Practical Implications

Although the context for this study was banking, the findings are relevant and can be extended to other service contexts such as retail, hospitality, and professional services. Thus, the implications offered in this section are generalizable to other service industries.

7.2.1 Encourage FLEs to seek positive FSB, and avoid negative FSB.

The results show the power of positivity in communications with customers. It is already well-known that positively framing messages to customers as much as possible, even in negative contexts, gives the customer an overall positive experience and increases the likelihood of loyalty and repurchase behaviour. This study finds that mere measurement effects aid proactive solicitation of positive feedback in shaping customers’ attitudes and behaviours. Thus, managers should continue to train FLEs to frame feedback seeking and all communication as positive as possible at all times.

Although seeking negative feedback internally may help employees develop their skills, especially with novel assignments, managers should discourage FLEs from seeking negative feedback from customers, as this makes negative aspects of the FLE’s and firm’s performance more obvious, and will negatively impact customer attitudes and behaviours towards the FLE and firm. In instances where learning is imperative, if the FLE could avoid self-negative feedback. Firm-positive feedback has the double benefit of not diminishing the customer’s attitudes towards the FLE, while also bringing to prominence positive experiences the customer enjoyed with the firm, which have lasting effects long after these positive facts have been made salient (Dholakia and Morwitz, 2002).

Although customer-oriented FLEs may have good intentions when seeking feedback on behalf of the firm, their commitment to serving the customer will only be beneficial to the firm when they seek positive feedback from the customer. The results show that customer-oriented FLEs are better able to emphasise positive aspects of the firm’s performance, which translates to positive attitudes about the firm. In service trainings, managers may want to emphasise that while FLEs should show empathy to the customer especially where it is necessary to seek firm-negative FSB during a service failure as this information is crucial to recovery, the FLE should not stray into hurting the firm’s reputation more, and should perhaps highlight positive aspects of the customer-firm relationship and the attractiveness of the firm’s value propositions as much as possible when finding a solution to customer problems. In a similar vein, managers should discourage FLEs from hard selling tactics when seeking positive feedback on behalf of the firm. A preoccupation with selling is less able to draw out positive aspects of the firm’s performance which will encourage positive attitudes and customer behaviour that contributes to meeting firm performance goals. In a service context where the customer deals primarily with one member of staff, it is imperative that the FLE heeds this advice.

7.2.2 Positively frame referral requests, and reap additional benefits beyond customer acquisition

The results show that if a customer is asked to refer either the FLE or firm to others as part of positive FSB, then the customer is likely to engage in WOM, and additionally engage in other loyalty-based behaviours which could benefit the firm. As positive attitudes stemming from positively-framed feedback seeking lead to a range of behaviours consistent with this positive affect, when the customer engages in WOM behaviour based on their positive experiences with the company, then the risk

that they make purchases at a competitor firm even when their trusted service rep defects, decreases. Additionally, customers risk their reputation with friends, family, and other associates by engaging in WOM. Thus, to promote a company but patronise another company would be viewed not only as hypocritical and duplicitous, but ultimately inconsistent with the customer’s own positive attitudes towards the firm. In fact, such an internal dilemma would prevent the customer from “self-betrayal.” Hence, customers engaged enough with a firm to spread positive WOM are less likely to consider making purchases at a competitor.

7.2.3 Be aware of proactive FLEs’ ability to capture customer loyalty

This advice is quite evident for customer-facing roles, but bears reiteration. Employees in high-contact services are more effective at building stronger customer relationships than firms can, which creates a risk of customer churn if the employee defects. Reward and bonus schemes should incentivise star FLEs to stay with the company should the company risk losing profitable customers due to the FLE’s defection. Nevertheless, latent financial risk (LFR) is not something to be feared, but something to be aware of. While there is always a risk of losing star employees to the competition, this threat does not preclude managers from actively courting star employees from the competition as well. Having some knowledge of an individual’s potential to influence LFR can help to determine the most valuable job candidates, hence the importance of screening candidates based on customer lists or even social media influencer status. Such FLEs are valuable to hiring firms since they bring with them the promise of new customers.

7.2.4 Build a digital communication strategy based on the effects of the FSB types

The results confirm that the FLE has an advantage in building a stronger relationship with the customer when the customer-firm relationship is also dependent on the actions of the FLE. This situation makes it difficult to control FLE-led customer defection. However, the firm can leverage on direct communication with the customer to strengthen loyalty.

As more and more customer interactions are ceded to automated processes facilitated by artificial intelligence, understanding what sort of questions to ask consumers is important in successfully implementing a digital strategy. As the results show that seeking positive feedback reinforces a stronger relationship quality with the customer, firms should train communication robots using algorithms that elicit positive responses from customers. As the robots learn how best to elicit these positive responses through various positive feedback seeking strategies, they will become better at managing customer perceptions of the firm. Since the study results show that establishing positive attitudes can influence a range of behaviours consistent with these positive attitudes, artificial intelligence in marketing can be used to encourage positive brand affect, brand loyalty behaviour, repeat purchases, and reduce defection rates more efficiently than FLEs and at a scale inhumanly possible.

Already, most of the top Nigerian banks are using digital avatars to respond to customer requests. The logical next step in developing these ‘digital FLEs’ are to train them to be proactive such that through positive feedback seeking, they are able to anticipate customer needs, and sell better through positively-framed communication. Making the feedback system more automated, but more human at the same time would be the next step in integrating digital interactions into future marketing strategies.