Understanding special requests as drivers of customer citizenship behaviors: the mediating role of gratitude and satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Customer special requests are requests that fall outside frontline employees’ (FLE) normal job duties, requiring them to adapt to fit customer’s needs. Adopting the customer perspective, this study aims to understand how can service firms benefit from an efficient reply to these requests. Two hundred and eighty customers were surveyed regarding a plethora of self-selected requests. Results show that FLE’s adaptive behaviors promote customer citizenship behaviors (CCB) through gratitude and satisfaction, revealing a dual route to CCB according to request type. The study contributes a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the FLE–customer reciprocal relationship, showing that special requests produce value for both parts.

Acknowledgments

During this research, CEF.UP has been financed by Portuguese public funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the framework of the project with reference UIDB/04105/2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Although helping behaviors were also considered by the authors, this research focuses on CCB directed at the provider and not on customer behaviors aimed at assisting other customers. As such, “helping” was not included.