A comparative study on the importance of customer orientation of frontline employees in the service industry

Abstract

This research aims at finding a measurement system for companies to successfully measure their customer orientation. The research methodology adopted here would help companies to completely measure their customer’s outlook and to successfully integrate necessary changes to their internal structure.

The research focuses on understanding both the internal and external factors affecting the customer orientation. Internal Factors such as Technical Skills, Social Skills, Motivation and Decision- making authority of the frontline employees. External factors such as Customer satisfaction, Emotional commitment and Customer retention. These factors are all measured by taking into consideration the customer’s perspective. This means that all measurement system collects data from the customers for both internal and external factor analysis.

The research was based on 122 respondents from India and it focused on mainly two of the biggest E-commerce players in India – Amazon.com and Flipkart.com. The researcher used Pearson correlation and Multi Linear Regression to analyze the data collected. The data is interpreted in a comparative way so that it is clear as to which company has the edge over customer orientation.

The research found out that Customer orientation of frontline employees has a clear connection with Customer Satisfaction, Emotional Commitment and Customer retention.