The authors test a value chain model entailing a progression of influence from retail employee job perceptions retail employee job performances customer evaluations customer spending and comparable ...store sales growth. The authors test the model using three matched samples of 1,615 retail employees, 57,656 customers, and 306 stores of a single retail chain.
The authors find that three retail employee job perceptions (conscientiousness, perceived organizational justice, and organizational identification) have main and interactive effects on three dimensions of employee job performance (in-role performance, extra-role performance toward customers, and extra-role performance toward the organization). In turn, these performance dimensions exert influence on customer evaluations of the retailer (a satisfaction, purchase intent, loyalty, and word-of-mouth composite). The authors also show that employee perceptions exert a direct influence on customer evaluations, and that customer evaluations affect retail store performance (customer spending and comparable store sales growth).
Finally, the authors conduct some simple simulations that show: (1) how changes in employee perceptions may raise average employee performances; (2) how changes in employee performances enhance average customer evaluations; and (3) how changes in customer evaluations raise average customer spending and comparable store sales growth. The authors then show that employee job perceptions and performances "ripple thru the system" to affect customer spending and store sales growth. The authors offer implications for theory and practice.
Store Manager Performance and Satisfaction Netemeyer, Richard G; Maxham, James G; Lichtenstein, Donald R
Journal of applied psychology,
05/2010, Letnik:
95, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Based on emotional contagion theory and the value-profit chain literatures, the present study posits a number of hypotheses that show how managers in the small store, small number of employees retail ...context may affect store employees, customers, and potentially store performance. With data from 306 store managers, 1,615 store customer-contact employees, and 57,656 customers of a single retail chain, the authors examined relationships among store manager job satisfaction and job performance, store customer-contact employee job satisfaction and job performance, customer satisfaction with the retailer, and a customer-spending-based store performance metric (customer spending growth over a 2-year period). Via path analysis, several hypothesized direct and interaction relations among these constructs are supported. The results suggest implications for academic researchers and retail managers.
This paper reports two studies (i.e., an experimental design and a field study) that examine the effects that different levels of service recovery have on satisfaction, purchase intentions, and one's ...propensity to spread positive word-of-mouth (WOM). The results indicate that moderate to high service recovery efforts significantly increase post-failure levels of satisfaction, purchase intent, and positive WOM. Alternatively, poor service recoveries seemingly exacerbate the discontent attributed to a service failure. The results do not support a recovery paradox, whereby post-recovery satisfaction is greater than that satisfaction prior to the service failure. In addition, the studies suggest that firms may not always benefit (in terms of consumer perceptions) from service recovery efforts over and above a moderate level.
The authors report a repeated measures field study that captures complaining customers' perceptions of their over-all satisfaction with the firm, likelihood of word-of-mouth recommendations, and ...repurchase intent during a 20-month span that includes two service failures and recovery attempts. The findings suggest that though satisfactory recoveries can produce a "recovery paradox" after one failure, they do not trigger such paradoxical increases after two failures. Furthermore, "double deviations" can occur following two consecutive unsatisfactory recoveries or following an unsatisfactory recovery in response to a second failure. The findings indicate that customers reporting an unsatisfactory recovery followed by a satisfactory recovery reported significantly higher ratings at the second postrecovery period than did customers reporting the opposite recovery sequence. The outcome of the second recovery also demonstrated a significant influence on customer ratings (positively if the recovery was satisfactory, negatively if the recovery was unsatisfactory), regardless of whether the customer found the first recovery satisfactory or unsatisfactory. In addition, although the increased change in recovery expectations and failure severity ratings from the first failure to the second is more dramatic for customers who previously reported a satisfactory recovery, the increase in attributions of blame toward the firm is more pronounced for customers who previously reported an unsatisfactory recovery. Last, the results show that recovery efforts are attenuated when two similar failures occur and when two failures happen in close time proximity.
To limit costs associated with product returns, some online retailers have instituted equity-based return shipping policies, requiring customers to pay to return products when retailers determine ...that customers are at fault. The authors compare the normative assumptions about customers that underlie equity-based return shipping policies with the more realistic, positivist expectations as predicted by attribution, equity, and regret theories. Two longitudinal field studies over four years using two surveys and actual customer spending data indicate that retailer confidence in those normative assumptions is unjustified. Contrary to retailer assumptions, neither the positive consequences of free returns nor the negative consequences of fee returns were reversed when customer perceptions of fairness were taken into account. Depending on the locus and extent of blame, customers who paid for their own return decreased their postreturn spending at that retailer 75%–100% by the end of two years. In contrast, returns that were free to the consumer resulted in postreturn customer spending that was 158%–457% of preretum spending. The findings éuggest that online retailers should either institute a policy of free product returns or, at a minimum, examine their customer data to determine their customers' responses to fee returns.
Because customer service employees often represent the sole contact a customer has with a firm, it is important to examine job-related factors that affect customer service employee performance and ...customer evaluations. In two diverse customer settings, the authors capture matched responses from service employees, supervisors, and customers. The authors use the data to examine the potential chain of effects from customer service employee work-family conflict and family-work conflict, to job stress and job performance, to customer purchase intent (CPI). The results show direct (and indirect) effects of work-family conflict and family-work conflict on service employee customer-directed extra-role performance (CDERP). The results also show direct effects of job stress on service employee in-role performance (IRP) and CDERP and on CPI. Furthermore, the findings show that job stress has a more pronounced effect on IRP than on CDERP and that CDERP has a greater effect on CPI than does IRP. The authors conclude with a discussion of managerial and theoretical implications.
Employing elements of organizational theory and service recovery research, the authors examine how employees' perceptions of shared values and organizational justice can stimulate customer-directed ...extra-role behaviors when handling complaints. They also investigate how these extra-role behaviors affect customers' perceptions of justice, satisfaction, word of mouth, and purchase intent. The authors capture and match employee and customer perceptions regarding the relevant constructs following a complaint and recovery experience. The results indicate that employees' perceptions of shared values and organizational justice affect customer-directed extra-role behaviors. Furthermore, the authors find that extra-role behaviors have significant effects on customers' perceptions of justice and that these behaviors mediate the effects of shared values and organizational justice on customer justice perceptions. Their study reveals that customer ratings of justice affect the customer outcomes of satisfaction with recovery, overall firm satisfaction, purchase intent, and word of mouth. Finally, the authors show that customers' perceptions of justice mediate the effects that extra-role behaviors have on customer outcomes.
Due to its practical importance, the relationship between customer satisfaction and frontline employee (FLE) job satisfaction has received significant attention in the literature. Numerous studies to ...date confirm that the constructs are related and rely on this empirical finding to infer support for the "inside-out" effect of FLE job satisfaction on customer satisfaction. In doing so, prior studies ignore the possibility that-as suggested by the Service Profit Chain's satisfaction mirror-a portion of the observed empirical effect may be due to the "outside-in" impact of customer satisfaction on FLE job satisfaction. Consequently, both the magnitude and direction of the causal relationship between the constructs remain unclear. To address this oversight, this study builds on multisource data, including longitudinal satisfaction data provided by 49,242 customers and 1,470 FLEs from across 209 retail stores, to examine the association between FLE job satisfaction and customer satisfaction in a context where service relationships are the norm. Consistent with predictions rooted in social exchange theory, the results reveal that (a) customer satisfaction and FLE job satisfaction are reciprocally related; (b) the outside-in effect of customer satisfaction on FLE job satisfaction is predominant (i.e., larger in magnitude than the inside-out effect); and (c) customer engagement determines the extent of this outside-in predominance. Contrary to common wisdom, the study's findings suggest that, in relational contexts, incentivizing FLEs to satisfy customers may prove to be more effective for enhancing FLE and customer outcomes than direct investments in FLE job satisfaction.
This paper proposes a model of the effects of perceived justice on customer satisfaction and intent following a service or product failure and a recovery attempt. We tested the model using two field ...studies that captured customer perceptions over time, and the results largely support the model’s path estimates and explanatory power. Study One also supports the hypothesis that procedural and interactional justice are more influential in forming overall firm satisfaction than distributive justice. As hypothesized, satisfaction with recovery was a stronger predictor of the likelihood of spreading positive word-of-mouth (WOM intent) than overall firm satisfaction, and overall firm satisfaction was a stronger predictor of purchase intent than satisfaction with recovery. The results also suggest that satisfaction partially mediates the effects of justice on WOM intent and purchase intent. Finally, we draw on the findings of this study to offer implications for service recovery researchers and managers.
ABSTRACT
Blending elements of the heuristic–systematic model and social identity theory, the authors extend theory by exploring the role of intimacy as a key boundary condition for identification ...(ID). Specifically, this research illustrates how intimacy affects the relationship between brand characteristics (prestige and distinctiveness) and ID. Further, the authors explore the relationship between ID and aftermarket spending on accessories. In a consumer durables setting, the authors conducted a field study with 1,193 consumers and matched customer perceptions with their actual retail spending on aftermarket goods. The results suggest that an individual's intimacy with a brand may affect how prestige and distinctiveness shape their ID. In addition, results show that the relationship between ID and customer aftermarket spending is moderated by a customer's level of satisfaction. Managerial implications of the findings are also outlined.
