حمایت از برند در فرانت لاین: چگونگی تاثیر آن بر رضایت مشتری Brand advocacy in the frontline: how does it affect customer satisfaction?

Introduction More and more companies expect their frontline employees (FLEs) to build and strengthen the brand by engaging in brand advocacy behavior, which reflects the display of favorable communication of their brand’s values and offerings toward customers during service encounters. Firms like Zappos and Starbucks have experienced that “brand advocates” increase brand awareness in the market (Walter, 2013). Lowe’s, Southwest Airlines, Ford, Domino’s, Bank of America, General Electric, and Verizon have featured FLEs in their advertising campaigns because these workers are perceived by the audience as credible and, thus, help “humanize” the brand (O’Leary, 2010). Many organizations also rely on FLE brand advocacy in brand repositioning and new product launches (Miller et al., 2014). However, using FLEs as brand advocates may not be beneficial in all customer encounters. Specifically, when a purchased product needs a maintenance or repair service, an FLE’s favorable communication about the brand may backfire because it does not directly contribute to addressing the customer’s issue. As a famous example, overly enthusiastic virtual agents at Sprint PCS and Dove infuriated clients who called to voice complaints (Spencer, 2003). Customers may perceive brand advocacy in after-sales service encounters as a business policy that gets in the way of reaching their goal. In a 2013 Accenture study, 79 percent of the respondents indicated to find such policies highly or even extremely frustrating (Accenture, 2013). On the other hand, reinforcing brand values and product benefits during after-sales services may reassure customers that they have made the right purchase decision and signal the accountability of the FLE and the firm as a whole to solve the customer issue (Aaker et al., 2004; Hess, 2008).