Simon J. Bell and Bulent Menguc

What does it take to create loyal customers? This question has stimulated a great deal of academic research and innovation in marketing practice. Recent studies on the customer satisfaction / customer loyalty link have demonstrated that it is not sufficient for customers to be merely satisfied with the service they receive from organizations. Indeed, satisfied customers are often indifferent to a firm's product and may, in fact, be loyal to multiple brands within a category. The term customer delight is often used to suggest that customers' experience must be elevated to new heights if their attitudes are to have a meaningful affect on their propensity to be loyal to a particular organization or brand. It is clear that marketing organizations need to 'raise the bar' in the provision of service. The next question is: how can this be achieved?

The line of argument in this paper is that behavior of service employees will play a crucial role in affecting customers' perceptions of service quality. The organization—through its management of intra-firm relationships and job design—is able to facilitate service employees' customer-oriented behaviors. Specifically, we consider service employees' organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) as a contributing factor to customers' perceptions of service quality. To date few studies have considered the relationship between OCBs and service-related outcomes. To the extent that OCBs are considered extra-role behaviors, they are relevant for conceptualizing the link between salesperson behavior and a level of service quality that exceeds customer expectations.

Next, we consider the role of the employee-organization relationship as a determinant of OCBs. In particular we investigate the relationship between employee perceptions of organizational support and their performance of OCBs. We expect employees to be more inclined to perform OCBs when they feel that they have the support of their organization. We also consider the relationship between employees' level of identification with the organization and their propensity to perform OCBs. Here we expect that employees who align their own values with those of the organization will be more inclined to perform OCBs. Finally, we investigate the importance of an autonomous work environment in facilitating OCB performance. As most OCBs require 'extra effort', we argue that employees require a degree of behavioral latitude in order to perform them. In other words, we expect organizational support and organizational identification to have a greater effect on OCBs where employees have a high degree of autonomy within their jobs.

The model we propose is tested using data from 228 manager employee dyads within a national retail insurance firm. Data were collected from customers (perceptions of service quality), employees (perceptions of organizational support, job autonomy, and organizational identification), and their managers (employee performance of OCBs).

The results demonstrated that each of contact-employees' OCBs is significantly related to service quality. Contrary to our expectations, we found that there was no direct relationship between perceived organizational support and each OCB. This might stem from the nature of organizational support that some commentators have considered to have two dimensions—social support and career related support. The items in our organizational support scale measure social support rather than career related support, yet it would seem the latter is necessary for the performance of OCBs, which are career-related behaviors. This is not to say, however, that organizational support is unimportant. On the contrary, we found it directly related to service quality, clearly leading to the conclusion that the OCB performance is not the only means of building service quality. The relationship between organizational identification and OCBs was positive. The anticipated facilitating effects of job autonomy were mostly supported. The relationship between organizational identification and the performance of the OCBs that require behavioral discretion is significantly stronger when the work environment is highly autonomous. The facilitating effect of job autonomy was not as strong with the organizational support/OCB relationship.

Three important implications for management stand out in this study. First, the positive relationship between OCBs and service quality is especially noteworthy. Where in the past businesses have sought to pre-specify customer-oriented behavior, it now seems that encouraging extra-role behaviors among customer contact personnel is a feasible approach to building service quality. There is some irony in this finding as, by their very nature, OCBs are difficult to elicit and manage. Managers, however, should begin to signal to employees that such behaviors are particularly desirable as they contribute significantly to overall business performance. This might occur through the structuring of reward systems to incorporate both behavioral criteria (e.g., employee participation and helping) and outcome criteria (e.g., sales volume and growth). Recruitment procedures may also provide an opportunity to select employees with the greatest propensity to display OCBs.

The significant impact of aspects of the organization-employee relationship (i.e., organizational support and organizational identification) on both OCBs and service quality is the second key finding of this study. High-involvement social structures (e.g., wide supervisory spans of control, sociopolitical support, and a participative climate) may ultimately lead to better customer service outcomes. In addition, the manner in which an organization communicates its overall philosophy may affect the type of relationship that is established between an organization and its employees and the level of organizational identification that is engendered as a consequence. This may include communicating to employees the central role they play in creating customer and organizational value as well as designing jobs that are meaningful to them. Selection and recruitment practices may, again, play an important role. One can ensure greater organizational identification by selecting employees on the basis of how well they fit into organization's overall culture, rather than solely on the basis of their credentials.

A third major finding from this research is the importance of an autonomous work environment in providing employees with the behavioral latitude to engage in OCBs. The implications of this are twofold. First, jobs and reward systems should be designed with a view to encouraging autonomy. Second, employees must have the requisite skills and personal characteristics to cope with such autonomy. Otherwise, for some, the extra responsibilities associated with greater autonomy may prove too onerous. This can be achieved through appropriate training and prudent recruiting decisions.