Customer influence on frontline employee work engagement

PurposeThis study aims to employ conservation of resources (COR) theory to explain how customer support, customer power, customer orientation (CO) and product complexity impact frontline employees (FLEs) work engagement.Design/methodology/approachPartial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data collected from 1,620 South Korean insurance salespeople using an on-line survey.FindingsResults show that customer support, customer power and CO will bring more FLEs work engagement, and product complexity negatively dilutes the work engagement gained from customer support.Practical implicationsThe results of this study suggest that firms should encourage FLEs to share their experiences and tactics in dealing with customer power and stimulate supportive customer behaviors. Since complex products, particularly financial products, require more explanation and information exchange for customers to understand them, managers might include simulations, videos and role-playing in training programs to show salespeople how to handle customers when attempting to sell these products.Originality/valueThis study investigates the effects of customer cognitive and emotional support on FLEs work engagement and also empirically demonstrates the positive effects of customer power.