The effect of stress on customer perception of the frontline employee: an experimental study

Abstract

This article examines positive effects of customer stress drawn upon the theory of excitation transfer. Contrary to previous marketing and management literature, the present study focuses on positive outcomes of stress based on a study by Dutton and Aron (J Pers Soc Psychol 30(4):510-517, 1974), who found increasing interpersonal attraction in stressful situations in a private context. The present study examines whether these findings can be applied to a service context and how interpersonal liking affects customer's employee perception and customer-related responses. An experimental laboratory study (N = 104), including a service-employee interaction and a psychological stress induction (Social Evaluative Cold-Water Pressure Test [SECPT]), was conducted. Results indicate a positive effect of stress on relationship quality constructs (relationship trust, commitment, satisfaction, and relationship investment) and partially on behavioral constructs, fully mediated by the customer's interpersonal liking of the service employee. The present research contributes to marketing and management literature in two ways: it highlights (a) the importance of context and emotion for the perception of the employee, and (b) the relevance of interpersonal liking of the service employee for the long-term customer relationship.

Construction, validation and generalization of SERVSTRESS: a measure for service induced customer stress

“…Researchers have underlined the subjective nature of stress, as it may result from a perceived gap between the demands and abilities of an individual (Maier and Wilken, 2014;Papen et al, 2019). As personality is an individual ability and even consumption demands have a lot of subjectivity, we argue that individual personality styles would influence the perceived stress of service customers.…”

“…Research on stress has received high importance in behavioral and social science since five decades, but in the marketing literature, the emphasis is very less (Meesala and Paul, 2018;Paul and Sahadev, 2018;Papen et al, 2019). Early marketing studies on stress have focused on life changes, consumption habits and how people cope up with stress (Lee et al, 2001).…”

Airline service: low-cost-carriers (LCCs) failure and passenger emotional experience

“…For example: When passengers regard an uncomfortable position related to their goals, they perceive that their ego is jeopardized and they need to take immediate action to stop the situation. However, when a firm failed to treat the source of stress correctly, it can generate lower relationship trust, commitment, satisfaction and quality of relationship (Papen et al, 2019).…”

Maintenance Strategies and Long-Distance Relationships: An Adaption of Theories from Interpersonal Relationship Research to Marketing

“…Both are widely discussed aspects in marketing (e.g., Garbarino & Johnson, 1999;Maier & Wilken, 2014;Moschis, 2007). Current studies (e.g., Etkin, Evangelidis, & Aaker, 2015;Papen, Niemand, Siems, & Kraus, 2018) show that it can even bring about positive effects in B2C relations. This leads to the question of whether this positive effect can also be identified in the context of LDR in the long term.…”