IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v43y2018icp46-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The proactive employee on the floor of the store and the impact on customer satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • Söderlund, Magnus

Abstract

The present study examines employee proactivity (i.e., the employee initiates face-to-face contact with the customer on the floor of the store) and its impact on customer satisfaction. Two empirical studies (one survey and one field experiment) were conducted in a grocery retailing context. Both studies showed that employee proactivity boosted customer satisfaction. Moreover, the impact of employee proactivity on satisfaction was sequentially mediated by perceived employee effort and perceived employee performance. In relation to previous studies showing that many characteristics and behaviors of the employee in the service encounter influence the customer, the present study contributes by adding that the way in which the service encounter begins is causally potent, too.

Suggested Citation

  • Söderlund, Magnus, 2018. "The proactive employee on the floor of the store and the impact on customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 46-53.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:43:y:2018:i:c:p:46-53
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.02.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698917306380
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.02.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Riccardo Peccei & Patrice Rosenthal, 2001. "Delivering Customer‐Oriented Behaviour through Empowerment: An Empirical Test of HRM Assumptions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 831-857, September.
    2. Söderlund, Magnus & Colliander, Jonas, 2015. "Loyalty program rewards and their impact on perceived justice, customer satisfaction, and repatronize intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 47-57.
    3. Brady, Michael K. & Cronin, J. Jr. & Brand, Richard R., 2002. "Performance-only measurement of service quality: a replication and extension," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 17-31, January.
    4. Söderlund, Magnus & Sagfossen, Sofie, 2017. "The consumer experience: The impact of supplier effort and consumer effort on customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 219-229.
    5. Neil A. Morgan & Lopo Leotte Rego, 2006. "The Value of Different Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Metrics in Predicting Business Performance," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 426-439, September.
    6. Haas, Alexander & Kenning, Peter, 2014. "Utilitarian and Hedonic Motivators of Shoppers’ Decision to Consult with Salespeople," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 428-441.
    7. Xinshu Zhao & John G. Lynch & Qimei Chen, 2010. "Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(2), pages 197-206, August.
    8. Kirmani, Amna & Wright, Peter, 1989. "Money Talks: Perceived Advertising Expense and Expected Product Quality," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(3), pages 344-353, December.
    9. Bateman, Thomas S. & Crant, J. Michael, 1999. "Proactive behavior: Meaning, impact, recommendations," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 63-70.
    10. Mohr, Lois A. & Bitner, Mary Jo, 1995. "The role of employee effort in satisfaction with service transactions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 239-252, March.
    11. Ambler, Tim & Hollier, E. Ann, 2004. "The Waste in Advertising Is the Part That Works," Journal of Advertising Research, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(4), pages 375-389, December.
    12. Matthew Rabin & Joel L. Schrag, 1999. "First Impressions Matter: A Model of Confirmatory Bias," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 37-82.
    13. Andrea C. Morales, 2005. "Giving Firms an "E" for Effort: Consumer Responses to High-Effort Firms," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 31(4), pages 806-812, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Söderlund, Magnus & Sagfossen, Sofie, 2017. "The consumer experience: The impact of supplier effort and consumer effort on customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 219-229.
    2. Söderlund, Magnus, 2020. "Employee encouragement of self-disclosure in the service encounter and its impact on customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Mai Thi My-Quyen & Le Nguyen Hau & Pham Ngoc Thuy, 2020. "Mindful co-creation of transformative service for better well-being," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 14(3), pages 413-437, September.
    4. Alba, George & Slongo, Luiz Antonio, 2020. "Getting a no-reply is also a reply: An investigation of unreplied consumer attributions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Simona Romani & Silvia Grappi & Richard Bagozzi, 2013. "Explaining Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility: The Role of Gratitude and Altruistic Values," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 193-206, May.
    6. Japutra, Arnold & Septianto, Felix & Can, Ali Selcuk, 2022. "Feeling grateful versus happy? The effects of emotional appeals in advertisements on self-made products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    7. Ryan W. Buell & Michael I. Norton, 2011. "The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1564-1579, February.
    8. Uhrich, Sebastian, 2011. "Explaining non-linear customer density effects on shoppers’ emotions and behavioral intentions in a retail context: The mediating role of perceived control," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 405-413.
    9. Hepworth, Adam & Young Lee, Na & Zablah, Alex R., 2021. "Feeling anxious: The dark side of checkout charity solicitations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 330-342.
    10. Karsten Hadwich & Corina Keller, 2015. "Interne Servicequalität in Unternehmen: Eine empirische Untersuchung der Einflussfaktoren und Auswirkungen," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 170-205, May.
    11. Ndubisi, Nelson Oly & Nataraajan, Rajan & Lai, Rebecca, 2014. "Customer perception and response to ethical norms in legal services marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 369-377.
    12. Jeremy S. Wolter & Dora Bock & Jeremy Mackey & Pei Xu & Jeffery S. Smith, 2019. "Employee satisfaction trajectories and their effect on customer satisfaction and repatronage intentions," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(5), pages 815-836, September.
    13. Sammon, Rachel & Kwon, Kyoung-Nan, 2015. "Host׳s interpersonal influence on guests in a home sales party," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 32-38.
    14. Syed Muhammad Fazal-e-Hasan & Gary Mortimer & Ian Lings & Harjit Sekhon & Kerry Howell, 2021. "Managing Relationships: Insights from a Student Gratitude Model," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(1), pages 98-119, February.
    15. ChihChien Chen & YangSu Chen, 2017. "The impacts of different types of cuisines and restaurants on gratuities," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 16(2), pages 154-173, April.
    16. Anna G. Devlin & Wedad Elmaghraby & Rebecca W. Hamilton, 2018. "Why do suppliers choose wholesale price contracts? End-of-season payments disincentivize retailer marketing effort," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 212-233, March.
    17. Ramakrishna Salagrama & Sanjeev Prashar & T. Sai Vijay, 2021. "Do customers exhibit gratitude after service recovery? Understanding the moderating role of relationship type," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 15(4), pages 757-779, December.
    18. Pez, Virginie & Butori, Raphaëlle & de Kerviler, Gwarlann, 2015. "Because I'm worth it: The impact of given versus perceived status on preferential treatment effectiveness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2477-2483.
    19. Hanif Hanif, 2018. "New Productivity Concept Based on Local Wisdom: Lessons from Indonesia," GATR Journals jmmr186, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    20. Namin Kim & EuiSik Cho & Youngchan Kim & Moonkyu Lee, 2009. "Developing an effective strategic mix of corporate philanthropy," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(7), pages 1049-1062, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:43:y:2018:i:c:p:46-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.