اثرات مشوق ها و شخصیت بر جهت گیری مشتری مداری

Numerous strategies for increasing customer orientation of salespeople, including customer satisfaction-based incentives and selective recruiting, have been suggested; however, little is known about their effectiveness. This study replicates and extends findings from two previous studies by testing the effects of customer and sales volume-based compensation and personality characteristics on the customer orientation of salespeople. Customer satisfaction incentives and salespeople's level of empathy were positively related to customer orientation. Sales volume incentives and job tenure were negatively related to customer orientation. Empathy moderated the effect of customer satisfaction and sales volume incentives on customer orientation. A discussion of the findings, managerial implications, and suggestions for future research are all presented.

Organizations are turning toward increased customer satisfaction as a key strategy to use in building long-term relationships [1]. In this regard, the salesperson's behavior can have a great impact on overall customer satisfaction [2]. Thus, companies can positively affect customer satisfaction by increasing the customer-oriented behavior of their salespeople. For example, a survey of 453 firms found that 10% of the firms tied customer satisfaction to salespeople's compensation, with an additional 11% of reporting firms planning to incorporate customer satisfaction incentives by year's end [3]. Despite the growing use and importance of customer satisfaction-based compensation, little is know about its impact on salesperson's customer orientation. The goal of customer satisfaction incentives is to motivate salespeople to perform customer satisfaction-based activities [4]. However, the actual impact of customer satisfaction-based compensation is not well understood due to conflicting findings from two empirical studies that investigated this area. That is, customer satisfaction incentives motivate salespeople to better resolve customer problems [5]. Further, the use of customer satisfaction incentives increased overall customer satisfaction. When the salesperson's compensation was entirely based upon customer satisfaction, more customer service calls were made than when compensation was entirely based upon sales volume [6]. However, the highest level of customer service occurred under a blended incentive system that was split evenly between sales and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of customer satisfaction-based incentives and personality characteristics on the customer orientation of salespeople. More specifically, this study is a balanced replication of Sharma and Sarel's [6] study using an improved field methodology that provides greater external validity. In addition, to extend the research, the effects of personality characteristics on customer orientation are examined. Personality characteristics have been shown to have a consistent impact on the level of adaptive selling, a necessary trait of customer orientation [7], [8] and [9]. Finally, this study examines the impact of personality characteristics on the motivational ability of sales and customer satisfaction incentives.