Customer-employee relationshipThe role of self-employee congruence

Ahmad JamalCardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, and

Adegboyega AdeloworeBeneficial Finance (HSBC Group), Cardiff, UK

Abstract

Purpose Many have applied the concept of congruence or fit in the context of person-organization,person-environment and person-person relationships and interactions. However, despite thesignificance of customer-employee interactions and relations in a services context, no research hasinvestigated the effects of congruence between a customers self-concept and employee-image onimportant relational outcomes such as relationship satisfaction, loyalty to employees and satisfactiontowards service provider. The paper aims to fill this gap in the literature and to investigate the effectsof self-employee congruence on customer satisfaction via the mediating effects of personal interaction,relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees. The paper also seeks to investigate the links amongpersonal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty towards employees.

Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a causal modelling approach and proposes aconceptual model after an extensive review of the literature related to consumer behaviour,organizational behaviour, relationship marketing and services marketing. The paper is based on asample of 203 customers of bank users in Nigeria who completed a self-administered questionnaire.The paper uses confirmatory factor analysis and SEM to analyse and confirm the conceptual modelproposed in this research.

Findings The paper demonstrates that self-employee congruence is an important antecedent ofpersonal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees each of which is in turnpositively linked to customer satisfaction towards the service provider.

Research limitations/implications The paper discusses implications for service marketers andfor retail banking sector and highlights the significance of self-employee congruence for service designand delivery, advertising strategies and suggests future research directions.

Originality/value The paper is first of its kind to discuss the effects of perceived similaritiesbetween customers and employees on some important relational constructs such as personalinteraction, relationship satisfaction, loyalty towards employees and towards customer satisfaction.

Keywords Marketing theory, Consumer behaviour, Buyer-seller relationships, Customer satisfaction,Nigeria, Banking

Paper type Research paper

IntroductionAn application of self-concept in customer behaviour suggests that customers can buyproducts or brands that are perceived to be similar to their own self-concept (Ericksen,1996; Graeff, 1996; Mehta, 1999; Onkvisit and Shaw, 1987; Sirgy et al., 1997, 1991;Sirgy, 1982). During the consumption process, a product-user image interacts with the

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The authors would like to thank Dr Paul Bottomley of Cardiff Business School, UK and twoanonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and feedback to improve the manuscript.

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Received May 2006Revised November 2006Accepted February 2007

European Journal of MarketingVol. 42 No. 11/12, 2008pp. 1316-1345q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0309-0566DOI 10.1108/03090560810903691

customers self concept generating a subjective experience referred to as self-imagecongruence (Sirgy et al., 1997). Recently, Sirgy et al. (2000) extended the concept ofself-congruence to the retail settings and argued that self-congruity involved a processof matching a consumers self-concept with the retail patron image. It was argued thatthe greater the degree of congruence between a shoppers self concept and the retailpatron image, the greater the likelihood that the shopper would patronize the retailstore (Sirgy et al., 2000). Empirical evidence suggests that the self-image congruenceinfluences customers brand preferences, purchase intentions, word-of-mouthrecommendations, product use, brand choice, attitudes and satisfaction towardsproducts (Ericksen, 1996; Jamal and Al-Marri, 2007; Jamal, 2004; Jamal and Goode,2001; Sirgy et al., 1997, 1991). In an interpersonal context, empirical research suggeststhat partners, who are perceived as similar to ones own self, are liked better, aretrusted more and are perceived as more attractive compared to dissimilar partners(Bendapudi and Berry, 1997). Others have reported that person-organizationcongruence (i.e. the compatibility between individuals and organization) plays asignificant role in an individuals job satisfaction, organizational commitment (Lauverand Kristof-Brown, 2001), citizenship behaviour and career success (Bretz and Judge,1994; Cable and DeRue, 2002).

While many have investigated the effects of self-brand congruence (Sirgy et al.,1997), person-organization congruence and person-environment congruence, very fewhave explored the effects of the fit or congruence between customers and front lineemployees of a service organization on an important customer behaviour phenomenonsuch as satisfaction towards service provider (henceforth, customer satisfaction).Consistent with the consumer behaviour and organizational behaviour literature, weposit that during the service delivery process, the service employee image interactswith the customers self concept generating a subjective experience referred to asself-employee image congruence or simply self-employee congruence. Consider, forexample, the case of a beauty saloon customer who views himself as a novelty seeker,modern and a friendly person. The customer may think that the typical employee withwhom the customer interacts frequently is also a novelty seeker, modern and friendlyperson. The psychological comparison involving the interaction between the employeeimage and customers self-concept can generate self-employee congruence (see also,Sirgy et al., 2000). Many argue that developing satisfactory encounters and interactionswith service personnel could act as a key to the overall relationship quality sought byorganizations (Crosby and Stephens, 1987).

We posit that the self-employee congruence can influence customers perceptions oftheir interactions with service employees, which can influence their satisfactiontowards the relationship that they develop with the employees over time. The personalinteraction can contribute towards generating feelings of loyalty towards the serviceemployees, which in turn, can influence customer satisfaction. This is particularlysignificant in the context of services where customers often base their perceptions ofservice quality and service organization on their interactions with service employees(Babin and Boles, 1998; Hartline and Ferrell, 1996). Service quality involves comparingcustomer expectations to the performance (Gronroos, 1982, 1984) and customerperceptions of the interactions that take place during the service delivery process areimportant part of service quality evaluations (Brady and Cronin, 2001; Rust and Oliver,1994). Enhancing customer satisfaction through a continuous relationship, and thereby

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creating value for the firm and the customer, is the underlying principle behindrelationship marketing (Czepiel, 1990; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002; Johnson and Selnes,2004).

Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the effects of self-employee congruenceon customer satisfaction via personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyaltytowards the employees. The paper contributes towards the literature on personalservice encounters (Crosby and Stephens, 1987; Surprenant and Solomon, 1987; vanDolen et al., 2002, 2004) by exploring the role of psychological similarity (Crosby et al.,1990; Duck, 1994; Gremler and Gwinner, 2000) between customers and employees ingenerating feelings of customer satisfaction. Also, the paper contributes towards theexisting conceptualizations that have emphasized the role of relationship quality(Crosby et al., 1990; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002; Ulaga and Andreas, 2006) in fulfillingcustomer needs as central for relationship success. The relationship quality approachassumes that customers evaluation of relationship is critical in determining the fate ofthe relationship (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002). The current paper argues to consider theconcept of self-employee congruence as an important antecedent of some of the keyrelational outcomes such as relationship satisfaction, loyalty to employees andcustomer satisfaction. This is in line with relationship marketing theory in which animportant goal is to identify the key drivers that influence significant performanceoutcomes for the firm and to develop a better understanding of these drivers andoutcomes (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002; Morgan and Hunt, 1994).

The remainder of this paper is organised in five sections. Section two presents theconceptual framework used in this study and reviews the literature related toself-employee congruence, personal interaction, satisfaction and loyalty. In doing so,the section reports a number of hypotheses. In section three, the data collectionprocedure along with measures adopted for the current study are described. Results forexploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equationmodelling (SEM) are presented in section four. This is followed by the fifth section,which discusses findings and reports conclusions and implications for servicemarketers.

Conceptual frameworkFigure 1 presents the conceptual framework of customer-employee relationship in aservice context and suggests that self-employee congruence is positively related topersonal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees each of which isin turn related to customer satisfaction. Also, personal interaction positively relates torelationship satisfaction, which in turn is related to loyalty to the employees. Figure 1represents the hypothesised model with an implicit assumption that the effect ofself-employee congruence on satisfaction is mediated via personal interaction,relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees. This assumption will be tested bycomparing the hypothesised model with two rival models, each having direct pathsfrom exogenous constructs to customer satisfaction.

Self-concept and image congruenceSelf-concept is normally defined as the totality of the individuals thoughts andfeelings having reference to himself as an object (Sirgy, 1982; Wylie, 1989). A sociallydetermined frame of reference and a persons perception of his or her own abilities and

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characteristics including personality are an important part of self-concept (Graeff,1996; Onkvisit and Shaw, 1987). Our self-concept is largely driven by the type of peoplewith whom we interact and the nature of those interactions (Weigert et al., 1986). Wealso define ourselves through social interaction and by internalising collective values,meanings, and standards (Ashforth and Kreiner, 1999). In an earlier work, Grubb andGrathwohl (1967) postulated that self-concept is formed in an interaction processbetween an individual and others, and that the individual will strive forself-enhancement in the interaction process. Consumer behaviour is said to beregulated by ones perceived similarities (or dissimilarities) of environment conditionsto the self-image (Rogers, 1965). Accordingly, consumers tend to associate symbolicmeanings with brand images (e.g. see also Levy, 1959) as brands are part of theenvironment symbolized by consumers. Many argue that brands and even retail storeshave personal image attributes which reflect the stereotype of generalized users of thatbrand or retail store (Sirgy et al., 1997, 2000). Customers psychologically compare theirself-images with those of the stereotypical user of the brand or retail store (Sirgy, 1982).For instance, in a retail context, consumers may feel uncomfortable if they seethemselves patronizing a store that is not reflective of their self-concept (Sirgy et al.,2000). This is because the self-image congruence influences our behaviour throughcertain motives such as the needs for self-consistency (i.e. the tendency to behaveconsistently with ones own view of self) and self-esteem (i.e. the tendency to seekexperiences that enhance ones self-concept). Recently, Escalas and Bettman (2005)argued that brands become linked to the self when they are able to help consumersachieve goals that are motivated by the self.

Consumer behaviour literature indicates that self-image congruence affectscustomers brand preferences, their purchase intentions and satisfaction levels(Ericksen, 1996; Mehta, 1999; Jamal, 2004; Jamal and Goode, 2001), facilitates positivebehaviour and attitudes toward brands (Ericksen, 1996; Sirgy, 1982, 1991; Sirgy et al.,1997) and is positively related to customers product evaluations (Graeff, 1996). Furthersupport comes from the relationship and services marketing literature which suggeststhat the extent to which individuals have beliefs and values in common aboutbehaviours and goals act as a direct precursor to relationship commitment and trust

Figure 1.A conceptual framework

of customer-employeerelationship dynamics

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(Dwyer et al., 1987; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Perceived similarity between customersand employees facilitates communications concerning specific service attributes(McGinnies and Ward, 1980), improves identifications with service employee which inturn reduces interpersonal barriers, raises mutual comfort levels and contributestowards the establishment of trust particularly during the early stages of relationshipbuilding (Coulter and Coulter, 2000). Similarly, Gremler et al. (2001) reported that in thecase of banking and dental services, personal connection (i.e. a strong sense ofaffiliation or bond based on some common attributes or interests) between customersand employees positively influenced customer perceptions of trust towards theemployee.

Furthermore, self-image congruence parallels the concept of person-organizationcongruence, which is defined as the congruence between the beliefs and norms ofindividual persons and those of an organization (Netemeyer et al., 1997; OReilly et al.,1991). The person-organization congruence has been found to be positively related to apersons job satisfaction, organizational commitment (Lauver and Kristof-Brown,2001), citizenship behaviour and career success (Bretz and Judge, 1994; Cable andDeRue, 2002) and negatively related to turnover (OReilly et al., 1991). Self-imagecongruence also parallels the notion of person-person congruence which is defined asthe congruence between the beliefs, norms and goals of an individual person and thoseof others. In the context of work environment, research indicates that people with thesame values and personalities are attracted to, selected by and remain in environmentswhere others have the same or similar personal characteristics (Schneider, 1987; VanVianen, 2000). This reflects the similarity-attraction paradigm (Byrne, 1971), whichargues that individuals are more attracted to, and have more positive attitudes aboutothers who are similar to themselves. Similarly, Duck (1994) argues that individualscan become psychologically similar when they share common attitudes, personalitypredispositions and values. In a personal context, prior research suggests thatpartners, who are perceived as similar to ones own self, are liked better, are trustedmore and are perceived as more attractive compared to dissimilar partners (Bendapudiand Berry, 1997). While some have investigated the effects of perceived similaritybetween customers and employees (e.g. Crosby et al., 1990; Gremler and Gwinner,2000), no prior research has investigated the effects of self-employee congruence oncustomer satisfaction via the mediating effects of personal interaction, relationshipsatisfaction and loyalty towards employees. The paper aims to fill this gap in theliterature.

Personal interactionIn many service situations (e.g. beauty saloons, retail banking, health clubs), theservice employee is often the primary (if not sole) contact point for the customer bothbefore and after service delivery and service encounter occurs whenever the customerinteracts with the employee (Bitner et al., 1990; Crosby et al., 1990). Customersperceptions of the performance of service employees during this interaction can play acritical role in customers evaluations of service quality which involves comparingcustomer expectations to the performance (Bitner, 1992; Gronroos, 1982, 1984). Hence,many consider personal interaction to be an important dimension of service qualityand have called for merging together some of the SERVQUALs items related toresponsiveness, assurance and empathy (Dabholkar et al., 1996; Carman, 1990). More

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specifically, personal interaction involves customer perceptions of the interactions thattake place during the service delivery process including attitudes, behaviours andexpertise of employees (Bitner, 1990; Brady and Cronin, 2001) inspiring confidence andbeing courteous and helpful (Dabholkar et al., 1996).

Since personal interaction essentially captures how the customer is treated by theemployee (Dabholkar et al., 1996), it therefore reflects the functional service quality orhow the service is delivered (Gronroos, 1982). Functional quality relates to the natureof interaction between the service firm and its customers and the process by which thecore service is delivered (Bell et al., 2005, p. 172). This involves many of thepsychological and behavioural aspects including the accessibility to the provider, theway service employees perform their tasks, what they say and how the service iscompleted (Caruana, 2002). Functional quality is different from technical quality,which refers to the quality of the service output (Gronroos, 1982; Sharma andPatterson, 1999) or what the customer gets as a result of his interactions with a serviceprovider (Gronroos, 2001). While customers can evaluate technical quality quiteobjectively, they tend to perceive functional quality in a very subjective way (Gronroos,2001). The way customers perceive the service firm as a whole (i.e. its corporate image)is in turn influenced by their perceptions of both functional and technical quality(Gronroos, 2001).

While personal interaction reflects functional/process service quality, it is differentfrom the later because the way a service is delivered can depend upon the context inwhich it is delivered. For instance, in the context of service delivery options based onself-service technologies, functional quality is applicable but personal interaction isnot. Furthermore, functional quality differs from personal interaction in the sense thatservice environment features such as ambient conditions, facility design and socialfactors (Brady and Cronin, 2001) can be viewed as elements of the service deliveryprocess as it is conceptually difficult to differentiate the notion of service environmentfrom the concept of functional quality (Kang and James, 2004).

Empirical evidence suggests that personal interactions are important in evaluatingmedical services (Brown and Swartz, 1989) and retail outlets (Westbrook, 1981). Sinceself-employee congruence is based on perceived similarities between a customer and aspecific service employee, we expect self-employee congruence to be positively relatedto their perceptions of personal interactions that take place during the service deliveryprocess. Hence, our first hypothesis:

H1. The greater the self-employee congruency experienced by a customer, thegreater will be customer perceptions of personal interactions involving aservice employee.

Relationship satisfactionCustomer satisfaction is generally described as the full meeting of ones expectations(Oliver, 1980) and is the feeling or attitude of a customer towards a product or serviceafter it has been used (Evans et al., 2006; Parasuraman et al., 1988). Customersatisfaction, along with service quality, commitment and trust, is considered as a keyconstruct in relationship marketing (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002). While customers canfeel satisfied towards their relationship with a particular service provider(Abdul-Muhmin, 2005; Anderson and Narus, 1990; Dwyer et al., 1987), we use theterm relationship satisfaction to refer to a positive affective state resulting from an

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appraisal of all aspects of a customers working relationship with a particular serviceemployee (see also, Reynolds and Beatty, 1999). The customer-employee relationshipexists when there is an ongoing series of interactions between a service employee and acustomer and when both the parties know each other (Czepiel, 1990; Reynolds andBeatty, 1999). Empirical evidence suggests that perceived similarities amongindividuals in a relational context influences relationship satisfaction (e.g. Crosbyet al., 1990). Following the same logic, we propose our next hypothesis:

H2. The greater the self-employee congruency experienced by a customer, thegreater will be their relationship satisfaction with the service employee.

Loyalty towards service employeeSimilarly, a number of scholars have highlighted the significance of loyalty (Beerli et al.,2004; Bloemer et al., 1999; Caruana, 2002), which is defined as a deeply heldcommitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product/service consistently in thefuture, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despitesituational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switchingbehavior (Oliver, 1999, p. 34). Greater loyalty can lead to lower marketing costs(Aaker, 1991), enhanced opportunities for brand extensions and increased marketshares (Buzzell et al., 1975; Buzzell and Gale, 1987). It can also encourage favourableword of mouth and greater resistance among loyal customers to competitive strategies(Dick and Basu, 1994) and can lead to the lower levels of price sensitivity amongcustomers (Keller, 1993; Rundle-Thiele and Mackay, 2001). However, differences existbetween person-person and person-organization relationships (Iacobucci and Ostrom,1996) and, therefore, loyalty can be towards a service employee as well as towards aservice provider (Wong and Sohal, 2003). We believe that the perceived similaritiesamong individuals in a relational context not only influence their relationshipsatisfaction, but also their loyalty towards service employees. Hence, we propose thefollowing:

H3. The greater the self-employee congruency experienced by a customer, thegreater will be their loyalty towards the service employee.

Furthermore, given the intangibility and credence properties of some services, manycustomers deliberately seek out on-going relationships with service providers to reducetheir perceptions of risk associated with service delivery (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997).Customers often rely on a service employees ability and integrity in reducing theperceived uncertainty while trust and satisfaction with the service employee can act asimportant dimensions of relationship quality (Crosby et al., 1990). Customer-orientedemployees with a focus on showing empathy, understanding of customer needs,interpersonal care and trustworthy behaviour are likely to contribute significantlytowards the strength of customer-employee relationship over the long-term (Beattyet al., 1996). Moreover, many have called for investigating the benefits that customersobtain from developing long-term relationships with employees and the outcomes ofthese benefits (Bitner, 1995; Berry, 1995; Gwinner et al., 1998; Reynolds and Beatty,1999). It is argued that customer-employee relationships provide benefits to bothparties (Beatty et al., 1996; Berry, 1995; Bitner, 1995) playing a significant role incustomers evaluations of service quality. The relational benefits for customers includemonetary savings (Peterson, 1995), time savings, feelings of security, customizing of

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service offering and expectations to receive satisfactory delivery of the core service(Gwinner et al., 1998), feelings of familiarity, personal recognition, friendship, rapportand support (Berry, 1995; Gwinner et al., 1998) and a sense of enhanced confidence andtrust (Berry, 1995). Since the service employees often play a critical role in thefulfilment of relationship benefits, customers perceptions of the performance of serviceemployees can be critical in fostering and enhancing customer-employee relationships.Therefore, our next hypothesis:

H4. Customer perceptions of personal interaction will be positively related torelationship satisfaction.

Similarly, customers who feel satisfied towards their relationships with serviceemployees are very likely to feel loyal towards the service employees as satisfaction isan important determinant of loyalty (Beerli et al., 2004; Bearden and Teel, 1983; Croninand Taylor, 1992; Caruana, 2002; Dick and Basu, 1994; Oliva et al., 1992; Selnes, 1993).Hence, our next hypothesis:

H5. The greater the relationship satisfaction, the greater will be loyalty towardsthe service employee.

Satisfaction towards the service providerCustomer satisfaction is increasingly becoming a corporate goal as more and morecompanies strive for quality in their products and services (Bitner and Hubbert, 1994).Some widely reported determinants of customer satisfaction include service quality,expectations, disconfirmation, performance, desires, affect and equity (Churchill andSurprenant, 1982; Levesque and McDougall, 1996; Oliver, 1993; Patterson et al., 1997;Spreng et al., 1996; Szymanski and Henard, 2001). However, there can be potentiallymany antecedents of customer satisfaction as the dimensions underlying satisfactionjudgements are global rather than specific (Jamal and Naser, 2002; Patterson andJohnson, 1993; Rust and Oliver, 1994; Taylor and Baker, 1994). For instance, customersperceptions of the performance of service employees can influence their satisfactionlevels with the service providers (Crosby et al., 1990). Similarly, prior research suggeststhat customers satisfaction with service employee is a predictor of overall satisfactionwith service provider (Crosby and Stephens, 1987). Satisfaction with past interactionsinvolving service employees acts as a key variable in customers receptivity torelationship maintenance (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997) in enhancing trust andperceived dependence on the service provider (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997; Bitner,1995). Also, according to relationship quality paradigm (Crosby et al., 1990), customersevaluations of their relationship with the service provider can be central to theirdecision to continue or leave the relationship (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002; Morgan andHunt, 1994). Moreover, social bonds between customers and employees lead customersto have higher levels of commitment (Berry, 1995) and loyalty to the organization(Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002). Hence, our next set of hypotheses:

H6. Customer perceptions of personal interaction will be positively related tocustomer satisfaction towards the service provider.

H7. The greater the relationship satisfaction, the greater will be customersatisfaction towards the service provider.

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Prior research also argues that loyalty to service employees can be more substantialthan other forms of loyalty (Oliver, 1997) as it is likely to be built on notions of trust,attachment and commitment, which may be more deeply exhibited in a person-personcontext (Czepiel, 1990; Reynolds and Beatty, 1999). This is backed up by furtherempirical evidence which suggests that a customers loyalty can be towards a serviceemployee, which in turn influences loyalty and customer satisfaction (Beatty et al.,1996; Macintosh and Lockshin, 1997; Wong and Sohal, 2003). Hence, our finalhypothesis:

H8. The greater the loyalty towards the service employee, the greater will becustomer satisfaction towards the service provider.

Data collectionRetail banking sectorData to examine the effects of self-employee congruence and personal interaction oncustomer satisfaction was gathered from personal interviews with customers of fourpopular retail banks in Nigeria using a structured questionnaire. This particular retailbanking sector was considered a good setting for testing the model mainly because thesocial fabric in a highly collectivist culture such as Nigeria is tightly knit (Zagorseket al., 2004). The collectivist cultures tend to hold an interdependent view of the selfthat stresses connectedness, social context and relationships (Aaker and Maheswaran,1997; Hofstede, 1984, 1990; Triandis, 1989). Despite the fact that recent advances in theinformation technology have helped to streamline the back office operations of mostbanks in Nigeria (Uche and Ehikwe, 2001), the front office operations are stillcharacterised by close customer-employee relationships and encounters (Ehigie, 2006).Thus, the sector represented a high contact service in which, like hotels, restaurants,and airlines, contact employees communication skills are particularly important (seefor instance, Bitner et al., 1990). Furthermore, the governmental policies haveencouraged mergers, acquisitions and entrance of foreign banks creating a stiffercompetitive environment in the Nigerian banking sector (Ehigie, 2006). However, asubstantial review of the literature revealed only one study by Ehigie (2006)investigating the correlates of customer loyalty in the Nigerian banking sector. Thismakes research on the effects of customer-employee congruence on customersatisfaction in the Nigerian banking industry significant. Moreover, the particularbanks within the sector were selected mainly because of ease of access and thecooperation extended by the participating banks to collect data from their customers.

It might be worth noting here that, in general, customers tend to stay longer withtheir respective banks due to high levels of negativity (e.g. feelings of being locked in,being concerned about negative financial consequences and uncertainty about theoutcome of switching) and customer apathy, which reflects customers tendency tomaintain the status quo (Colgate and Lang, 2001). Also, customers can feel bonded withtheir banks due to the existence of bank accounts and other contractual arrangements(Gerrard and Doyle, 1990 cited in Gerrard and Cunningham, 2004). However, in theretail-banking sector, customer switching tends to be largely influenced by more thanone critical incident (Gerrard and Cunningham, 2000, 2004). This is probably due to thehigher perceived switching costs (Beerli et al., 2004; Keaveney, 1995) and perceived risk(Dowling and Staelin, 1994) associated with retail banking.

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However, in recent years, competition has intensified introducing new products andnew ways of service delivery (Bitner et al., 2000, 2002; Dabholkar and Bagozzi, 2002;Meuter et al., 2000). Customers have also become increasingly sophisticated andknowledgeable with a tendency to open new accounts with multiple banks.Increasingly customers tend to perceive very little difference in the services offered byservice providers whereby any offering is quickly matched by competition (Coskunand Frohlich, 1992). Consequently, retail banks are increasingly becomingcustomer-oriented in accordance with the basic principles of relationship marketing(Beerli et al., 2004; Levesque and McDougall, 1996). Hence, the research aims tocontribute towards relationship marketing literature by investigating the effects ofself-employee congruence on satisfaction via some important relational constructssuch as relationship satisfaction, personal interaction and loyalty towards employeeswithin the Nigerian banking sector.

MeasuresOn the basis of an extensive review of the literature and definitions used in this study,we generated a pool of measures to be utilized in the questionnaire. Consistent withprior research, self-employee congruence, personal interaction, loyalty to serviceemployee and customer satisfaction were measured on seven-point Likert-type scales,with anchors of 1 strongly disagree and 7 strongly agree whereas relationshipsatisfaction was measured on seven-point semantic differential items. In order to elicitcustomers self-employee congruence, we followed the procedure outlined by priorresearch (Gremler and Gwinner, 2000; Sirgy et al., 1997) by asking respondents to thinkabout an employee in their bank that first came to their mind and who they believedwas a representative of all other employees. They were asked to think about oneparticular employee that they dealt with regularly or a group of employees that came totheir mind while thinking of their day-to-day dealings with their chosen bank. Whileimagining this employee(s) in their minds, the respondents were asked to respond tofour measures of self-employee congruence (e.g. Dealing with the employee(s) at X isconsistent with how I see myself most of the time), which were adopted from Sirgyet al. (1997; see also, Jamal and Al-Marri, 2007; Jamal and Goode, 2001). All of theresponses were consistent with the procedure outlined by Sirgy et al. (1997) and weretherefore considered as valid and reliable. We used six items to measure personalinteraction based on existing service quality literature (Carman, 1990; Dabholkar et al.,1996; Parasuraman et al., 1988, 1991).

Following Reynolds and Beatty (1999) and Ganesan (1994), we used fourself-reported seven-point semantic differential items to measure relationshipsatisfaction with the end points: pleased/displeased; happy/unhappy;contended/disgusted and enjoyable/frustrating following the statement, Thinkingof my relationship with the service employee(s) at X, I feel . . . . We used four items tomeasure loyalty towards service employee to capture the overall commitment of beingloyal to a specific service employee(s) based on Beatty and Kahle (1988), Olivers (1997)and Yoo et al. (2000) work (e.g. I consider myself to be loyal to the employee(s) at X).Finally, four frequently used measures of customer satisfaction (e.g. After consideringeverything, I am extremely satisfied with X) were included in the study (Jamal andNaser, 2002; Jones and Sasser, 1995; Levesque and McDougall, 1996; Sirgy et al., 1997).Additionally, in order to establish customers familiarity (Carman, 1990) and bank

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usage behaviour, respondents were first asked: which of the following banks do youhave an account with (please tick all that are applicable)? The respondents were thenpresented with a list of six major banks with an option to specify any other bank (iftheirs was not on the list). The respondents were then asked to indicate the name oftheir main bank out of the options identified in step one. The respondents use of theirmain bank was further measured by asking respondents for how long they had bankedwith their main bank.

Pilot testing and questionnaire administrationA total of 20 pilot tests were then conducted with customers who were seen as similarto the population for the study. The purpose of the pre-testing was to refine thequestionnaire and to assess the validity and applicability of measures for the servicesector; corresponding amendments were made to the questionnaire after the pilot tests.A total of 250 questionnaires were then distributed among retail bank users in Lagos,the largest city in Nigeria and the second largest in Africa. With the help of customerservice staff at local bank branches, subjects were invited to fill in self-administeredquestionnaires soon after they entered the bank branch and before they could conductany of their intended transactions. Once they completed the questionnaire, they wereoffered drinks and beverages and given special treatment as a thank you gesture (e.g.no need to join the queues). The incentive was offered after the completion ofquestionnaire to avoid any potential bias in responses. Data was collected duringdifferent times of the day and days of the week over a two-week period. The procedureresulted in 203 completed questionnaires with a response rate of 81 per cent. All of thecompleted questionnaires were fully answered, resulting in a total of 203 usablequestionnaires. Out of the 203 usable questionnaires, 120 (59.1 per cent) indicated theirbanking tenure with their main bank to be between one to five years, whereas 57 (28.1per cent) indicated to have banked for more than five years. This indicates therespondents had sufficient familiarity with the banks and were likely to be familiarwith the banking procedures (see for instance, Carman, 1990). Overall, the sample isprimarily aged 25-44 (81 per cent) with an additional 16 per cent belonging to the 18-24age category; 63 per cent single and 35 per cent married; highly educated (78 per centholding university degrees), mainly earning up to 930 Euros a month (79.7 per cent),represent a wide range of occupations, and 56 per cent male and 44 per cent female.

Data analysis and findingsFactor analysis and scale reliabilitiesIn order to test the validity of measures used in the study, a confirmatory factoranalysis using Amos 6.0 was conducted (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988; Byrne, 2001).The confirmatory factor analysis was preferred over the exploratory factor analysisbecause it is theory based, accounts for measurement error, and tests forunidimensionality (Byrne, 2001; Hair et al., 1998). In arriving at the final set of itemsfor each construct, we deleted seven measures from the initial battery of 22 items basedon item-to total correlations and the standardised residual values (Byrne, 2001; Rokkanet al., 2003). The deleted items were examined and compared with original conceptualdefinitions of the constructs. In each case, deleting the items did not significantlychange the domain of the construct as it was initially conceptualised. The resultingpool of items was subsequently subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and a

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completely standardised solution produced by Amos 6.0 using maximum likelihoodmethod showed that all of the 14 items loaded highly on their corresponding factors,confirming the unidimensionality of the constructs and provided strong empiricalevidence of their validity. The t-values for the loadings were high, demonstratingadequate convergent validity. The resulting measurement model was x2203 168.712;p 0.000; Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) 0.90; Adjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index(AGFI) 0.85; Comparative-Fit-Index (CFI) 0.96; Incremental Fit Index (IFI) 0.97;Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) 0.07, which indicated a goodfit. The measurement model and the standardized loadings along with critical ratiosare presented in Table I. Following the previous literature (Byrne, 2001; Hair et al.,1998), our choice of fixing the specific items was purely arbitrary. Cronbach alphacoefficients were then computed to quantify the scale reliabilities of the factorsidentified and were 0.89 (self-employee congruence), 0.86 (personal interaction), 0.95

Standardizedloadings

Critical ratio(CR)

Self-employee congruence (Scale composite reliability 0.89; Varianceextracted 0.72)SEC1 Dealing with the employee(s) of X is consistent with how I seemyself most of the time 0.84 14.72SEC2 People similar to me deal with the employee(s) of X most of thetime 0.82 14.32SEC3 Dealing with the employee(s) of X most of the time reflectswho I am 0.88 Fixed

Personal interaction (Scale composite reliability 0.87;Variance extracted 0.69)PIN1 I receive prompt service from employees at X 0.86 11.55PIN2 Employees at X are always willing to help customers 0.91 12.00PIN3 Employees at X are not too busy to respond to customerrequests promptly 0.72 Fixed

Relationship satisfaction (Scale composite reliability 0.95; Varianceextracted 0.86)RS1 I feel pleased/displeased about my relationship with theemployee(s) at X 0.92 21.82RS2 I feel happy/unhappy about my relationship with the employee(s)at X 0.95 23.96RS3 I feel contended/disgusted about my relationship with theemployee(s) at X 0.91 Fixed

Loyalty to employees (Scale composite reliability 0.84;Variance extracted 0.64)LE1 I am very loyal to the employee(s) at X 0.80 12.91LE2 I plan to deal with employee(s) at X in the future 0.69 10.75LE3 I am very committed to the employee(s) at X 0.89 Fixed

Customer satisfaction (Scale composite reliability 0.93;Variance extracted 0.81)SAT1 After considering everything, I am extremely satisfied with X 0.89 16.57SAT2 The overall quality of service offered by X is excellent 0.97 18.83SAT3 If anyone asked me, I would strongly recommend X to them 0.84 Fixed

Table I.The measurement model

Customer-employee

relationship

1327

(relational satisfaction), 0.82 (loyalty towards employees) and 0.92 (customersatisfaction). Thus, reliabilities ranged from 0.82 to 0.95, providing further supportthat all the scales used in this study were acceptable and reliable (Nunnally, 1978). Theinter-correlations, means, and standard deviations of the five constructs used in thestudy are reported in Table II.

Hypothesized modelStructural equation modelling was used to estimate parameters of the hypothesizedmodel, which specified self-employee congruence as an exogenous construct. Theself-employee congruence was selectively related to the mediating constructs ofpersonal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty towards employees each ofwhich were in turn related to the endogenous construct (customer satisfaction). Also,personal interaction was related to relationship satisfaction, which in turn was relatedto loyalty towards employees. Goodness-of-fit statistics, indicating the overallacceptability of the hypothesized model analyzed, were acceptable: x2203 169.90;p 0.000; degrees of freedom 82; GFI 0.90; AGFI 0.86; CFI 0.97; IFI 0.97;RMSEA 0.07. The SEM results are reported in Table III. In accordance withAnderson and Gerbing (1988), we can assume that convergent validity exists when thecritical ration (CR) of the variables observed against their respective latent variables isover 1.96 at the 0.05 level. Furthermore, as reported in Table I, the scale compositereliability and the average variance extracted for each construct were quite satisfactory(Fornell and Larker, 1981). The composite reliability, which is an internal consistencyreliability measure as further evidence of convergent validity computed from Amossolutions, ranged from 0.84 to 0.95. The average variance extracted for each constructranged from 0.64 to 0.86, exceeding the acceptable level of 0.50 (Hair et al., 1998). It canbe seen from Table III, that all the critical ratios of the indicators of constructs satisfythis criterion, so the convergent validity of the measurements is demonstrated and theproposed relationships between indicators and constructs verified.

As hypothesised, self-employee congruence was significantly and positively relatedto personal interaction (parameter estimate 0.534, t-value 6.594); relationshipsatisfaction (parameter estimate 0.247, t-value 3.439) and loyalty towardsemployee (parameter estimate 0.553, t-value 6.855). Therefore, H1, H2 and H3are all accepted. Also, as hypothesised, personal interaction was significantly related torelationship satisfaction (parameter estimate 0.548, t-value 6.723) which was inturn related to loyalty towards employees (parameter estimate 0.237,t-value 3.191). Hence, H4 and H5 are also accepted. Finally, personal interaction

Self-employeecongruence

Personalinteraction

Relationshipsatisfaction

Loyalty toemployees

Customersatisfaction

Self-employee congruence 1.0Personal interaction 0.53 1.0Relationship satisfaction 0.54 0.68 1.0Loyalty to employees 0.68 0.50 0.53 1.0Customer satisfaction 0.52 0.72 0.69 0.59 1.0Mean 4.94 5.37 5.31 5.34 5.22Standard deviation 1.41 1.29 1.24 1.39 1.30

Table II.Constructinter-correlation matrix

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(parameter estimate 0.416, t-value 5.256), relationship satisfaction (parameterestimate 0.286, t-value 3.751) and loyalty towards employee (parameterestimate 0.232, t-value 3.651) were each related to the customer satisfaction.Therefore, H6, H7 and H8 are also accepted.

Alternative model testingIn addition to the hypothesized model illustrated in Figure 1, we tested two competingmodels to our proposed model. A model comparison approach is consistent with thestructural modelling literature (Byrne, 2001; Hair et al., 1998). In order to rule out thepossibility that self-employee congruence was not an antecedent of personalinteraction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty towards employees but a directpredictor of satisfaction in our hypothesized model, we decided to estimate a rivalmodel (Figure 2) with direct paths from self-employee congruence, personal interaction,

Regression weights EstimatesStandard

errorCritical

ratio P ,Standardized

estimates

Self-employee congruence! Personalinteraction 0.453 0.069 6.594 0.000 0.534Self-employee congruence! Relationsatisfaction 0.224 0.065 3.439 0.000 0.247Self-employee congruence! Loyalty toemployee 0.565 0.082 6.855 0.000 0.553Personal interaction! Relation satisfaction 0.586 0.087 6.723 0.000 0.548Personal interaction! Customer satisfaction 0.460 0.088 5.256 0.000 0.416Relationship satisfaction! Loyalty toemployee 0.267 0.084 3.191 0.001 0.237Relationship satisfaction! Customersatisfaction 0.295 0.079 3.751 0.000 0.286Loyalty to employee(s)! Customersatisfaction 0.213 0.058 3.651 0.000 0.232Self-employee congruence! SEC1 0.938 0.064 14.751 0.000 0.845Self-employee congruence! SEC2 0.922 0.065 14.189 0.000 0.821Self-employee congruence! SEC3 1.000 0.877Personal interaction! PIN1 0.982 0.085 11.581 0.000 0.856Personalinteraction! PIN2 1.049 0.087 12.014 0.000 0.904Personal interaction! PIN3 1.000 0.720Relationship satisfaction! RS1 0.987 0.045 21.845 0.000 0.920Relationship satisfaction! RS2 0.960 0.040 23.941 0.000 0.950Relationship satisfaction! RS3 1.000 0.910Loyalty to employee! LE1 0.779 0.600 12.877 0.000 0.803Loyalty to employee! LE2 0.918 0.085 10.766 0.000 0.695Loyalty to employee! LE3 1.000 0.890Customer satisfaction! SAT1 0.935 0.043 21.746 0.000 0.886Customer satisfaction! SAT2 1.000 0.966Customer satisfaction! SAT3 0.946 0.050 18.768 0.000 0.839Notes: Goodness-of-fit statistics of the model: x2203 169.900, p 0.000; degrees of freedom(df) 82; goodness of fit index (GFI) 0.90; adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI) 0.86; root meansquare error of approximation (RMSEA) 0.07; comparative-fit-index (CFI) 0.97; incremental fitindex (IFI) 0.97

Table III.Structural model

estimates

Customer-employee

relationship

1329

relationship satisfaction and loyalty towards employees to customer satisfaction as aconceptual alternative (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Also, personal interaction was relatedto relationship satisfaction, which in turn was related to loyalty towards employees. Inthe context of interaction involving customers self-concept and brand user image,prior research has reported that self-image congruence is a direct predictor of customersatisfaction (Sirgy et al., 1982, 1997). Estimating the rival model produced a significantchi-square value (x2203 230.153; p 0.000; degree of freedom 83) but the directpath from self-employee congruence was not significant. The other fit indices wereGFI 0.873; AGFI 0.82; CFI 0.94; IFI 0.94; RMSEA 0.09 indicating amediocre fit (MacCallum et al., 1996).

Since the rival model was not fully nested within the hypothesized model indicatinga radical departure from our conceptual framework, the Akaikes Information Criterion(AIC) and Consistent Information Criterion (CAIC) were considered as appropriate formodel comparison (Akaike, 1987; Bozdogan, 1987; Rust et al., 1995). While forhypothesized model, AIC is 245.90 and CAIC is 409.80, the values for rival model areAIC 304.153 and CAIC 463.742. As smaller values for these criteria indicate abetter fit, these results indicate a preference for the hypothesized model over the rivalmodel. Furthermore, PGFI (hypothesized model 0.616, and rival model 0.0.604)and PNFI (hypothesized model 0.730, and rival model 0.721) indices, which assessthe parsimonious fit of competing models, favour the hypothesized model. The resultsindicate that although the rival model shows a mediocre fit in absolute terms but inrelative terms (i.e. in comparison with the rival model), the hypothesized model issuperior.

Having rejected the rival model, we then proceeded to estimate a revised model(Figure 3) to confirm the partial mediating role of personal interaction, relationshipsatisfaction and loyalty towards employees in our hypothesized model. The revisedmodel included exactly the same paths as in the hypothesized model except oneadditional direct path from self-employee congruence to customer satisfaction(Figure 3). Estimating the revised model produced a significant chi-square value(x2203 169.88; p 0.000; degree of freedom 81). The other fit indices wereGFI 0.90; AGFI 0.85; CFI 0.96; IFI 0.97; RMSEA 0.07 indicating an overallacceptability of the revised model. While both the hypothesized and the revised modelwere equivalent on the overall fit statistics and the standardized parameter estimatesof predicted relationships for the revised model and the hypothesized model wereessentially the same, however, the direct path from self-employee congruence was stillnot significant (Table IV). This is consistent with the model of Figure 1 and supports

Figure 2.The firect effects model ofcustomer-employeerelationships

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the partial mediating hypothesis. We, therefore, find the hypothesized model to be abetter representation of the data because adding a direct path (non-significant) fromself-employee congruence to satisfaction does not improve the overall fit of thehypothesized model.

DiscussionThe current study sought to evaluate the self-concept theory by positing that thepsychological comparison involving the interaction between the employee image andcustomers self-concept generate self-employee congruence. In particular, it aimed toinvestigate the effects of self-employee congruence in a specific service context (i.e. theNigerian retail banking sector) where the front office bank operations are characterisedby face to contacts between bank employees and bank customers (Ehigie, 2006; see alsoZagorsek et al., 2004). In doing so, the objective was to investigate the effects ofself-employee congruence on customer satisfaction via personal interaction,relationship satisfaction and loyalty towards bank employees in Nigeria. This wasdone within the ethos of relationship marketing where the aim is to identify key driversthat influence significant performance outcomes and to develop a better understandingof these drivers and outcomes (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2002; Morgan and Hunt, 1994).

Self-employee congruenceAs hypothesized we found that the self-employee congruence had a significant and directeffect on a number of relational constructs such as personal interaction, relationshipsatisfaction and loyalty towards employees. These findings are in line with consumerbehaviour literature that has argued that customers brand preferences and satisfactionlevels go up once there is a perceived similarity between brand images and consumersself-images (Sirgy et al., 1982, 1997). More specifically, the findings lend support to ourargument that the perceived similarity between a customer and an employee plays acritical role in determining customers perceptions of the way in which they are treated byemployees and their appraisal of all aspects of their relationships with employees. This isin line with Coulter and Coulter (2002) who reported that perceived similarity allowsindividuals to identify with others on a personal basis which in turn reduces interpersonalbarriers, raises comfort levels and contributes towards the generation of satisfaction andtrust. Moreover, the self-concept theory suggests that self-concept is formed in an

Figure 3.A partially mediated

model ofcustomer-employee

relationships

Customer-employee

relationship

1331

Hy

pot

hes

ized

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elR

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mod

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Reg

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wei

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46.

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Sel

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ence!

Rel

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on0.

247

3.43

9

0.

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elf-

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0.55

36.

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0.55

36.

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on0.

548

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30.

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00.

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6.71

9P

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Cu

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tisf

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on0.

416

5.25

60.

433

4.69

60.

419

5.12

7R

elat

ion

ship

sati

sfac

tion!

Loy

alty

toem

plo

yee

0.23

73.

191

0.54

97.

632

0.23

73.

184

Rel

atio

nsh

ipsa

tisf

acti

on!

Cu

stom

ersa

tisf

acti

on0.

286

3.75

10.

271

3.25

10.

287

3.75

8L

oyal

tyto

emp

loy

ee!

Cu

stom

ersa

tisf

acti

on0.

232

3.65

10.

230

3.55

70.

240

2.98

6S

elf-

emp

loy

eeco

ng

ruen

ce!

Cu

stom

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tisf

acti

on

0.

005

0.07

52

0.01

32

0.15

6A

kai

ke

sin

form

atio

ncr

iter

ion

(AIC

)24

5.90

30

4.15

C

onsi

sten

tin

form

atio

ncr

iter

ion

(CA

IC)

409.

80

463.

74

Par

sim

onio

us

goo

dn

ess

offi

tin

dex

(PG

FI)

0.61

6

0.60

4

Par

sim

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nor

med

fit

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ex(P

NF

I)0.

730

0.

721

C

hi

squ

are

(p

0.00

0)16

9.90

0

230.

153

16

9.87

6

Deg

rees

offr

eed

om(d

f)82

83

81

G

ood

nes

sof

fit

ind

ex(G

FI)

0.90

0.

87

0.90

A

dju

sted

goo

dn

ess-

of-fi

tin

dex

(AG

FI)

0.86

0.

82

0.85

R

oot

mea

nsq

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ror

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pro

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n(R

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)0.

07

0.09

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par

ativ

e-fi

t-in

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(CF

I)0.

97

0.94

0.

96

Incr

emen

tal

fit

ind

ex(I

FI)

0.97

0.

94

0.97

Table IV.Comparison of structuralmodel estimates

EJM42,11/12

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interaction process between an individual and others and that the individual strives forself-enhancement in the interaction process (Grubb and Grathwohl, 1967; Onkvisit andShaw, 1987; Sirgy, 1982). Our findings suggest that the respondents in our study aimed toachieve a consistent self-image by interacting with the right type of employees with theright type of values, goals and imagery (see also, Onkvisit and Shaw, 1987; Sirgy, 2000). Ina relationship marketing context, our findings lend support to the notion that relationshipsatisfaction and loyalty towards employees improves once the match between customersself concept and employee image goes up (see for instance, Bendapudi and Berry, 1997;Morgan and Hunt, 1994 for a similar argument). We also found that the effect ofself-employee congruence on satisfaction was mediated through personal interaction,relationship satisfaction and loyalty towards employees. Therefore, self-employeecongruence could be viewed as an additional antecedent of customer satisfaction via itseffects on personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees (Jamal,2004; Jamal and Goode, 2001; Spreng et al., 1996; Szymanski and Henard, 2001).

However, it is worth noting here that close customer-employee relationships andinteractions do not characterise all service types and, in certain cases, loyalty toemployees might become problematic (e.g. a customer switching because a particularemployee leaves the service firm). Similarly, there is a significant growth in retailservice delivery options based on technology (Bobbit and Dabholkar, 2001; Dabholkarand Bagozzi, 2002) that allow customers to produce and consume services withoutdirect contact from employees (Meuter et al., 2000). Therefore, self-employeecongruence might only apply in service contexts where there is a direct andfrequent employee-customer contact.

Personal interactionA noteworthy finding of our research is that the personal interaction directly affectsboth relationship satisfaction and customer satisfaction. More specifically, bankemployees were perceived by customers as being helpful relational partners who hadthe ability and willingness to provide quick and prompt services to their clients. Manyof the existing conceptualizations of service quality frequently refer to how thecustomer perceives the employees and their behaviours and attitudes (Brady andCronin, 2001; Carman, 1990; Dabholkar et al., 1996). It is clear from our data thatcustomers perceptions and evaluations of their interactions with employees tend tobecome positive once employees are perceived as friendly, enthusiastic, attentive andshowing empathy for the customer (van Dolen et al., 2002). It might be that respondentsfelt uncertain and lacked knowledge associated with service encounters and henceneeded some assistance in understanding the attributes and benefits associated withservice consumption (Coulter and Coulter, 2002). This might have led to anappreciation of personal interaction among the respondents facilitating thecommunication of service related features to them. Nonetheless, these results lendsupport to our argument that employees play a critical role during the service deliveryprocess and are in line with those reported by earlier research (Bendapudi and Berry,1997; Crosby et al., 1990; Gwinner et al., 1998).

Relationship satisfactionWe found that relationship satisfaction had a direct effect on both the loyalty towards theemployees and overall satisfaction towards the service provider. These results suggest

Customer-employee

relationship

1333

that customers felt happy about their relationships with their respective banks and theiremployees and felt committed to some specific employees. It might be that the majorityof respondents were collectivist in their cultural orientation and hence valuedconnectedness, social context and long-term relationships with others (Aaker andMaheswaran, 1997; Hofstede, 1984, 1990; Triandis, 1989). It might also be that the bankemployees were quite skilful in developing feelings of familiarity, personal recognitionand rapport with their customers (Berry, 1995; Gwinner et al., 1998). What ever the case,our findings suggest that customer oriented employees with a focus on showingempathy and care for customers can significantly contribute towards the strengtheningof customer-employee relationships (Beatty et al., 1996). Our findings also lend support tothe notion that relationship satisfaction is an important predictor of satisfaction towardsthe service provider (Crosby and Stephens, 1987; van Dollen, 2002).

Loyalty towards employeesConsistent with the hypothesized model, the present results show that loyalty towardsemployees is related to customer satisfaction. This is in line with previous findingsfrom customer-employee relationship contexts (e.g. Beatty et al., 1996; Reynolds andBeatty, 1999). Also, our findings are in line with the notion that loyalty to serviceemployees can be more substantial than other forms of loyalty (Oliver, 1997) because itappears to be built on notions of personal interaction and relationship satisfaction(Czepiel, 1990; Reynolds and Beatty, 1999). Moreover, our findings confirm the notionthat a customers loyalty can be towards a service employee, which in turn influencescustomer satisfaction (Beatty et al., 1996; Macintosh and Lockshin, 1997; Wong andSohal, 2003).

ConclusionOverall, we conclude that that self-employee congruence has a strong impact on personalinteraction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty towards service employees. We alsoconclude that self-employee congruence provides a meaningful perspective to theunderstanding of customer-employee interactions and relationships (Onkvisit and Shaw,1987). Our findings contribute by extending the self-concept theory to a services contextwhere research on image congruence is literally nonexistent (Kleijnen et al., 2005).

Our findings also contribute towards the customer-employee interface literature(Hartline and Ferrell, 1996; Surprenant and Solomon, 1987) by reinforcing thesignificance of personal interaction (Brady and Cronin, 2001; Gronroos, 1982, 1984),relationship satisfaction (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997; Crosby et al., 1990; Gwinner et al.,1998) and loyalty to employees (Beatty et al., 1996; Reynolds and Beatty, 1999) inservice settings. In line with the relational quality paradigm (Crosby et al., 1990), weconclude that as customers perceptions of interactions involving service employees goup, customer satisfaction towards service provider goes up with an enhancedprobability of having a longer-term relationship between customers and serviceproviders.

Similarly, in line with relationship quality approach (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997;Gwinner et al., 1998; Reynolds and Beatty, 1999), we conclude that as the relationshipsatisfaction and loyalty towards service employee go up, customer satisfactionincreases with implications for future relationship building and improving loyaltytowards service providers. Our findings also confirm the partial mediating role of

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personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees on therelationship between self-employee congruence and customer satisfaction and,therefore, reconfirm the significance of customer satisfaction in the service setting.This is in line with prior research that argues to consider customer satisfaction as theessence of success in todays highly competitive world of business (Bitner, 1990;Parasuraman et al., 1988, 1991).

Managerial implicationsOur findings have some important implications for marketers of services characterisedby high levels of face-to-face and frequent customer-employee interaction. First of all,and given the effectiveness of self-employee congruence in determining a number ofrelational constructs (and in indirectly influencing satisfaction levels), servicemarketers need to embark upon a strategy of carefully managing the interrelationshipbetween a customers self-image and the perceived image attributes associated withemployees (see also, Hong and Zinkhan, 1995). In particular, our findings highlight thesignificance of developing a distinct employee image (that is relevant to customersself-concept) in developing and projecting a strong corporate image. Since corporateimage is the net result of the interaction of all experiences, impressions, beliefs, feelingsand knowledge customers form about an organization (LeBlanc and Nguyen, 1996;Worcester, 1997), a distinct employee image that is consistent with customersself-concept can contribute towards the strengthening of overall corporate image andidentity.

According to Gronroos (2001), corporate image is the outcome of how customersperceive the service firm and is mainly built up by the technical and functional qualityof its services. Furthermore, in todays highly competitive business environment, theway a brand is positioned in terms of brand images is extremely important (Arnold,2000; Bhat and Reddy, 1998; Park et al., 1986). Many argue that a strong corporatebrand image is the most effective form of differentiation in financial services as strongbrands increase customers trust of the invisible purchase and enable customers tobetter visualize and understand intangible products (Berry, 2000; Gronroos, 2001).Since, individuals develop impressions (i.e. image) about other people on the basis ofother peoples behaviours, physical characteristics, attitudes, beliefs, abilities, skills,expertise and demographic characteristics (Park, 1986), service marketers need tofocus on improving the performance of contact employees in service delivery (e.g.engage with customers in a friendly and social manner) with a view to strengthen theoverall corporate image (see also, Bell et al., 2005). This is significant becauseincreasing the strength of customers psychological bond with the service providerappears to raise the switching barriers (Colgate and Lang, 2001; Gerrard andCunningham, 2000, 2004; Jones et al., 2000) and hence increases customers likelihood ofstaying with the firm (Burnhan et al., 2003).

Further areas to focus, from a managerial perspective, include the service brand, theservice environment in which employees operate and marketing communications (e.g.advertising depicting service employees) as all of them have the potential to influencethe service employee-image formation. This is in with services literature that arguesthat consumer perceptions of service environment elicit cognitive responsesinfluencing their beliefs about a place and the people and products found in thatplace (e.g. Bitner, 1992; Baker et al., 1994, 2002). We concur with Gwinner et al. (1998)

Customer-employee

relationship

1335

and call for facilitating the development of interpersonal bonds by designing theservice environment in such a way that opportunities for interactions betweencustomers and employees are plentiful. Also, service marketers need to empoweremployees and design a service delivery process that can encouragecustomer-employee interactions (Gremler et al., 2001; Gwinner et al., 2005; Pattersonand Smith, 2003). The managerial challenge here is how best to develop and reinforceself-employee congruency in the context of complicated corporate structures, the everincreasing variety of products offered by the service providers (Saunders and Watters,1993) and a variety of personalities exhibited by service employees.

Given the findings of this study, service marketers can aim to increase customersatisfaction by improving personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyaltytowards employees. This is particularly significant in the Nigerian context wheremany banks have recently embarked on reorganizations with technology as a keyagent of change resulting in significant reductions in staff strengths (Uche and Ehikwe,2001). While self-service technologies can facilitate employees jobs, reduce transactioncosts and encourage customers to create services outcomes on their own (Bitner et al.,2002; Quinn, 1996; Zinn, 1993), our findings imply that managers need to exercisecaution in eliminating bank employees entirely from service delivery process. Ratherconsideration should be made for investing in customer database technology increating a more personalised service encounter (Gwinner et al., 2005; Pine, 1993).During a service encounter, employees can utilise customer database to readily accesscustomer characteristics and increase their familiarity of customers (e.g. identifyqualities that customers have in common with them). This in turn can help to increasecustomers perceptions of caring, familiarity and personal connection with theemployee leading to the development of customer satisfaction (Gremler and Gwinner,2000). Managers can, therefore, consider rewarding employees for effectively usingcustomer database during service interaction (Gremler et al., 2001; Gwinner et al., 1998),which in turn can influence customers perceptions of functional quality (Gronroos,2001). Similarly, a comprehensive database may be of help in rewarding specificcustomers (e.g. specific sales promotional offers) for developing interpersonal bondswith employees (Gremler et al., 2001). However, one must focus here on developingfeelings of dependence and overall trust towards the bank (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997)to counter customer defection due to a specific employee leaving the bank.

Furthermore, retail banks in Nigeria are facing intense competition, which meansincreased choice for customers and more opportunities to open new accounts withmultiple banks. Our data shows that banks need to increase customer satisfaction byimproving personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty towardsemployees and become customer-oriented in accordance with the basic principles ofrelationship marketing (Beerli et al., 2004; Levesque and McDougall, 1996). This is inline with earlier research which has reported that customer satisfaction and servicequality perceptions are important predictors of customer loyalty in the Nigerianbanking sector (Ehigie, 2006). The managerial challenge here is how best to makecustomers more amenable to relationships and develop feelings of dependence andtrust given the low level of constraints imposed by the retail banking sector(Bendapudi and Berry, 1997; Ehigie, 2006). Engaging customers in a more meaningfulrelationship could be an effective way of meeting this challenge as it adds value tocustomers and thus increases switching costs (Burnham et al., 2003). Our data implies

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that banks which make their customers at ease will go a long way in developinglong-term relationships with customers and improving customer satisfaction.

Limitations and future research directionsThis research should be seen as a preliminary attempt at addressing the issue ofself-employee congruence that has important implications for service marketing theoryand practice. As with all research projects, the findings presented are characterized bylimitations that restrict the extent to which they can be reliably generalized. Forexample, all of the constructs were measured at one point-in-time, thus essentially froma static perspective. It may be worthwhile to study the effects of self-employeecongruence over time in order to be able to take into account the dynamics incustomer-employee relationships. Also, our analysis was restricted to one servicecontext (i.e. Nigerian retail banking sector) and needs to be tested over numerouscontexts before one can be certain of its applicability to other domains.

However, irrespective of the limitations, this study highlights a number ofpotentially interesting future research projects. For instance, the findings related to therelationship among self-employee congruence, relationship satisfaction, loyalty toemployees and customer satisfaction may be equally applicable for different types ofself-concept (e.g. actual vs. ideal self), different service contexts (e.g. services with highcredence properties vs. those with low credence properties), consumption and usagesituations (publicly consumed vs. privately consumed), different cultural orientations(e.g. collectivist vs. individualistic) and should, therefore, be explored in futureresearch. It might be that certain service contexts (e.g. up-market restaurants, airlinesand cruise lines) involve more symbolic and image related attributes than others andtherefore the effects of self-employee congruence might vary depending upon thecontext of the study. Similarly, is the relationship the same or different when customersuse more than one service brand simultaneously (e.g. multiple bank users) rather thana single service brand? Also, further research looking into the dynamics ofcustomer-employee interactions can develop and validate a new scale with a view toincorporate sub-dimensions underlying the self-employee congruency. Future studiescould also investigate the effect of self-employee congruence on satisfaction fordifferent populations (e.g. cross cultural groups) and for a range of products/servicesectors. However, these limitations apart, the current paper has contributed towardsthe existing literature by demonstrating that self-employee congruence is an importantpredictor of personal interaction, relationship satisfaction and loyalty to employees,each of which is in turn linked to satisfaction towards the service provider.

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