More Than Happy to Help? Customer-Focused Emotion Management Strategies (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.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2018
Emotional expressions have a pervasive impact on organizational behavior. However, it is unclear how such effects are modulated by the intensity of emotional displays. We investigated in online, laboratory, and field experiments how varying intensities of service providers' emotional displays (expressed through text, intonation, or physical displays) influence customer service outcomes. We show that in mundane service interactions, displays of intense happiness or sadness are interpreted as inappropriate and inauthentic, and lead to reduced trust in the service provider. We further demonstrate the mediating effect of trust on satisfaction with the service (Study 1), expected satisfaction with the product (Studies 2 and 3), and actual product use (Study 4). The studies highlight perceptions of appropriateness and sincerity as mechanisms underlying the interpersonal effects of emotional intensity. We propose that emotional intensity be incorporated in theorizing and research on organizational behavior to arrive at a more complete understanding of emotional dynamics.
Emotion regulation in customer service roles: testing a model of emotional labor
Journal of Occupational Health …, 2003
The study used a time-sampling method to test aspects of A. emotion regulation model of emotional labor. Eighteen customer service employees from a call center recorded data on pocket computers every 2 hr at work for 2 weeks. Participants completed ratings of emotion regulation, events, expressed and felt emotions, well-being, and performance on 537 occasions and completed questionnaires containing individual and organizational measures. Multilevel analyses supported many aspects of the model but indicated that it has to be implemented precisely in terms of regulating emotion for organizational goals. Results also showed that deep and surface acting had different consequences for employees. Overall, the study found that emotion regulation is a viable platform for understanding emotional labor.
ADVANCES IN BUSINESS RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
This study examines the role of customers‟ emotional reactions in the context of customer service experiences. It investigates how retail banking customers‟ emotional responses to retail banking services to affect their overall banking experience. In the context of retail banking, excellent customer service experiences could be interpreted as just meeting the expectations of the retail banking customers, not any sort of exceeding of failing short of the expectations. Most of the banks try to achieve competitive advantage by taking the responses of the retail banking customers beyond the level of „just service satisfied‟ towards „exceeding their service expectations‟. Therefore, this study attempts to fill this gap by examining the relationship between customers‟ emotional reactions and excellent customer service experiences in banking sector. Structured questionnaires were distributed to 320 retail banking customers using purposive sampling technique in the area of Klang Valley. The...
Academy of Management Journal, 2009
In this research, we extend emotional labor theories to the customer domain by developing and testing a theoretical model of the effects of employee emotional labor on customer outcomes. Dyadic survey data from 285 service interactions between employees and customers show that employees' emotional labor strategies of deep and surface acting differentially influence customers' service evaluations and that customers' accuracy in detecting employees' strategies can intensify this impact. We also investigate the potential moderating effects of service type on the relationship between emotional labor and customer outcomes but find no support for such an effect.
Influence of emotions displayed by employees during service recovery
Spanish Journal of Marketing - ESIC
Purpose While research evidences how customers’ emotions can influence their consumer experience, understanding of how employees’ displayed emotions affect the customer service experience is more limited. Drawing on affect transfer theory, the authors test for the mediating role of attitude towards the employee, which is proposed to mediate the effect of employees’ displayed emotion on customers’ satisfaction with recovery. As service recovery entails a critical service experience in which emotions can easily rise, this paper aims to highlight the pivotal role of employee-displayed emotions during service recovery. Methodology A scenario-based experiment in the context of an airline service failure recovery (3 × 2 between-subjects design) manipulates frontline employees’ emotions (anger vs happiness vs no specific emotion) and the quality of the solution (bad vs good). Findings Employees’ displayed emotions directly affect attitude towards the employee and indirectly affect service ...
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2010
This paper assesses the impact of the service worker's display of emotions (i.e., one aspect of functional service quality) on customer satisfaction under the conditions of different levels of technical service quality by means of an experimental approach (N =600), in which display of emotions (unhappiness vs. happiness) and technical service quality (poor vs. good) were manipulated. The results indicate that the impact of the service worker's emotional display behavior on customer satisfaction is contingent on the level of technical service quality, in the sense that customer satisfaction is affected only when technical service quality is good rather than poor. Encouraging a positive display (e.g., by a smile policy), which many service firms do, is thus not a panacea for improved customer satisfaction. The moderating effect is explained in terms of service encounter congruency, which influences the mediated process by which emotional displays by service workers come to affect customer satisfaction.
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.