How Employer and Employee Satisfaction Affect Customer Satisfaction: An Application to Franchise Services
研究小型服务场景中所有者、一线员工和顾客满意度之间的关系，发现员工满意度完全中介了所有者满意度对顾客满意度的影响，并调节了顾客满意度与购买意愿之间的关联。
In small-service settings, how do owner satisfaction, front-line employee satisfaction, and customer satisfaction relate to one another? The authors use generalized exchange theory (GET) to examine how satisfaction levels of these three constituents are reciprocated. The authors examine a European franchise system comprising 50 outlets, 933 employees, and 20,742 customers. Their results show two important findings. First, the effect of owner-franchisee’s satisfaction on customer satisfaction is fully mediated by front-line employee satisfaction. Thus, managers of a service outlet can strongly impact the satisfaction and behavioral intentions of their customer base, even without direct contact with them. Second, the link between customer satisfaction and purchase intention is moderated by employee satisfaction at an outlet. The link between customer satisfaction and customer purchase intentions is almost twice as strong when employees are satisfied than when they are not. Thus, there is a ‘‘doublepositive effect:’’ not only does higher employee satisfaction at an outlet directly lead to higher customer satisfaction but it also indirectly strengthens the association between customer satisfaction and their repurchase intentions.