Face Forward: How Employees’ Digital Presence on Service Websites Affects Customer Perceptions of Website and Employee Service Quality

Dennis Herhausen*, Oliver Emrich, Dhruv Grewal, Petra Kipfelsberger, Marcus Schoegel

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)917-936
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Marketing Research
Volume57
Issue number5
Early online date15 Jul 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© American Marketing Association 2020.

Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • digital presence
  • online customer experience
  • reconstructive memory process
  • service employees
  • service quality
  • social presence
  • spillover effect

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