to be further corroborated by more confirmatory analysis in future research. Research limitations/implications – The research findings are not conclusive but of an exploratory initial evidence, as stepwise regression analysis has its limitations. Additionally, while the study specifically focused on demand-side collaboration aspects, supply chain management envelops upstream and internal collaboration as well. Investigating the performance implications and the interactive dynamics among all three partnerships in the supply chains provides a richer understanding of supply chain partnerships. Besides, more comprehensive insights could be obtained by modeling the interactive effects of other factors in the operating context. Practical implications – Firms derive performance benefits from close collaboration with downstream partners because the operational enhancements from such relationships have customer service implications. Besides, the results provide a framework to managers for understanding the technology context conditions that may be best suited for leveraging collaborative initiatives and idiosyncratic investments in pursuit of operational performance improvements. Originality/value – Much of the evidence on the rent generation capabilities in supply chain partnerships is still anecdotal and extant empirical research lacks adequate explanation. Another critical shortcoming in extant literature is research on the disentangled interactive influence of operating context factors on the supply chain sources of rent (i.e. capabilities)–performance relationships. The study contributes by addressing these issues.

A cross-cultural comparative study of internal auditor skills: UK vs Korea

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inshik Seol ◽  
Joseph Sarkis ◽  
Zhihong (Rita) Wang
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Behavioral Skills ◽  
Internal Auditor ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Internal Auditors ◽  
The Uk ◽  
And Training

Purpose Based on the theoretical development by House et al. (2004), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the cross-cultural differences of internal auditors’ perceptions on the importance of internal auditor skills. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a survey based on the competency framework for internal auditing and collected data from the UK (Anglo cultural cluster) and Korea (Confucian cultural cluster). In total, 231 internal auditors participated in the study. Findings The results showed that UK auditors perceived behavioral skills as more important than cognitive skills, while Korean auditors had an opposite perception. Not surprisingly, UK auditors rated each sub-category of behavioral skills higher than Korean auditors; Korean auditors gave higher scores than UK auditors for each sub-category of cognitive skills. Research limitations/implications One limitation of the study is that two different data collection methods were used for the study: online for the UK and paper-based for Korean auditors. Another limitation of the study is that the authors did not analyze the possible impact of each participating auditor’s background knowledge. Practical implications The findings of the study contributes to professional practice by providing culturally adaptive criteria for regulators’ policy-making, organizations’ employee hiring and training, and educators’ curriculum design across various cultural environments. Originality/value The findings of the study can provide some insights on cultural impacts to help academic researchers develop models regarding the internal auditor selection and training in different nations.

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