Purpose

The relationship between frontline employee work engagement and customer service evaluations is a major theme in service research. Recent studies have called for further exploration and validation of this relationship. This paper conceptually replicates the work engagement-customer service evaluations link within the context of technology-mediated voice-to-voice encounters. Moreover, we extend prior work by examining how work engagement influences customer service evaluations depending on the outcome of the service encounter (positive or negative).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a multilevel, multi-source study involving data from 4,198 customer interactions and 346 employees at a major European telecom operator. The data were analyzed using a linear mixed effects model.

Findings

The study could not replicate the relationship between work engagement and customer service evaluations in technology-mediated voice-to-voice encounters. The findings reveal that customers who interacted with a highly engaged employee but received a negative service outcome evaluated the interaction more negatively than those who interacted with a less engaged employee. Conversely, when the service outcome was positive, work engagement was not significantly related to customer service evaluations.

Originality/value

In voice-to-voice encounters, employee engagement appears to have little impact on customer service evaluations and can even be detrimental when the service outcome is negative. This study is among the first to empirically demonstrate a negative effect of work engagement on customer service evaluations. Future replication studies are needed to validate these findings.

中文翻译：

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一线员工工作投入和客户服务评估：概念复制

 目的

一线员工工作投入与客户服务评价之间的关系是服务研究的一个重要主题。最近的研究呼吁进一步探索和验证这种关系。本文从概念上复制了以技术为媒介的语音交互背景下的工作投入与客户服务评估之间的联系。此外，我们通过检查工作投入如何根据服务体验的结果（积极或消极）影响客户服务评估来扩展之前的工作。

设计/方法论/途径

作者进行了一项多层次、多来源的研究，涉及欧洲一家主要电信运营商 4,198 名客户互动和 346 名员工的数据。使用线性混合效应模型分析数据。

 发现

该研究无法复制在技术介导的语音交互中工作投入与客户服务评估之间的关系。研究结果表明，与敬业度较高的员工互动但获得负面服务结果的客户比与敬业度较低的员工互动的客户对互动的评价更负面。相反，当服务结果是积极的时，工作投入与客户服务评估没有显着相关。

 原创性/价值

在语音对语音的接触中，员工敬业度似乎对客户服务评估几乎没有影响，甚至在服务结果为负面时甚至可能是有害的。这项研究是第一个实证证明工作投入对客户服务评估产生负面影响的研究之一。未来需要进行重复研究来验证这些发现。