ABSTRACT

Throughout the customer journey, the employee-customer interaction drives customer responses. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically influenced shopping behavior with face masks playing a major role. This research investigates how consumer behavior has changed and how frontline employee (FLE) non-verbal (emotional facial expressions) and verbal cues (verbal expertise) influence customer responses dependent on whether FLEs wear a face mask or not. Semi-structured interviews among consumers, an open association study among students and an experimental study using Panel data were conducted. Findings of these online studies with German-speaking consumers show that face masks do not exclusively cause negative feelings and problems; they also reduce the perceived risk of a COVID-19 infection. Importantly, customers can correctly decode FLE smiling even when wearing face masks; however, the relevance of verbal expertise increases compared to FLE emotion displays. This state-of-the-art research during COVID-19 provides novel insights into dyadic service interactions for research and management.

抽象的

在整个客户旅程中，员工与客户的互动推动了客户的响应。COVID-19大流行极大地影响了购物行为，口罩起着重要作用。这项研究调查了消费者行为的变化方式，以及前线员工（FLE）的非语言（情感面部表情）和口头提示（语言专业知识）如何影响客户的反应，具体取决于FLE是否戴着口罩。进行了消费者之间的半结构化访谈，学生之间的开放式关联研究以及使用Panel数据进行的实验研究。对讲德语的消费者进行的这些在线研究发现，口罩并不仅会引起负面的感觉和问题。它们还降低了COVID-19感染的风险。重要的，即使戴着口罩，客户也可以正确解码FLE微笑；但是，与FLE情感展示相比，言语专业知识的相关性有所提高。COVID-19期间的这项最新研究为研究和管理中的二元服务交互提供了新颖的见解。