Influence of emotions displayed by employees during service recovery

  1. María Sicilia 1
  2. M. Carmen Caro-Jiménez 1
  3. Estela Fernandez-Sabiote 1
  1. 1 University of Murcia, Spain
Journal:
Spanish journal of marketing-ESIC

ISSN: 2444-9695,  2444-9709

Year of publication: 2021

Volume: 25

Issue: 3

Pages: 392-408

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1108/SJME-07-2021-0146 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Spanish journal of marketing-ESIC

Abstract

Purpose – While research evidences how customers’ emotions can influence their consumer experience, understanding of how employees’ displayed emotions affect the customer service experience is more limited. Drawing on affect transfer theory, the authors test for the mediating role of attitude towards the employee, which is proposed to mediate the effect of employees’ displayed emotion on customers’ satisfaction with recovery. As service recovery entails a critical service experience in which emotions can easily rise, this paper aims to highlight the pivotal role of employee-displayed emotions during service recovery. Methodology – A scenario-based experiment in the context of an airline service failure recovery (3 2 between-subjects design) manipulates frontline employees’ emotions (anger vs happiness vs no specific emotion) and the quality of the solution (bad vs good). Findings – Employees’ displayed emotions directly affect attitude towards the employee and indirectly affect service recovery satisfaction. Moreover, attitude towards the employee is affected more by the employee’s displayed emotion when the solution offered is bad compared to good. Practical implications – Employees’ emotions displayed during service recovery can enhance or damage service recovery strategies. Employees should control for negative emotions in the case of service failure, especially when unable to provide a good solution. Originality – Emotions displayed by employees can influence the customer’s service recovery evaluations. There is an interesting interaction between the quality of the solution and employees’ displayed emotions. Additionally, the mantra of “service with a smile” may not be valid in the case of service recovery: rather, employees should avoid displaying negative emotions

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Funding information

This research was funded by Fundaci?n Catedra de Cajamurcia.

Funders

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