Empowering the Service Employee

1. Introduction

Competitive advantage potential, and the overall decline in customer satisfaction with services, it seems that the potential and opportunities for companies who can excel in services marketing, management, and delivery have never been greater, or more important (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2003). However now, some companies are creating and adding value to services through focusing on people as a differentiating factor. In the eyes of the customer the employee is the service. Every employee that comes into contact with the customer has an opportunity to influence that customer’s satisfaction. Therefore it is essential that firms recognise the critical role carried out by the frontline employee. Through empowerment service firms produce better performances from their employees thus improving the service provided and therefore customer satisfaction.

2. Objectives

• To highlight the importance of the service performer in the service delivery process in relation to 1) the unique characteristics of services and 2) the expanded services marketing mix.

• To discuss the critical role-played by the customer contact employee.

• To introduce the concept of empowerment as a means of enabling the customer contact employee in delivering a superior quality of service.

• To investigate the what, why, how and when of employee empowerment.

3. Research Methodology

Secondary research used included a comprehensive study of books and academic journals in the area of Services Marketing.

4. Limitations

• The topics covered have not been as thoroughly developed as the authors would have liked due to time constraints and limited page number set out in the guidelines.

• Due to the nature of the project primary research was not feasible therefore literature findings could not be verified.

5. A Brief Introduction to Empowerment

Unfortunately there is no all-encompassing universal definition of empowerment however many authors agree that it is a vital ingredient in attaining employee satisfaction, thus customer satisfaction and ultimately profits. The main characteristic of empowerment involves allocating discretion during the service delivery to frontline employees. In recent years empowerment has been the hot topic in management circles. This is not surprising as empowerment offers a range of benefits to both the employee and the organisation. However there are some costs associated with this approach and it is identified that the empowerment approach is not suitable for all organisations. These issues of empowerment will be explored further