Cécile Delcourt, University of Liege, Belgium
Dwayne D. Gremler, Bowling Green State University
Allard C. R. van Riel, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Marcel van Birgelen, Radboud University, The Netherlands
As strategies move from targeting the “mass market” to “molecular market,” more companies are focusing on providing individualized solutions for their customers. This customization trend crosses many lines of business, but for services, execution can be more complex. That is because front-line employees are at the heart of the service delivery, and they are also responsible for the customization. Although the employee’s role is more critical than ever, very little about their roles and behaviors in the customization process has been explored in past research.
One of the biggest challenges facing companies right now is how to keep a distributed workforce motivated and productive. For some employees working from home is a gift. It beats the traffic, trains and planes it takes to get where you need to be, and employees feel more focused than ever. For others, however, it is a struggle. It throws them off their game and adds to the stress of daily life with juggling demands of work and home.
Communications play a critical role in maintaining brand trust every day. Brands do this with customers much in the same way humans do with each other – through honesty, transparency, empathy, and by matching behavior to those values. During a crisis, trust is more important than ever, especially if the company provides essential everyday services.
After the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11, State Farm shifted into catastrophe mode. By March 20 everyone was working at home. It was a remarkably nimble move for a large company where relatively few had been working remotely in the past. Part of the reason the move went so well is culture.
Saturday Night Live has produced a grand amount of hilarious, gut-splitting moments since its inception way back in 1975, with many of these moments coming in a fictional service setting. One such moment has gone on to live in the annals of comedic history and of course this is in reference to the iconic Jeffrey’s skit starring Jimmy Fallon with then guest host Sean Hayes. The two play elitist retail employees who are seen offering snarky and uncalled-for insults to their customers.
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” That quote belongs to Warren Bennis, a renowned scholar and author who immersed himself in the field of leadership studies for nearly the entirety of his life. Bennis wrote several books about leadership and later became a consultant to companies looking for guidance in terms of leadership. In the context of the service industry, leaders most often mean managers and, for the purpose of this blog, the focus is on upper management and not the middle manager.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, in 2019 there were 70.8 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. 25.9 million of these people, over half of whom are under the age of 18, were forced to become refugees and that number is only growing. Refugees often face a litany of challenges including language barriers, finding employment and gaining access to basic services such as health care or banking services.
Service providers are regularly told to observe customer’s body language and reactions to a service being offered. What are their facial expressions conveying? Do they seem to be closed off? Are they enjoying the experience or just pretending to? With so much focus on the customer, consideration of the service provider’s own demeanor tends to be ignored. “Service with a smile” is a commonly repeated phrase in the service industry, but a manager forcing an employee to smile on the job may not have the positive effect desired.
Believe it or not, the Academy Awards (commonly known as the Oscars) do not have set criteria for what distinguishes a leading actor from a supporting actor. However, unlike the Academy, the criteria for a lead actor and supporting actor in frontline employees (FLE) are very clear in regards to service innovation. The leading role of FLE is comprised of idea creators, developers, and implementers. The supporting role of FLE is made up of problem reporters, advisors, and executors. But how exactly does the role of FLE affect their involvement in the service innovation process?
