Purpose - The purpose of this research is to analyse how employees’ perception of customer service is linked to the brand. The aim is to analyse the connections between brand and the employees’ perceptions and develop managerial implications based on those findings. Problem – Davis et al. (2008) brought the attention of the influence employees have in increasing or decreasing the firms’ brand. Connecting the employees work role in customer service to see how these influence the brand in reality at LSPs. Method – A deductive mixed method was applied throughout this research and used in the format of several case studies. The qualitative data was retrieved from interviews with employees at LSPs both in Thailand and Sweden and regarded as the primary source of data collection with the quantitative data as support. The survey, based on the frame-work of SERV*OR, was structured on a 7-point Likert Scale and distributed from the same sampling as for the interviews. Pattern matching was applied to analyse the qualitative and quantitative data to determine if reality matched theory. Conclusions – As seen from the findings, employees and customer service are inter-twined and not separate entities. This is due to them reflecting on their personal perception of what customer service is and how they view their position. Through customer service, employees become an extension of the firms’ brand and based on their individual perception they will project it to the customer thus being able to influence the customer’s overall perception. This shows how brand and employee-customer service are interdependent in the communication which is often based on individual perceptions and not from what the LSP wants their employees to perceive of their brand. The branding of the firms in this study is perceived by employees in a way that reflects their individual roles in customer service in terms of being fast, professional and having the ability to problem solve. It is also indicated that employees wish for more training and guidance from managers, consequently they have needed to rely on each other to handle the function of customer service at the LSPs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-24169 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Granat, Mattias, Nilsson, Camilla |
| Publisher | Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Centre of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Centre of Logistics and Supply Chain Management |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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