Face Forward: How Employees’ Digital Presence on Service Websites Affects Customer Perceptions of Website and Employee Service Quality
Journal
Journal of Marketing Research
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2020-07-15
Author(s)
Abstract
Confronted with increasing digitalization, service firms are challenged to sustain customer loyalty. A promising means to do so is to leverage the digital presence of service employees on their website. A large-scale field study and several experimental studies show that the digital presence of service employees on the firm website increases current website service quality perceptions and positively shapes memories related to employee service quality perceptions from past service encounters. Both effects indirectly increase customer loyalty and, in turn, financial performance, and are amplified by employee accessibility and a service firm’s customer orientation. The authors examine further boundary conditions for the memory process: only service employees evoke the beneficial spillover effect to employee service quality perceptions, and the spillover effect does not generalize to evaluations of product quality. Remarkably, an employee’s digital presence, although factually unrelated, augments customer perceptions of service employees’ competence and commitment and thus strengthens rather than erodes service employees’ role in customer–firm relationships. Theoretical and managerial implications deepen the understanding of how to add a human touch to digital channels.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Sage Journals
Volume
57
Number
5
Start page
917
End page
936
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
261025
File(s)![Vorschaubild]()
cris-layout.advanced-attachment.dc.title
JMR 2020 # Face Forward - How Employees’ Digital Presence on Service Websites.pdf
cris-layout.advanced-attachment.size
461.97 KB
cris-layout.advanced-attachment.format
Adobe PDF
cris-layout.advanced-attachment.checksum (MD5)
dfdfda3b404877cd25351d3ad1f7f522