EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE CUES IN A HOTEL SERVICE ENVIRONMENT - INFLUENCE ON PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY, VALUE, AND WORD-OF-MOUTH INTENTIONS

Whereas the performance cues of tangible goods have been studied exten sively, very little research has examined performance cues within serv ice environments. Performance cues play an important role within the s ervice encounter, because they serve as signs of quality and Value to consumers. One particularly important cue is the performance of custom er-contact employees as they create and deliver service quality. The s tudy reported here was designed to investigate employee performance cu es within a hotel service environment. The results indicate that front desk, housekeeping, and parking employee performance have significant effects on perceived quality, whereas front desk and room service emp loyee performance have significant effects on perceived value. The onl y performance cue having a direct effect on word-of-mouth intentions i s the performance of housekeeping employees. Both quality and value in crease word-of-mouth intentions; however, the effect of value is large relative to the effect of quality. The findings are discussed with re spect to two conditions that may affect the relative importance of eac h performance cue: (1) the frequency of employee-customer interaction and (2) the tangibility of each performance cue. The authors also disc uss managerial implications and directions for future research.