Frontline Employees’ Emotional Displays in Service Encounters: A Framework Enabling Design and Further Research

Abstract

We found that emotional displays by frontline employees in labour environments and service interactions are understudied. We focus on the design of environmental factors and body and face movements, which are in line with emotional displays in service interactions. This chapter uses data from opera performers to develop a framework for service managers to manage and design customer emotions during the “moment of truth”. Emotions arising in service interactions strongly influence customer experience and satisfaction. Interviews with opera singers and observations from live opera performances are employed to study emotional displays and factors influencing them among artists. The resulting framework contains a portfolio of diagnostic cues of emotions, provides new insights into the requirements for emotional labour environments and is the first attempt to solve the dilemma of authenticity versus effectiveness in emotional display. It will support further research as well as practitioners understanding.