Abstract
In an era of accelerated change, overwhelming complexity, and tremendous competition, organisations are required to be customer-centric to win in the marketplace. Organisations must continually innovate, attract and retain one of its great assets, employees, to distinguish itself is by providing exceptional employee experiences that could add as a competitive advantage. The research aimed to investigate the impact that employee experiences have on the customer-centeredness from an employee perception. The research approach was an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, with the collected and analysed data adopting a pragmatist research paradigm and proceeding in two consecutive phases. Phase 1 was composed of a quantitative method where data collected included front-line and back-office employees who were asked to complete an online survey. The second phase was a qualitative method, used semi-structured interviews with a few employees to get an in-depth understanding that refined and explained statistical results in the first phase. By understanding and unpacking the experiences of front-line employees that regularly engage with customers, the insights and learnings would assist the bank to adjust and innovate itself in a way that would result in offering exceptional employee experiences, knowing factors that impact the customer centricity. Although this research focused on the banking sector, the learnings here could be applied to other experience and service-dependent industries such as tourism, education, health care, etc. In academia, the two topics, namely, employee experience and customer centeredness, have been research ed separately, and this research aimed to explore the impact of one on the other specifically relating to a banking environment. Currently, there are few empirical studies that have been done in this context.
Findings show that Leadership and Operational Excellence, and Technology and Systems strongly influence how employees perceive customer orientation. The study could contribute to strategic management by linking internal employee dynamics to external customer performance.