Matthias Gouthier

Delighting Consumers Click by Click Antecedents and Effects of Delight Online

The increasing importance of information technology as a means to access and communicate information has prompted firms to enhance their corporate websites to establish relationships with potential and current customers. Likewise, the value of satisfaction has decreased in favor of customer delight. To develop innovative and delighting websites, however, firms require a more detailed understanding of how they can optimize their websites’ user impact. In two empirical studies, this research shows that delight has a stronger impact on purchase intentions than website satisfaction does. This means that companies can benefit from positive repercussions after investing up front to enhance their website. This research also identifies individual website quality factors that firms can manipulate to create delightful consumer web experiences. By examining and distinguishing between their effects on delight and surprise, this research sheds light on how consumers perceive website quality factors. Overall, this research shows how firms can attain customer delight in an online environment and clarifies its effects on consumer behavior.

How organizational pride and emotional exhaustion explain turnover intentions in call centers

Purpose – Personnel turnover entails considerable costs and is a major problem for the call center industry. By modifying the job demands-resources model, this study aims to examine how emotional exhaustion and organizational pride affect turnover intentions. In addition, it investigates how emotional exhaustion and organizational pride are formed by job demands and job resources and how gender and organizational tenure moderate the model. Design/methodology/approach – The paper surveyed 252 call center agents and tested the research hypotheses with component-based structural equation modeling. Two multi-group analyses clarify the proposed moderating effects of gender and organizational tenure. Findings – Emotional exhaustion and organizational pride essentially determine turnover intentions. Organizational pride, which has received little attention in related research, plays a central role. Two job demands and three job resources strongly influence emotional exhaustion and organizational pride, respectiv...

Customer delight: universal remedy or a double-edged sword?

Purpose n n n n nOver the last years, the concept of customer delight has moved into the focus of attention. The necessity of surprise for achieving customer delight and the problem of increased customer expectation (spiral of expectations) have been controversially discussed in the literature. The purpose of the paper is therefore to investigate whether customer delight necessarily requires surprise and whether a misdirected delight strategy can backfire by creating disloyal customers. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n nThis study employs a 2 (after-sales extra value: yes vs no)×2 (knowledge about the extra value: yes vs no) between-subject, scenario-based experiment (n=472) in a hotel environment and partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the data. n n n n nFindings n n n n nStudy results show that surprise is not a necessary prerequisite for achieving customer delight, but its presence strengthens the delight experience for the customer, positively impacting customer loyalty intentions. Conversely, a surprising nonoccurrence of an expected delight measure causes anger, inducing negative word of mouth and reduced repurchase intentions. n n n n nPractical implications n n n n nTo pursue a sustainable customer delight approach, companies should recognize that they do not need to surprise their customers on every occasion, but rather ensure that customers do not fall short of anticipated delightful events. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n nThe current research strives to contribute to the theory and practice by shedding light on two so far not appropriately addressed research areas of customer delight: the necessity of surprise to evoke customer delight and the consequences of absent but expected delight measures.

Proud to Stay or Too Proud to Stay? How Pride in Personal Performance Develops and How It Affects Turnover Intentions

Although a considerable amount of research has been devoted to the formation of turnover intentions, the influence of pride in personal performance (PP), which is one of the most frequently felt workplace emotions, has been largely neglected. Employing a three-stage study design, this article explores how PP develops and how it affects turnover intentions among frontline employees. First, relying on affective events theory, a prestudy that employs a qualitative diary approach was performed to empirically identify work events that are the primary causes of PP. The prestudy was followed by Study 1, which applied a quantitative research design to determine which job characteristics promote these events. Finally, Study 2 utilized three-wave panel data of frontline employees to investigate the effects of PP on turnover intentions. The findings of the latter study confirm that PP triggers two processes that contrarily affect turnover intentions: (1) PP enhances job satisfaction, which decreases turnover intentions, and (2) PP increases self-efficacy, which enhances turnover intentions. However, further analyses reveal that the latter effect is not relevant for highly satisfied employees and that overall, increasing PP results in decreasing turnover intentions, suggesting that companies should foster PP to retain their frontline employees.

Kundenbegeisterung durch Service Excellence im Automobilsektor

Aufgrund des andauernden Globalisierungsprozesses wird es fur Unternehmen zunehmend wichtiger, sich von ihren Wettbewerbern abzusetzen, um ihren momentanen Kundenstamm zu sichern und die eigene Marktposition zu festigen bzw. diese idealerweise noch auszubauen. Ebenfalls kann beobachtet werden, dass Kunden zunehmend anspruchsvoller werden, bereits kleinste Unterschiede zwischen den verschiedenen Angeboten registrieren und ihre Kaufabsichten dementsprechend anpassen. All diese Entwicklungen wirken sich signifikant auf den Grad des Wettbewerbs in vielen Markten aus und fuhren dazu, dass es mittlerweile langst nicht mehr genugt, Kunden lediglich zufrieden zu stellen. Stattdessen sollten Kunden von der angebotenen Leistung fest uberzeugt und emotional begeistert sein. Aus diesem Grund muss Kundenbegeisterung, und nicht mehr nur einfache Kundenzufriedenheit, das neue Ziel von fuhrenden Unternehmen sein.

Customer Experiences, Kundenbegeisterung und Service Excellence – Die Spezifikation DIN SPEC 77224

Aufgrund von verschiedensten globalen Entwicklungen steigt der Grad des Wettbewerbs in vielen Wirtschaftszweigen stetig. Eine der grosten Herausforderungen, denen sich Unternehmen heute zu stellen haben, ist die Erfullung der permanent wachsenden Erwartungen, Anspruche und Wunsche, mit denen Kunden einem Unternehmen entgegen treten (Sultana 2008, S. 59). Dies ist unter anderem auf die zunehmende Verbreitung von neuen Technologien zuruckzufuhren, wie beispielsweise Social Media und Web 2.0. Diese Technologien fungieren fur Kunden als Enabler, sich schnell und effektiv uber das Marktangebot zu informieren, aber auch sich bezuglich besonders guten oder besonders schlechten Dienstleistungen und Produkten auszutauschen. Dementsprechend wird es fur Unternehmen immer schwieriger, den bestehenden Kundenstamm zu festigen oder gar weiter auszubauen.

Neue Mobilitätskonzepte – Eine konzeptionelle Analyse

Die Automobilindustrie, die durch politische, okonomische, soziokulturelle und technologische Einflussfaktoren wesentlich gepragt wird, befindet sich in einer Phase der radikalen Transformation. Um den veranderten Bedingungen sowohl auf Nachfrager- als auch auf Angebotsseite Rechnung zu tragen, werden zunehmend neue Mobilitatskonzepte entwickelt, die einen zentralen Stellhebel fur die Zukunftsfahigkeit von Automobilherstellern darstellen konnen. Entsprechend setzt sich dieser Beitrag mit zentralen Aspekten einer theoretisch-konzeptionellen Analyse von neuen Mobilitatskonzepten auseinander.

Innovative View on Value Creation – Investigating Requirements for a Holistic Service Life Cycle Management

Service life cycle management refers to a strategy that supports service organisations and helps them recognise their gross income potential. This is done by examining the service opportunities proactively as a life cycle instead of a solitary event or set of discrete events. But in contrast to the traditional product life cycle management perspective, a corresponding and interlinked service life cycle approach is still in its infancy and empirical studies in this context are still rare. The chapter by Sabine Janeschek and Matthias Gouthier explores relevant requirements for a structured implementation of a service life cycle management concept, which could guide firms and support them to implement such an innovative service-oriented management approach in a more standardised way.

Stolze Mitarbeiter, exzellente Dienstleistungen – Empirische Ergebnisse zum Zusammenhang zwischen Mitarbeiterstolz und Service Excellence

Um Kunden langfristig zu binden, reicht es haufig nicht mehr aus, sie lediglich zufriedenzustellen. Stattdessen gilt es, Kunden durch exzellente Dienstleistungen zu begeistern. In diesem Artikel wird ein Wirkmodell vorgestellt, das zeigt, wie Unternehmen durch die gezielte Generierung von Mitarbeiterstolz einen exzellenten Kundenservice und Kundenbegeisterung schaffen konnen. Die Beziehungen innerhalb dieses Modells werden dabei theoretisch begrundet und durch Studien empirisch belegt. Zudem werden anhand von konkreten Masnahmen Hinweise zu einem aktiven Stolzmanagement gegeben.