R. Baydoun et al., Measuring customer service orientation: An examination of the validity of the customer service profile, J BUS PSYCH, 15(4), 2001, pp. 605-620
The construct of customer service is taking on an ever increasing level of
importance in today's global economy. Organizations need a way to identify
those individuals who have the demeanor to effectively serve the public. Th
e present study discusses the development and validation of a personality-b
ased instrument which organizations can use to select high-quality service
providers. Multiple converging sources of validity are discussed. specifica
lly, the authors collected validity evidence using customer related (vs. su
pervisor) ratings, an area relatively neglected in the service literature.
Evidence suggests that customer ratings are viable and an important criteri
on for use in the validation of customer service instruments. Implications
of these findings are discussed in terms of both workplace intervention and
future research.