Task clarification, performance feedback, and social praise: Procedures for improving the customer service of bank tellers

Customer service for bank tellers was defined in terms of 11 verbal behavior categories. An audio-recording system was used to track the occurrence of behaviors in these categories for six retail banking tellers. Three behavior management interventions (task clarification, performance feedback, and social praise), applied in sequence, were designed to improve overall teller performance with regard to the behavioral categories targeted. Clarification was accomplished by providing clear delineation of the various target categories, with specific examples of the behaviors in each. Feedback entailed presentation of ongoing verbal and visual information regarding teller performance. Praise consisted of verbal recognition of teller performance by branch managers. Results showed that clarification effects emerged quickly, producing an overall increase in desired behaviors of 12% over baseline. Feedback and praise effects occurred more gradually, resulting in overall increases of 6% and 7%, respectively. A suspension of all procedures led to a decline in overall performance, whereas reinstatement of feedback and praise was again accompanied by performance improvement. These findings extend the generality of behavior management applications and help to distinguish between possible antecedent and consequent effects of performance feedback.     

顾客公平、情绪体验与员工情绪劳动的关系

采用情景故事法模拟八个顾客公平情景,对160名接线员情绪劳动进行测量,并比较不同故事情景下员工情绪劳动的差异。结果表明,公平感与员工情绪体验正相关显著,二者均与员工情绪劳动负相关显著;在顾客对员工自身或同事公平的情景下,完成情绪劳动付出的意志努力显著低于在顾客对员工自身或同事不公情景中付出意志努力;但在顾客对员工或同事一方不公平及都不公平情景下,情绪劳动差异不显著,员工完成情绪劳动均需付出的较高意志努力,但会显著高于顾客对员工或同事都公平的情景中完成情绪劳动付出的意志努力,即无论顾客对员工自己不公平还是对同事不公平及二者都不公平,只要有不公平情境的存在,员工都需要付出较多的意志努力完成情绪劳动。     

Transmettre la relation de service par l’interaction tutorale: le cas des facteurs

Based on data gathered from naturalistic observation, the article analyses the communicative activity implemented by postmen involved in tutoring users and their apprentices. The occupational situation observed is that of mail distribution, and the critical moments selected are those which bring customer relations into play. We examine the role of the other in the way three tutors pass on their customer relations skills. We show that their means of interaction and understanding situations differ widely.     

Preintervention analysis and improvement of customer greeting in a restaurant

We examined customer greeting by employees at one location of a sandwich restaurant chain. First, a preintervention analysis was conducted to determine the conditions under which greeting a customer within 3 s of his or her entry into the restaurant did and did not occur. Results suggested that an appropriate customer greeting was most likely to occur when a door chime was used to indicate that a customer had entered the store and when the store manager was present behind the service counter. Next, a performance improvement intervention, which consisted of the combination of the use of a door chime and manager presence, was evaluated. Results showed that during baseline, a mean of 6% of customers were greeted; during intervention a mean of 63% of customers were greeted. The addition of manager-delivered verbal and graphic group feedback resulted in 100% of customers being greeted across two consecutive sessions.     

共享经济背景下顾客公民行为和不当行为：基于社会困境理论的视角

共享经济(个体供方对个体顾客的共享模式如小猪短租平台)中顾客公民行为的促进和不当行为的治理, 成为保证共享经济可持续发展的重要议题。然而, 现有顾客行为相关研究更多是在传统经济背景下进行的探讨, 而涉及到共享经济背景下的研究难以体现共享经济的特色, 导致其未能很好地解决实践困境。上述顾客行为是在个人和集体利益发生冲突时的抉择, 即社会困境。社会困境理论可以帮助企业全面认识顾客公民行为和不当行为并有效解决困境问题。本研究拟基于社会困境理论, 探讨以下三个方面的问题: (1) 深入剖析共享经济中顾客公民行为和不当行为的概念、维度及其测量; (2) 揭示平台、供方和政府通过规则制定或社会影响策略来有效优化顾客行为的路径; (3) 阐明顾客公民和不当行为的差异性影响机制, 以及顾客社会价值导向和供方监督对顾客行为的调节作用。本研究有助于拓展现有顾客公民和不当行为的研究, 为平台、供方和政府管理提供重要参考。     

品牌信任和品牌情感：究竟谁导致了品牌忠诚?—— 一个动态研究

现有关于品牌忠诚影响因素的相关研究发现, 品牌信任和品牌情感是品牌忠诚的决定因素。尽管也有很多学者认为应该从动态的视角认识忠诚的概念, 但是现有文献却没有随着时间推移来研究消费者品牌忠诚的发展过程。为了弥补现有营销文献中这一理论的不足, 本文提供了一个关于品牌情感和品牌信任同时影响品牌忠诚形成过程的动态研究。通过一个纵向情境模拟实验研究发现随着时间的推移, 品牌信任对品牌忠诚的影响作用增强了, 而品牌情感的影响作用减弱了。并且, 消费者对品牌的不一致性体验会削弱这种效应。最后, 研究指出品牌情感和品牌信任对品牌忠诚共同的影响作用随着消费经验的积累显著增强。     

The Need for Speed: Agility Selling

In turbulent business times, organizations have sought to become more agile. Organizational agility has been asserted to require workforce agility, but thus far, little focus has been given to workers. Traditionally, salespeople have sought ways to differentiate themselves and create advantage for customers. This paper asserts that, in order to continue this tradition of differentiation and advantage, salespeople must engage in agility thinking. Agility has been studied as it applies to manufacturing processes and other firm activities. Agile salespeople have a mental dexterity at the point of customer contact. They are quick to observe opportunities and are able to anticipate customers’ ever-changing needs, wants, and preferences. This paper presents a framework for agility selling, applying concepts from the agility manufacturing literature and proffering distinct characteristics of sales force agility.     

There is more than obeying display rules: Service employees’ motives for emotion regulation in customer interactions

Although research has focused on how service employees regulate their emotions, few studies have explored why they do so. In this article, we first described which kinds of motives for emotion regulation exist in customer interactions. Second, we investigated how the motives are related to four emotion regulation strategies. The application of an explorative approach resulted in a list of 10 motives, which could be classified into the three motive categories: pleasure, prevention, and instrumental. Hierarchical linear modelling of 421 reported service interactions from a diary study revealed that the motive categories were differently related to the emotion regulation strategies. Motives of the instrumental category were only significantly positively related to surface acting. Motives of the pleasure category were positively related to deep acting and automatic regulation as well as negatively related to surface acting and emotional deviance. Motives of the prevention category were positively related to deep acting, surface acting, and emotional deviance as well as negatively related to automatic regulation. These results can be used by organizations not only to enhance the motivation of employees towards emotion regulation, but also towards more authentic emotional expressions.     

Organizational justice and extrarole customer service: The mediating role of well-being at work

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model of extrarole customer service (ERCS). We propose that organizational justice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational) promotes well-being at work (low burnout and high engagement). Well-being at work, in turn, engenders more effective ERCS. Thus, well-being at work is considered a mediator of the relationships from organizational justice to ERCS. This fully mediated model was compared to an alternative fully direct model. The sample consisted of 317 contact employees who were working in the Spanish service sector. The results of structural equation modelling supported the importance of the mediating role of the positive side of well-being at work (engagement) in the relationship between organizational justice and ERCS. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications.     

The role of formal information sharing in key account team effectiveness: does informal control matter and when

Team selling is a useful approach for retaining strategically important accounts in business-to-business markets. For key account sales teams, ensuring adequate access to information about customer needs offers sustainable competitive advantages. However, the internal alignment of market information remains a recurring managerial issue in key account team selling. This study develops a moderated mediation model to identify management strategies that encourage team members' formal information sharing, which in turn improves team effectiveness. Analysis of a multilevel data set comprising 37 fluid key account teams reveals that customer orientation and task interdependence increase formal information sharing among team members. Managers' exercise of professional control strengthens the positive impact that formal information sharing has on team satisfaction. However, the practice has a dysfunctional influence on the positive effect of task interdependence on formal information sharing. Firms with key account management (KAM) programs must decide whether the marginal benefits attained by advocating such professional control outweigh the possible drawbacks.