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The Impact of a Time Gap on the Process of Building a Sustainable Relationship between Employee and Customer Satisfaction

Author

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  • Lukasz Skowron

    (Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management, Lublin University of Technology, 20618 Lublin, Poland)

  • Marcin Gąsior

    (Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management, Lublin University of Technology, 20618 Lublin, Poland)

  • Monika Sak-Skowron

    (Department of Enterprise Management, Faculty of Social Sciences, Catholic University of Lublin, 20950 Lublin, Poland)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe the relationships between changes in employee indices (motivation and satisfaction) and customer indices (satisfaction and loyalty) in a single- and multi-term perspective. The article presents the results of primary research conducted in two industries (banking services and shopping centers) during three annual reference periods. The authors used the PLS-SEM method in the analytical process. The results of the research suggest that there is a strong relationship between changes in the areas of employee and customer satisfaction in the studied sectors, with a one-year time shift, which the authors called the “time gap”. In addition, it turned out that the strength of influence of the employee’s motivation level on customers is clearly lower than the strength of influence of the employee satisfaction. The occurrence of a “time gap” between employee and customer processes suggests that any changes introduced in the area of customer service as well as broadly understood human resource management policy need some time to become sustainable—to be noticed by the market and coded in the minds of the recipients of the offer as the new and currently applicable standard. The article makes a successful attempt at a long-term analysis of the relationship between employees and customers, assuming a time delay between both phenomena. As a result of the conducted research, it was possible to operationalize the discussed relationship in terms of strength and direction as well as the time shift.

Suggested Citation

  • Lukasz Skowron & Marcin Gąsior & Monika Sak-Skowron, 2020. "The Impact of a Time Gap on the Process of Building a Sustainable Relationship between Employee and Customer Satisfaction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7446-:d:411858
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Yi-Yuan Liu & Shun-Hsing Chen & Jia-Xuan Zhang, 2021. "Applying Importance–Satisfaction Model to Evaluate Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Study of Foodpanda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Agnieszka Laskowska & Jan Franciszek Laskowski, 2022. "“Silver” Generation at Work—Implications for Sustainable Human Capital Management in the Industry 5.0 Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Pawel Rymarczyk & Piotr Golabek & Sylwia Skrzypek - Ahmed & Magdalena Rzemieniak, 2021. "Profiling and Segmenting Clients with the Use of Machine Learning Algorithms," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 513-522.
    4. Hernita Hernita & Batara Surya & Iwan Perwira & Herminawaty Abubakar & Muhammad Idris, 2021. "Economic Business Sustainability and Strengthening Human Resource Capacity Based on Increasing the Productivity of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Makassar City, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-36, March.

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