Emotional Convergence in Service Relationships

The literature establishes that customer and frontline employee (FLE) emotions converge during their encounters as a result of a transient, contagion-based process in which emotions flow from one actor to another. Recent evidence suggests, however, that this transient process does not produce emotional convergence among frontline dyads engaged in ongoing exchange, a surprising finding, given the wealth of evidence in support of the idea that customers and FLEs engaged in relational exchange strongly influence one another. In light of this evidence, we argue here that customers and FLEs engaged in ongoing exchange experience similar emotions not as a result of the transient transfer of emotions, but because they develop the tendency to undergo a similar emotional response to relationship events, a phenomenon we call the shared frontline experience. Informed by the social psychology literature, we support this idea by advancing a conceptual model that highlights the role of relationship closeness, personality similarity, and dyadic attachment style in producing the shared frontline experience. The proposed model also suggests that firms stand to benefit from the shared frontline experience of customers and FLEs if they provide the dyad with autonomy, a decision not without risk. Future research directions suggested by this perspective are discussed.