Julien Cayla is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Nanyang Business School (Singapore). Professor Cayla received his PhD from the University of Colorado (Boulder, United States) where he majored in marketing and minored in cultural anthropology. His work has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing, Organization Studies and Sloan Management Review. His research on consumer experiences has been featured in a range of media outlets such The Atlantic, the BBC, the Straits Times and Channel News Asia. He is currently serving as Associate Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research.
Nanyang Business School (Singapore)
December 01, 2023
Fueled by emotional energy: Exploring the impact of customer interactions on service employees
Employees who regularly interact with customers often find this central aspect of their work emotionally draining. Our findings provide a striking contrast though: customer interactions that are not only pleasurable but also manage to emotionally regenerate frontline service employees. Our ethnographic research demonstrates that several key factors influence the generation of emotional energy in service interactions, including staff co-presence with customers, mutual focus, shared mood, and barriers to outsiders. In addition, service employees' experience of autonomy and status in interactions plays an important role in impacting their emotional energy. Based on these insights, we design a framework for service organizations to manage one of their most important assets: the emotional energy of frontline service employees.
