Drivers of sales force equity in the service industry

Echchakoui, Saïd

doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.07.013

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 100 publications

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“…Extant research has examined how different front-line employees' behaviors and actions, such as adaptation and personalization (Ball et al, 2006;Hartline and Ferrell, 1996); ethical practices (Román and Ruiz, 2005), listening behaviors (Román, 2014), organizational citizenship behaviors (Fernández-Sabiote and Román, 2009), customer-oriented behaviors and other relational behaviors (Bock et al, 2016;Echchakoui, 2015;Hennig-Thurau, 2004;Huang, 2008;Kim, 2009), influence the service relationship as perceived by customers. This stream of research offers several key insights as to how such behaviors impact customers' expectations and final perceptions of the service provider.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teleological sales and purchase approaches in complex business relationships – customers’ expectations before and perceptions after purchase

Rodriǵuez

Svensson

Román

et al. 2018

JBIM

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the actions and interactions that take place before and after purchase between a service provider (service seller) and its customers (service buyers) in complex business relationships. Specifically, it is to examine customers’ expectations of the service provider’s service offer before purchase and the same customers’ perceptions of the service solution offered after purchase in a business-to-business (B2B) context. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a mixed methods design, which combined data generated through in-depth interviews (both with service buyers and key informants from the service company), an online customer survey, analysis of textual documents and structured observations of buyer–seller interactions and actions. Both objective and subjective points of view at different stages of the investigation were collected. Findings The authors’ results show that, contrary to previous evidence in B2C service research, the customers’ perceptions of the service performance were not significantly related to their previous expectations. In this context, characterized by dynamic and constantly evolving processes and many parties (both from the buyer and the seller company) involved in the implementation process, service complexity may cause a lack of well-formed expectations regarding how the service will perform and its relevant performance attributes. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that the service models traditionally used to describe and explain customer service expectations and perceptions in relatively simple service contexts with final consumers are difficult to apply in B2B complex business relationships. Rather, scholars need to take a holistic, continuously evolving and adapted perspective when examining the formation of customer service expectations and their perceptions in B2B complex services. Practical implications There should be a teleological balance between sales and purchase approaches in B2B contexts to optimize the outcome of complex business relationships between service providers and service receivers. The authors suggest several recommendations to service providers to ensure that their salespeople do not create unrealistic and unachievable expectations in the minds of the service receivers. Service providers are also encouraged to develop formal cross functional teams (e.g. consisting of salespeople, service technicians and service support) based on mutual understanding and information sharing. Originality/value This study provides an alternative time-oriented understanding of the way customer expectations before purchase and their perceptions after purchasing a complex software solution in industrial markets formed through the lens of teleological framework. As such, this is the first empirical inquiry with this specific framework in B2B contexts making a relevant contribution to literature.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teleological sales and purchase approaches in complex business relationships – customers’ expectations before and perceptions after purchase

Rodriǵuez

Svensson

Román

et al. 2018

JBIM

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“…2.5.3 Loyalty to the employee. Despite a significant amount of customer loyalty research as it relates to specific brands or firms, there is very little research that investigates customer loyalty to a specific employee (Echchakoui, 2015). Loyalty to the employee represents a customer's commitment to a specific service provider within the service firm (Salegna and Fazel, 2011).…”

Section: Tipping Intentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An investigation of how emotional labor can lead to loyalty or financial benefits, such as increased tips, represents an important relationship to examine. Furthermore, the influence of employee loyalty, as opposed to firm loyalty, is rarely examined, despite the fact that customer loyalty takes different forms in service contexts (Echchakoui, 2015;Salegna and Fazel, 2011). The study of loyalty to the employee is especially important in hospitality and tourism as many customers are loyal to specific employees, such as a specific bartender or server, and thus, this attachment induces customer preferences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observer reactions to other customer incivility

Kim

Baker

2019

Int J Contemp Hospitality Mngt

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Purpose -This study aims to examine the observing customer's reactions, namely, gratitude, loyalty to the employee and tipping intention while observing other customer incivility during another customer service failure and the frontline employee's emotional labor strategy.Design/methodology/approach -A 2 (emotional labor strategy: deep acting vs surface acting) by 2 (service consumption criticality: high vs low) experiment is used to test the hypotheses.Findings -The results reveal that observing an employee's deep acting emotional labor (vs surface acting) leads to a greater level of gratitude among the affected customers and promotes their tipping and loyalty to the employee. However, there is no significant interaction effect of service consumption criticality and emotional labor strategy on customer gratitude.Research limitations/implications -This research builds upon the social servicescape, customer misbehavior and emotional labor literature by examining previously untested relationships.Practical implications -In cases of other customer service failure, managers should effectively communicate to their employees how their emotional labor induces positive customer feedback. Currently, emotional labor is emphasized mostly regarding its negative effects on employees, but this research suggests that serving the recovery expectation of the affected customers, especially when it is served with authentic emotional displays, can promote increased tipping and loyalty behavior.Originality/value -No research investigates customers' emotional and behavioral reactions to employee emotional labor in the context of other customer service failure.

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“…Group discussions, training, workshops and other strategies help employees perform according to brand promises (Heskett and Schlesinger, 1994), which motivate employees to become a part of a particular brand in the long term (Hajdin, 2005). Echchakoui (2015) explained that employee loyalty through equity occurs when an employee shows loyalty to a company, which increases the output of all efforts, e.g., training, role clarity, briefing, etc., which have utilized by an organization on its employees.…”

Section: Organizational Loyaltymentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of internal branding on customer-based brand equity with mediating effect of organizational loyalty

Hasni

Salo

Naeem³

et al. 2018

IJRDM

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Purpose Branding has become a permanent source of competitive advantage for any leading business. Predominantly, it is execution inside the organization for employees. The purpose of this paper is to measure the influence of internal branding (IB) on customers-based brand equity (CBBE) and the mediating effect of organizational loyalty (OL) between two retail store chains of an under developing country (e.g. Pakistan). Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on primary data. Data were collected from frontline officers and customers of selected retail stores. Descriptive analysis, mediation analysis and independent sample t-test data analysis techniques were applied through smart PLS and SPSS. Findings The results of the study revealed that IB influences OL and CBBE. The outcomes showed the mediation effect of OL on the relationship between IB and CBBE partially. Furthermore, results of this papers also disclosed a difference in the levels of IB and OL in both organizations. But, there was no difference in the level of brand equity among customers of both retail stores. Practical implications The retail store sector is growing at fast pace with new innovations in all dimensions of the sector. These results could help the retail industry with empirical pieces of evidence to implement IB in their organizations to make the strong relationship between store and customer through efficient and well-trained frontline officers. Originality/value The study’s noteworthy contribution to the industry and academic world is the empirical support for the relationship between IB and CBBE. This study has explored the IB in the service sector (i.e. the retail store) from the non-western and under developing context.

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Drivers of sales force equity in the service industry

Cited by 14 publications

References 100 publications

Teleological sales and purchase approaches in complex business relationships – customers’ expectations before and perceptions after purchase

Teleological sales and purchase approaches in complex business relationships – customers’ expectations before and perceptions after purchase

Observer reactions to other customer incivility

Impact of internal branding on customer-based brand equity with mediating effect of organizational loyalty

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