It Went Downhill From There: The Spillover Effect from Previous Customer Mistreatment on Frontline Employees’ Service Delivery

2021 ◽  
pp. 109467052110490
Author(s):  
Yumeng Yue ◽  
Karyn L. Wang ◽  
Markus Groth
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Service Encounter ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Frontline Service Employees

Research indicates that a customer’s service experience is shaped by their past experiences with the firm. However, the extent to which past experiences with customers shape frontline service employees’ delivery of services has not been examined. We propose that the analysis of service encounters as discrete, independent units ignores possible linkages between customer experiences via frontline employees. Adopting a resource spill-over perspective across two studies, we find that employees’ experience of customer mistreatment compromised their subsequent service delivery. Using an experiment in Study 1, we find that these effects are mediated by changes in the employee’s self-control capacity. Using a field sample in Study 2, we find that these effects are moderated by the employee’s dispositional self-control capacity and their motivation to commit to display rules. Our findings show how service encounter outcomes can be shaped by distal service events and call for a more holistic understanding of the forces that shape service encounter outcomes. In particular, by highlighting the potential consequences, our findings challenge conventional work protocols that compel employees to persevere despite their experience of mistreatment. By detailing the mediating and moderating mechanisms of mistreatment spill-over in service organizations, we highlight the recovery mechanisms and practices that enable FLEs to remain resilient despite negative encounters with customers.

scholarly journals Service robots, agency and embarrassing service encounters

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Pitardi ◽  
Jochen Wirtz ◽  
Stefanie Paluch ◽  
Werner H. Kunz
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service Robots ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Delivery Mechanism ◽  
Method Approach ◽  
Reducing Potential

PurposeExtant research mainly focused on potentially negative customer responses to service robots. In contrast, this study is one of the first to explore a service context where service robots are likely to be the preferred service delivery mechanism over human frontline employees. Specifically, the authors examine how customers respond to service robots in the context of embarrassing service encounters.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a mixed-method approach, whereby an in-depth qualitative study (study 1) is followed by two lab experiments (studies 2 and 3).FindingsResults show that interactions with service robots attenuated customers' anticipated embarrassment. Study 1 identifies a number of factors that can reduce embarrassment. These include the perception that service robots have reduced agency (e.g. are not able to make moral or social judgements) and emotions (e.g. are not able to have feelings). Study 2 tests the base model and shows that people feel less embarrassed during a potentially embarrassing encounter when interacting with service robots compared to frontline employees. Finally, Study 3 confirms that perceived agency, but not emotion, fully mediates frontline counterparty (employee vs robot) effects on anticipated embarrassment.Practical implicationsService robots can add value by reducing potential customer embarrassment because they are perceived to have less agency than service employees. This makes service robots the preferred service delivery mechanism for at least some customers in potentially embarrassing service encounters (e.g. in certain medical contexts).Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to examine a context where service robots are the preferred service delivery mechanism over human employees.

scholarly journals IMPLIKASI HUMOR DAN PERAN LAYANAN KARYAWAN GARIS DEPAN TERHADAP KEPUASAN PELANGGAN

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 249
Author(s):  
Widya Mulyati ◽  
Robert Kristaung
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Industry ◽  
Banking Industry ◽  
Sem Analysis ◽  
Service Encounter ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Frontline Service Employees

<p><em>This study aims to examine the implications of humor and the role of front-line employee services to customer satisfaction. The effect of front-line service employees calculates the factor of service encounters. The service encounter factor becomes one of the decisive factors in the service industry, especially the banking industry, especially in the era of digitization as the interaction between employees and customers is still needed. The research design used is hypothesis testing between humour, front-line service employees, to customer satisfaction by service encounter. The sample of this research is supported by 150 workers consisting of teller, customer service, and head teller/customer service department who participate as the respondent in this research. This research uses SEM analysis. The result of this research supports the hypothesis that humor positively effects frontline service employees and front -line service employees affect the service encounter. This research fails to prove that service encounter has a significantly direct effect on customer satisfaction. Therefore, the implication of service encounter is still a crucial point for the banking industry in achieving customer satisfaction.</em></p>

scholarly journals When Heroes and Villains Are Victims: How Different Withdrawal Strategies Moderate the Depleting Effects of Customer Incivility on Frontline Employees

2020 ◽  
pp. 109467052096799
Author(s):  
Yumeng Yue ◽  
Helena Nguyen ◽  
Markus Groth ◽  
Anya Johnson ◽  
Stephen Frenkel
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Exhaustion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Large Hospital ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Withdrawal Behaviors ◽  
Frontline Service Employees ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Frontline Service

Withdrawal from work by frontline employees (FLEs) is generally perceived by managers as counterproductive or anti-service behavior. However, there may be detrimental effects of continuing to provide a service, particularly after an FLE has experienced incivility. The possible beneficial effects of withdrawal on frontline service employees’ well-being have rarely been investigated. In this article, we conducted two studies to examine the moderating role of on- and off-task withdrawal behaviors on the relationship between customer incivility and employees’ emotional exhaustion. In Study 1, we examined parking officers’ reactions to customer incivility. We found support for the role of off-task withdrawal as a resource-replenishing strategy, which mitigated the relationship between customer incivility and emotional exhaustion. In Study 2, we examined a sample of nurses in a large hospital to compare the replenishing potential of both on-task and off-task withdrawal strategies. We found that off-task withdrawal served a replenishing function, while on-task withdrawal aggravated nurses’ feeling of emotional exhaustion as a result of customer incivility. These results highlight different resource implications, including recovery benefits of short-term withdrawal behaviors at work, and provide important theoretical and practical implications for the management of customer incivility and frontline service employees’ well-being and performance.

Does one bad apple ruin a firm’s green brand image? Examining frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (10) ◽  
pp. 2501-2521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Jintao Wu ◽  
Honghui Chen ◽  
Bang Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Brand Image ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Brand Evaluations ◽  
Brand Perception ◽  
Frontline Service Employees ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Frontline Service

Purpose Drawing on the branded service encounters perspective, the purpose of this study is to investigate how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ brand evaluations. Design/methodology/approach The research conducted two experiments. The first experiment explored the effect of frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors on customers’ brand evaluations via corporate hypocrisy. The second experiment explored the moderation effect of employees’ prototypicality and the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) among customers. Findings Experiment 1 indicates that for firms with a green brand image, frontline employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors result in customers’ perception that the firm is hypocritical, thus reducing their brand evaluations. Experiment 2 shows that employee prototypicality and CSR importance to the customer enhance the negative impact of frontline employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors on customers’ brand evaluations through customers’ perception of corporate hypocrisy. Research limitations/implications This study is one of the first efforts to explore how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ responses. It helps understand the impact of frontline employees’ counter-productive sustainable behaviors on customers’ brand perception, as well as the relationship between CSR and employees. Practical implications This study suggests that firms’ green brand image does not always lead to positive customer response. When frontline employees’ behaviors are inconsistent with firms’ green brand image, it can trigger customers’ perceptions of corporate hypocrisy and thus influence their brand evaluations. Therefore, firms should train frontline service employees to make their behaviors align with the firms’ green brand image. Originality/value This study is one of the first efforts to explore how frontline service employees’ environmentally irresponsible behaviors affect customers’ responses. It helps understand the impact of frontline employees’ counter-productive sustainable behaviors on customers’ brand perception, as well as the relationship between CSR and employee.

Predicting Service Recovery Performance through Job Crafting Perception and Behaviour: Does Proactivity Make a Difference?

2021 ◽  
pp. 232209372110464
Author(s):  
Adil Zahoor
Keyword(s):  
Service Recovery ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
Job Crafting ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Service Recovery Performance ◽  
Recovery Performance ◽  
Frontline Service Employees ◽  
The Impact

The central aim of this study is to investigate whether the proactive personality (PP) of frontline service employees moderates the impact of perceived opportunity to craft (POC) on actual job crafting (JC) behaviour. We also examine the consequent effect of JC on employee work engagement (WE) and perceived service recovery performance (SRP). Primary data collected from 624 dyads of Indian frontline banking employees and their immediate colleagues (peers) formed the basis of empirical analysis. Data on JC perception, WE and JC behaviour was self-reported by the employees. On the other hand, peer-rating was invited for frontline employees’ PP and recovery performance. Empirical results indicated that the likelihood of POC resulting in actual JC is significantly higher for proactive employees in comparison to their reactive counterparts. The results also suggest that JC nurtures WE which, in turn, enhances SRP.

scholarly journals Attacking the Cultural Turn: Misrepresentations of the Service Encounter

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Work ◽  
Service Encounter ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Economic Relationships ◽  
Customer Interaction ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Employment Experience ◽  
Cultural Turn

Service work is often (mis)represented within western sociology through hyperbolic language, as its increasing incidence and changing character is seen as symptomatic of profound social change. This paper argues that many recent empirical investigations into, and the dominant representations of, the service encounter (employment involving employee-customer interaction which is represented as a particularly ‘new’ form of work) exaggerate its novelty as ‘cultural’ work. Through a critical analysis of some recent empirical accounts of the service encounter and drawing upon one example from the author's own ethnographic research into service encounters within north- eastern England, it is argued that the dominant representations over-emphasise the cultural, and underplay both the economic and gendered, dynamics of the employment experience. More specifically, we argue that it is the active combination of ‘the economic’ and ‘the cultural’ - the way in which gendered demands for employees to develop particular norms, values, personalities and identities are embedded within inequitable economic relationships - which can shape the employment experience of service employees. Dominant representations of the service encounter also reject the contemporary relevance of ‘traditional’ industrial sociological analyses of employment relations. However, given the weak empirical foundations of ‘the cultural turn’, we argue that this contention cannot be supported. In fact, it is suggested that many ‘traditional’ industrial sociological analyses precisely examine the interplay between economic, gendered and cultural relations and therefore continue to have relevance for understanding contemporary employment. Finally, our arguments are located within debates about the cultural turn within the wider sociological discipline.

Senior Customers' Service Encounter Preferences

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vassiliki Grougiou ◽  
Simone Pettigrew
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Encounter ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Target Market ◽  
Demographic Profiles ◽  
The Social ◽  
Service Staff ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Past Experiences

Growing segment size and increasing affluence have resulted in a substantial increase in the purchasing power of the senior market. Seniors spend a higher proportion of their total expenditure on services relative to younger consumers, making them an important target market for many service providers. However, seniors' particular concern with the social aspects of service delivery has been recognized as an important managerial issue. To provide further insight into this issue, in-depth interviews and projective techniques were conducted with 60 Scottish seniors of diverse demographic profiles. The findings support previous research indicating that seniors may evaluate service encounters primarily according to the social benefits resulting from them. In the present study, the social benefits sought appeared to be largely determined by seniors' social identities, which were influenced by past experiences as customers and employees. A model of how seniors evaluate their service encounter interactions is suggested, and managerial implications and directions for further research are provided. In particular, the model emphasizes the need for service providers to appreciate the characteristics of frontline service staff that are conducive to satisfactory service encounters for seniors.

Poor and rich customers in the service encounter

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Soderlund
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Service Encounter ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine categorization leakage from employees in service encounters in terms of indications that the customer has been categorized as either poor or rich. Given that customers perceive themselves as belonging to one of these two categories, leakage can result in perceptions of the categorization as either correct or incorrect, and the specific purpose is to assess the impact of such outcomes on customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Two between-subjects experiments were used to manipulate service employees’ leakage of categorization clues; the participants were subject to leakage comprising clues that they had been categorized as either poor or rich. The participants’ self-perceived membership in the poor and rich categories was used as a measured factor. Findings The results indicate that customers are indeed sensitive to how they are categorized in service encounters. More specifically, when categorization in terms of the categories poor and rich was leaked to the customer, being correctly categorized (either as poor or rich) was more satisfying than being incorrectly categorized. In addition, given the valenced charge of these two categories, the results indicate that the category charge per se also influences satisfaction. Originality/value The present study adds employee categorization leakage to the existing literature dealing with employee-related factors affecting customer satisfaction in service encounters.

Touch Versus Tech in Service Encounters

2020 ◽  
pp. 193896552095728
Author(s):  
Alei Fan ◽  
Anna S. Mattila
Keyword(s):  
Technology Use ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Optimal Level ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Service Encounter ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Frontline Employees

The emergence of various service technologies has reshaped how today’s customers interact with the service provider. The current research proposes a service matrix delineating various types of service encounters along two dimensions: touch (the extent to which customers directly interact with frontline employees) and tech (the intensity of technology use). Furthermore, we investigate the moderating role of relationship type (i.e., communal vs. exchange) in influencing customer evaluations of touch and tech type encounters and further identify the underlying mechanism. The results from the two empirical studies demonstrate the moderating effect of the communal relationship norms and the consequent mediation effect of warmth. This research lays the foundation for the future investigation of different service encounter management practices based on various levels of human factors and technology infusion. For service companies, our findings about the interplay of service encounter types and customer–company relationships will help them to better understand their customers and consequently provide an optimal level of service.

“My colleague is a robot” – exploring frontline employees' willingness to work with collaborative service robots

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Paluch ◽  
Sven Tuzovic ◽  
Heiko F. Holz ◽  
Alexander Kies ◽  
Moritz Jörling
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Coping Behavior ◽  
Service Robots ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Employees ◽  
Frontline Service Employees

PurposeAs service robots increasingly interact with customers at the service encounter, they will inevitably become an integral part of employee's work environment. This research investigates frontline employee's perceptions of collaborative service robots (CSR) and introduces a new framework, willingness to collaborate (WTC), to better understand employee–robot interactions in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on appraisal theory, this study employed an exploratory research approach to investigate frontline employees' cognitive appraisal of service robots and their WTC with their nonhuman counterparts in service contexts. Data collection consisted of 36 qualitative problem-centered interviews. Following an iterative thematic analysis, the authors introduce a research framework of frontline employees' WTC with service robots.FindingsFirst, this study demonstrates that the interaction between frontline employees and service robots is a multistage appraisal process based on adoption-related perceptions. Second, it identifies important attributes across three categories (employee, robot and job attributes) that provide a foundation to understand the appraisal of CSRs. Third, it presents four employee personas (supporter, embracer, resister and saboteur) that provide a differentiated perspective of how service employee–robot collaboration may differ.Practical implicationsThe article identifies important factors that enable and restrict frontline service employees' (FSEs’) WTC with robots.Originality/valueThis is the first paper that investigates the appraisal of CSRs from the perspective of frontline employees. The research contributes to the limited research on human–robot collaboration and expands existing technology acceptance models that fall short to explain post-adoptive coping behavior of service employees in response to service robots in the workplace.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document