The effect of frontline employees’ personal self-disclosure on consumers’ encounter experience

Andersson, Pernille; Gustafsson, Anders; Kristensson, Per; Wästlund, Erik

doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.12.004

Cited by 19 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…For example, Gremler and Gwinner (2008) show that conversations in faceto-face retail encounters encourage enjoyable customer interactions and foster closer business relationships. Yet Andersson et al (2016) find that banking customers often prefer business-like interactions and regard FLEs using humor as less competent. These mixed results highlight the need to acknowledge the service context when predicting the influence of FLE friendliness on relationship quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…An FLE might go the extra mile and ask customers for personal details about their lives, moving the business relationship to a personal level rather than focusing strictly on providing the core service (Jacobs et al, 2001). Andersson et al (2016) find that service providers increasingly compel FLEs to build customer relationships by self-disclosing information about themselves too. Many FLEs already engage in social talk that is unrelated to the core service, such as weather conditions or personal interests, which creates more enjoyable, intimate interactions (Ryoo, 2005).…”

Section: Dimensions' Definitions Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dimensionality of frontline employee friendliness in service encounters

Boninsegni

Furrer

Mattila³

2020

JOSM

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PurposeThis article explores four dimensions of frontline employee (FLE) friendliness (humorous, informal, conversational, and approachable) to propose a relevant measurement instrument of the influence of FLE friendliness on relationship quality and perceived value, as well as its indirect influence on repatronage intentions. Recent studies suggest FLE friendliness, defined as a tendency to convey an affective customer–employee social interaction, is a critical determinant of relationship marketing, but few scholars agree on its dimensionality. This study seeks a deeper understanding of FLE friendliness by investigating its different dimensions in various service contexts.Design/methodology/approachThe mixed-method design, including both qualitative and quantitative research, offers a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of FLE friendliness.FindingsThe content analysis suggests FLE friendliness is multidimensional and composed of humorous, informal, conversational, and approachable behaviors. The results of a quantitative survey, conducted across four service contexts, validate this four-factor model. A second quantitative survey across two service contexts reveals the weights and relative importance of the dimensions, and then a third quantitative survey across three service contexts confirms that FLE friendliness is a significant driver of relationship quality, perceived value, and repatronage intentions (indirectly).Originality/valueThis study contributes to relationship marketing literature by strengthening the conceptual foundations of FLE friendliness, clarifying the dimensionality of the construct, developing a comprehensive measurement instrument, and extending previous research on the customer–employee interactions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Dimensions' Definitions Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dimensionality of frontline employee friendliness in service encounters

Boninsegni

Furrer

Mattila³

2020

JOSM

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“…Among the measures found to produce thought-provoking effects in various sales settings are employee attributes ranging from bust size (Lynn, 2009), tattoos (Huneke, Benoit, Shams, & Gustafsson, 2015), and lipstick (Guéguen & Jacob, 2012) to athletic appearance (Otterbring, Ringler, Sirianni, & Gustafsson, 2018), posture (Lynn & Mynier, 1993), and interpersonal touch (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984), all of which exert a powerful impact on key customer outcomes. The same holds for verbal tactics, such as question-based nudging strategies (Kristensson, Wästlund, & Söderlund, 2017), greetings (Otterbring, Ringler, Sirianni, & Gustafsson, 2013), and employee-initiated self-disclosure (Andersson, Gustafsson, Kristensson, & Wästlund, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Clothes, condoms, and customer satisfaction: The effect of employee mere presence on customer satisfaction depends on the shopping situation

Otterbring

2018

Psychology and Marketing

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Few studies have examined how customers respond to the mere presence of others in the shopping environment, and only one article (Söderlund, ) has investigated the unique impact that employee presence has on key customer outcomes. Söderlund () found that customers entering a store with an employee present (vs. absent) reported significantly higher levels of customer satisfaction, with their increased levels of pleasurable feelings mediating this effect. However, similar to the majority of theorizing on customer satisfaction, that article was restricted to data collected in a Western society. Given the rapid economic growth in many Asian regions, there is a need to examine the applicability of such Western‐based findings from an Asian perspective, and hence include participants from Eastern societies. Accordingly, the present research investigated whether Söderlund's () results could be replicated among Asian customers. The current work also sought to extend prior findings beyond pleasure and customer satisfaction while simultaneously documenting a boundary condition for the hitherto positive employee mere presence effects. To this end, two between‐subjects experiments with a total sample of 498 Chinese customers were conducted. Study 1, which involved a shopping situation in a clothing store, replicated Söderlund's () main results and further found that employee mere presence (vs. absence) had a significant positive impact on customers’ loyalty intentions. These results were reversed in Study 2, in which the shopping situation involved the purchase of an embarrassing product. Under such circumstances, employee presence (vs. absence) consistently produced negative effects on customers’ levels of pleasure, satisfaction, and loyalty intentions.

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“…Use Renren to do the information collection: including the number of friends, published log number, the number of the States, and friends reply to log and status, the owner return number, photo number, upload the number of photos oneself, expressions, such as smile, serious, pose, and sad [6].…”

Section: Network Self-disclosure Questionnairementioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Among College Students' Internet Self-Disclosure, Self - Esteem and Mental Health

Yu¹

2017

HSS

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Abstract:This study was to explore the relationship between psychological development of college students and the degree of self-disclosure on social networks from two aspects of self-esteem and mental health. Through questionnaire analysis, analyzed 172 college students' social web page (take Renren as example) self-disclosure (including the number of friends, published state, log, upload photos and text reply information etc.) correlated with self-esteem and mental health. Results: there was a significant difference between male and female college students in the degree of network disclosure; there was a significant correlation between the degree of disclosure and self-esteem of college students in the log reply and the number of the owner recovery log; the relationship between the number of friends, the number of log reply and the number of photos shows the relationship between the disclosure level and the mental health. Conclusions indicate that appropriate information disclosure has a good effect on the maintenance of mental health.

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The effect of frontline employees’ personal self-disclosure on consumers’ encounter experience

Cited by 19 publications

References 45 publications

Dimensionality of frontline employee friendliness in service encounters

Dimensionality of frontline employee friendliness in service encounters

Clothes, condoms, and customer satisfaction: The effect of employee mere presence on customer satisfaction depends on the shopping situation

The Relationship Among College Students' Internet Self-Disclosure, Self - Esteem and Mental Health

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The effect of frontline employees’ personal self-disclosure on consumers’ encounter experience

Cited by 19 publications

References 45 publications

Dimensionality of frontline employee friendliness in service encounters

Dimensionality of frontline employee friendliness in service encounters

Clothes, condoms, and customer satisfaction: The effect of employee mere presence on customer satisfaction depends on the shopping situation

The Relationship Among College Students&apos; Internet Self-Disclosure, Self - Esteem and Mental Health

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The Relationship Among College Students' Internet Self-Disclosure, Self - Esteem and Mental Health