The interpersonal effects of emotion intensity in customer service: Perceived appropriateness and authenticity of attendants' emotional displays shape customer trust and satisfaction (original) (raw)
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Emotion regulation in service encounters: are customer displays real?
Journal of service theory and practice, 2020
Purpose-Despite recognition of the importance of emotions and emotion regulation in service encounters, emotion regulation has been generally studied from an employee perspective. This study investigated customer emotion regulation behaviours (CEREBs) in face-to-face service encounters; arguing for a more nuanced approach through an emotion regulation matrix representing the playing up and downplaying of positive or negative emotions. Motivational factors and service-related situational conditions that influence the likelihood of emotion regulation were also examined. Design/methodology/approach-Four focus groups and the critical incident technique method were used to obtain data from people who had interacted with service employees within the previous six months. Findings-There was support for emotion regulation in the four facets of the emotion regulation matrix. Five CEREB dimensions, including verbal behaviours and facial expressions, were evident. Motivational factors and situational conditions that impacted on customer emotion regulation in service encounters were also identified. Research limitations/implications-The findings were based on two qualitative methods. A quantitative approach should be used to further validate the suggested framework. Originality/value-Most research on emotion regulation has focused on employees. We examined the phenomenon from a customer viewpoint and in a service encounter context. As customers are not bound by employment rules and conventions, a wider range of emotion regulation behaviours were found. The study used the four-faceted emotion regulation matrix to investigate this, developing a conceptual framework that provides a foundation for future research.
The Role of Emotions in Service Encounters
Journal of Service Research, 2002
This study contributes to the services marketing literature by examining for mundane service transactions the impact of customer-displayed emotion and affect on assessments of the service encounter and the overall experience. Observational and perceptual data from customers were matched with frontline employees in 200 transaction-specific encounters. The results of this study suggest that consumers' evaluations of the service encounter correlate highly with their displayed emotions during the interaction and post-encounter mood states. Finally, the findings indicate that frontline employees' perceptions of the encounter are not aligned with those of their customers. The managerial implications of these findings are briefly discussed.
Journal of Marketing, 2006
In this study, the authors examine the effects of two facets of employee emotions on customers' assessments of service encounters. Drawing on emotional contagion and emotional labor theories, they investigate the influence of the extent of service employees' display of positive emotions and the authenticity of their emotional labor display on customers' emotional states and, subsequently, on customers' assessments of the service interaction and their relationship with the service provider. To test the study hypotheses, 223 consumers participated in a simulated service encounter in which actors played the roles of service employees. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, the employees varied both the extent of their smiling behavior and their emotional labor display by engaging in surface or deep acting. The results show that the authenticity of employees' emotional labor display directly affects customers' emotional states. However, contrary to expectations, the extent of employee smiling does not influence customer emotions, providing no support for the existence of primitive emotional contagion in service interactions. Furthermore, employee emotions exert an influence on customer outcomes that are of interest to marketers.
Is “service with a smile” enough? Authenticity of positive displays during service encounters
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2005
Service providers use impression management strategies to engender satisfaction and repeat business in customers. Managing emotional expressions is one strategy to meet those goals. We extended research on the ''Duchenne Smile'' to see if authenticity of employee expressions influenced the impressions formed of the employeeÕs friendliness and the overall satisfaction with the encounter. Furthermore, we took two other factors into account-task performance and busyness-to examine the conditions under which authenticity would have the greatest impact. In Study 1, we obtained reactions to videotaped simulations that manipulated authenticity of positive displays and task performance during a hotel check-in encounter. ANCOVA results supported that authenticity of the service provider enhanced perceptions of friendliness, but only influenced customer satisfaction when tasks were performed well. In Study 2, hierarchical linear modeling with reactions from 255 customers of 64 restaurant servers showed that perceived display authenticity enhanced the perceived friendliness of the employee when the store was slow, but less so when it was busy. Display authenticity had a direct effect on customer satisfaction, regardless of task performance (which was generally high) and busyness. We conclude that display authenticity is an extra-role behavior for service encounters with an additive effect on encounter satisfaction only when other factors are at optimal levels. We suggest implications for display rule policies and service training.
How emotional displays and service quality impact satisfaction and loyalty: A gendered look
Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 2019
Success in the restaurant industry is, in part, determined by boundary spanning service providers' ability to manage their emotions with the goal of providing excellent service while simultaneously authentically displaying the proper emotions to connect with the guest. How men and women respond to these displays of emotion is of interest, as previous scholars have demonstrated perceptions and reactions to service delivery differ across genders. This study utilized a between subject quasi-experimental design manipulating each one of the independent variables (gender, emotional labor, and service quality) in a dichotomous fashion for each scenario. The dependent variables measured were satisfaction and loyalty. The results indicated that women are more receptive to deep acting than are their male counterparts, and are thus, more likely to be loyal to an organization if deep acting is employed. How to encourage deep acting among foodservice providers is discussed.
Journal of Business Research, 2007
Much of the marketing and management literature is concerned with the relationship between service providers' positive affective displays, the consumers' perception of authentic service delivery and their reported satisfaction [Grandey AA. When "The Show Must Go On": surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Acad Manage J 2003;46(1):86-96; Tsai WC, Huang YM. Mechanisms linking employee affective delivery and customer behavioural intentions. This paper responds to the need for further research in the relationship between service providers' positive affective displays and consumers' perception of authentic service delivery; and the relationship between these and reported satisfaction [Price L, Arnould E, Tierney P. Going to extremes: managing service encounters and assessing provider performance. Grandey AA. When "The Show Must Go On": surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Acad Manage J 2003;46(1):86-96]. Research conducted with a national airline in 2003 is analysed to measure the influence of service providers' positive expressive displays on life satisfaction, overall consumption satisfaction and intention to repurchase. The findings indicate a strong positive relationship between, and within affective displays, overall service satisfaction and life satisfaction. A path model tests the direct, indirect and total effects of expressive display on overall service satisfaction, life satisfaction and likelihood of repurchase. Finally, we discuss implications for industry and academic research.
Employees' positive affective displays have been widely used as a strategic tool to enhance service experience and strengthen customer relationships. Companies have primarily focused their employee training programs on two dimensions of display: intensity and authenticity. Yet there is limited research on when, how, and why these two dimensions affect customer reactions. Drawing on the emotions as social information (EASI) framework (Van Kleef, 2009), we develop a conceptual model in which display intensity and display authenticity differentially influence customer loyalty by changing customers' affective reactions and cognitive appraisals. Further, we propose that the relative impact of either dimension depends on customers' motivation to understand the environment deeply and accurately (i.e., their epistemic motivation). We tested our model in one field study and one laboratory study. Results across these two studies provide consistent support for the proposed model and advance our understanding about how different dimensions of employees' positive affective displays enhance customer reactions. Thus, findings of this research contribute to knowledge on the interpersonal effects of emotions in customer-employee interactions.
More Than Happy to Help? Customer-Focused Emotion Management Strategies
Personnel Psychology, 2012
This paper investigates the impact of customer service representative (CSR) customer-focused emotion management strategies on expressed customer emotions, beyond the influences of emotional contagion. We propose that problem-focused strategies (situation modification and cognitive change) are likely to reduce the intensity of negative customer emotions and increase the intensity of positive customer emotions, whereas emotion-focused strategies (attentional deployment and modulating the emotional response) will have the opposite impact. Further, we propose that customer negative emotions will affect the choice of strategies CSRs employ. Based on evaluator ratings of recorded customer service calls (N = 228), our findings confirmed the positive effects of problem-focused strategies and the negative effects of emotion-focused strategies on customer-expressed emotions. In addition, we found that initial customer emotions affected the strategy used by the CSR, whereby negative emotions expressed by the customer reduced the use of the most effective strategy and increased the use of the least effective strategy. We thank Jim Quick and Mark Rosenbaum for helpful comments on drafts of this manuscript.
Tourism Analysis, 2011
A holistic approach to satisfaction and its effects seems to be particularly important in high-affect, high-involvement, and extended duration services such as those offered by many travel and tourism providers. This means understanding the complexities of service provision and its processes. Consumers value service interaction that appears sincere. For this reason, organizations expect service providers to manage their service "performance" to reflect a genuine display of positive emotions towards the customer, which has a direct impact on customer satisfaction and possibly overall life satisfaction. This study explores consumers' perception of sincerity and tests its effects on positive emotions and satisfaction in an extended duration service. The findings indicate that perceived service sincerity positively influences consumers' emotions during a service and has important direct and indirect effects on life satisfaction, service satisfaction, and intention to repurchase. Implications for managers and opportunities for further research are discussed.