Service Employee Work Performance Can Create Stronger Customer Relationships

February 02, 2023

Employee engagement is one of the major components that drive customer satisfaction and, ultimately, organizational success in the service industry.

One example of employee engagement is when service employees feel high energy levels, they are more willing to invest in their work tasks. They experience a sense of enthusiasm, dedication, and pleasure while executing work roles, which elevates their work performance. In turn, employee engagement influences customer engagement. When employees go above and beyond, customers are more likely to interact in a service relationship with a brand or organization and add value to that firm.

A new interdisciplinary study between marketing and management researchers uses meta-analysis to bridge employee and customer engagement through service employee work performance. The study, “Bridging Two Tales of Engagement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Employee Engagement in Service Contexts,” by Department of Marketing Assistant Professor Kris Lindsey Hall, along with six co-authors, is published in the Journal of Service Management

Hall explains in the video that the study aims to investigate the relationship between employee engagement and customer engagement within service contexts and explore how a mediating mechanism, service employee work performance, links with both. In the study, the authors used a meta-analysis to conduct their interdisciplinary research to help determine the magnitude and direction of the relationship between employee engagement and customer engagement. Meta-analysis is an examination of data from a number of scientific studies of the same or similar subject to determine overall trends.  

The results of the study suggest that service employee work performance, consisting of service employee task performance and contextual performance, serves as an important intervening mechanism between employee engagement and customer engagement. The findings recommend that to maximize service employee work performance, employees must go beyond simply being satisfied in their work roles. Instead, they must feel energized, find fulfillment and meaning, and be engrossed in their work to maximize the service they provide to customers, which ultimately creates a stronger customer relationship.

READ THE FULL STUDY

 

About the Journal of Service Management

The Journal of Service Management (JOSM) focuses on service management research publishing papers showing a unique and significant contribution to service literature while providing a resource for those working across the full spectrum of service management field irrespective of discipline.

 

About the E. J. Ourso College of Business

Since its establishment in 1928, the E. J. Ourso College of Business has continuously improved and expanded its offerings for students and alumni. Additionally, the college has made it a priority to provide its faculty with the resources it needs to further research in every aspect of the business world and to produce industry leaders for a global work environment. For more news and information about the E. J. Ourso College, visit lsu.edu/business

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