A model and empirical examination of influencing factors of customer satisfaction and service performance through interactional quality

Abstract

Marketing scholars have recognized that building and maintaining strong employee-customer relationships are contributors to the performance of organizations. Empirical evidences concerning employee-customer interaction with the help of integrated framework by using the data from supervisor, employee and customer is scarce. Insights from literature, application of service profit chain and unique set of triad (supervisor, employee and customer) as a unit of analysis, enables an examination of various relational paths among the antecedents and outcomes of interactional quality and fills in the aforementioned void. This study seeks to model and empirically test key cognitive (role overload, self-efficacy, and service climate) and emotional aspects (emotional regulation) on outcome variables (interactional quality, customer satisfaction, service performance). An integrated theoretical model rooted in the reflections of emotional cognition theory, cognitive energetical theory and cognitive emotional theory is developed. A survey questionnaire on the basis of well-established measurements from the previous research studies is adopted for data collection from insurance sector of Pakistan. Data is collected with the help of purposive sampling. A total of 270 sets of survey responses are used to empirically test the measurements and propositions through structural equation modelling using AMOS 23. The findings are in support of a significant model and proposed relational paths. In general, results revealed that role overload, self-efficacy, service climate and emotional regulations lead towards customer satisfaction and service performance through interactional quality. This research offers a number of academic and practical implications. The main implication of this research is the extension in conceptual research of marketing literature by providing empirical evidence regarding employee-customer relationship. Managers should recognize that frontline employees, whether they simply interact or actually render the service are the central actor in delivering better quality services that resulted in customer satisfaction. A number of academic as well as managerial implications are proposed and discussed.