The Roles of Information Technology in Customer

Relationship Performance, Employee User Satisfaction,

Creative Component presented to the faculty of

by
Lili Tan

Iowa State University

This paper presents a review of the relationships between information technology and

customer relationship performance, employee user satisfaction, employee service quality and

customer satisfaction. An extensive literature research is conducted to answer three research

questions about the roles of information technology in the context of customer relationship

management, the effect of information technology on front-line employees’ user satisfaction and

service quality, and the impact of user satisfaction of information technology on employee

service quality and thus customer satisfaction. A mechanism how information technology affects

the two key parties in the front-line business process, customer service employees as well as

customers, is discovered along with the answers to the research questions. CRM technology,

representing customer-related information technology, is mainly discussed in the paper. The role

of CRM in customer service is explored from the role of the relational information processes and

technology use in customer relationship performance; the mediating effect of customer

knowledge and the moderating effect of supply integration is reviewed. Sales force automation

(SFA) as an operational CRM technology is also examined of its role on customer service in

terms of five levels. Ineffective interaction of relationship information processes and CRM,

insufficient supply chain integration, and organizational and contextual elements are the factors

of CRM technology malfunction. Needs theory and equity theory are used to discuss the impact

of information technology use on employees’ user satisfaction. Service profit chain (SPC) theory

is used in understanding the impact of user satisfaction on employee service quality, moderated

by employees’ embodied service knowledge. Finally, the impact of service quality on customer

satisfaction is found mixed in many researches.

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1. Introduction

Information technologies are transforming organizations’ customer-side operations and

organizations are eagerly looking for effective IT strategy and applications to take advantage of

these technologies. Rapid pace of innovations, shorter product life cycles, diverse customer

needs, and growing internationalization of businesses, have made customer service performance

critical for business entities’ survival and thrive (Setia et al. 2013).

Information technologies have long been used in every aspect of business, especially in the

front line of the business process, which is critical for the revenue generation and business

growth. Information systems use has drawn ample focus of practitioners and consistent interests

of researchers.

Both customers and employees are two parties of key players at the customer-side operations,

which is in the front line of the business process. This paper focus on customer relationship

management and one of its subsets, sales force automation, for the front-line of business process,

because these aspects directly correlate to the market performance and financial performance of

organizations and have gained a large amount of attention if researchers and practitioners. It’s

important looking into the relationships among the four elements: the use of information

systems, employees’ user satisfaction of information systems, employee service quality and

customer service quality.

This paper is aimed to understand the three research questions through an extensive literature

review:

RQ 1: What are the roles of customer-related information technology in customer

relationship performance?

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 RQ 2: What are the factors that affect user satisfaction of the use of customer-related

information technology?

RQ 3: What is the impact of front-line employees’ user satisfaction of information

technology on employee service quality and then customer satisfaction?

The construct of rest of the paper will be as follows. Based on a broad review of research

literature, first the role of customer-related information technologies in customer service (hereby

namely CRM) will be explored from multiple perspectives suggested by different researchers.

The perspectives include relational information process and its interaction with CRM

technology, the mediating effect of customer knowledge and the moderating effect of supply

chain integration. Sales force automation (SFA), as operational CRM applications, are also

included in the exploration. Given the strategic imperative nature of effective customer service

and the evidence that forty percent of customers who experience poor customer service stop

doing business with the target company (Dougherty and Murthy 2009; Pavlou and El Sawy

2010), in this paper it is also explored why the use of CRM technology might not always deliver

the expected customer relationship performance outcome.

Second part of the construct of the paper is to understand the factors that affect user

satisfaction of information technology. The customer service provided by front-line employees

and the interaction between the front-line employees take place in the CRM systems. Front-line

employees are the users of the information technologies, and they are the direct provider of

customer service. It’s also empirically meaningful to understand what would affect employees’

user satisfaction of information technology because of employees’ close contact to customers

they serve.

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 The third part of the main construct is the study of the impact of front-line employees’ user

satisfaction of information technology on employee service quality and thus customer

satisfaction. The service profit chain (SPC) theory will be introduced in the beginning of this

part. Most often in business context, once the CRM technology is implemented it will be rolled

out to the entire organization and eventually become part of the business infrastructure in which

the front-line employees engage with customers. In other words, in most circumstances the CRM

become mandatory for the employees to perform customer service. Impact of user satisfaction

with mandated CRM use on employee service quality is also studied. The impact of service

quality and customer satisfaction is briefly discussed.

2. The Role of Information Technology in Customer Relationship

Performance

Customer service has been strategically critical for most firms. It is a top priority for many

business and information technology (IT) executives. A one-point rise in a firm's customer

satisfaction index corresponds to an average $240 million increase in market value (Sweat and

Hibbard 1999), projecting to today’s $364 million. According to a study of 300 IT executives,

the top two key strategic technology, business, and IT project implementation priorities are

understanding and meeting customer needs and improving customer service (Davis 1999).

Firms are trying to get closer to their customers and transforming the customer relationship

into providing support and service via solution finding and partnering. Customer support and

service consist of the way that a product is presented, ordered, delivered, bundled, charged,

installed, repaired, renewed and improved. With its function in managing and developing

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successful long-term customer relationships, customer support and service is becoming one of

the most critical core business processes (Sawy and Bowles 1997).

Nowadays it has become common agreement among scholars and business executives that

quality customer service is not only the most important condition to achieve outstanding

marketing goals, in terms of customer satisfaction, but also is the major measurement of the

competitiveness of the customer service process (Szymanski and Henard 2001; Zeithaml 2000).

Meanwhile the increased focus on customer service has elevated the priorities of information

systems, implying that the essential role of IT in supporting the customer service process (Sawy

and Bowles 1997).

The scope of this paper lies in the roles and impact of information systems use in the

business process on customer side. Customer relationship management IT solution is the focus of

information systems in the front-line business engagement.

Therefore, in this section of the paper, customer relationship management (CRM) technology

will be studied, representing information systems in front-line business process. Parallelly, sales

force automation (SFA) technology, representing operational CRM applications in support of

selling tasks, will be studied as a CRM technology as to its role in customer service.

2.1 The Roles of CRM in Customer Relationship Performance

2.1.1 The Role of Relational Information Processes in Customer Relationship Performance

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a core organizational process that focuses on

establishing, maintaining, and enhancing long-term connection with customers (Srivastava et al.

1999). As specific types of business process, relational information processes are a collection of

linked tasks in the CRM context.

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 Jayachandran et al. (2005) define relational information process as encompassing the specific

routines that an organization uses to manage customer information in customer relationship

management. Jayachandran et al. (2005) examine the key drivers and outcome of relational

information processes. The construct and findings of the research by Jayachandran et al. (2005)

are presented in the following section.

Relational information processes support and facilitate the collection and use of customer

information in a systematic way so that an organization builds relationships effectively and

avoids poor communication, information loss and overload, and information abuse. Researchers

suggested that the relational information processes construct consists of five dimensions

(Jayachandran et al. 2005):

Information reciprocity

Information capture

Information integration

Information access

Information use

Information reciprocity sets the foundation of effective communication, information capture

and integration prevent information loss, information access limits information overload, and

information use rules ensure that customer information is used appropriately with the needs of

CRM for customer service.

The antecedents to relational information processes need to be identified. The antecedents

include customer relationship orientation and customer-centric management system. Customer

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relationship orientation is rooted in the organization’s overall culture and guides the

organization's approach toward both customer relationship management and the implementation

of the necessary processes (Day 2000). Customer relationship orientation builds a "collective

mind" (Weick and Roberts 1993) or a belief system for the organization. With the belief, the

organization considers customer relationship an asset and makes the choice of means, by means

of processes, to achieve this outcome (Day 2000). Because relational information processes are

the ways to build effective relationships, customer relationship orientation can lead to CRM

implementation.

A customer-centric management system ensures that organizational actions be driven by

customer needs and not by the internal functional concerns. At the same time, employee

evaluation systems and incentives should be designed to encourage employees to act with a

customer relationship-oriented mindset, and thus make sure the organization to focus on

customer interactions and ensure that expertise from all functional areas is deployed to enhance

the quality of customer experience (Day 2000). A customer-centric management system can

break down functional barriers, form customer-centered actions, and ensure necessary focus on

customer interaction. The relational information processes that are created in a customer centric

management system can be expected to have outcome of effective relationship management.

Both antecedents corelate with relationship information processes positively.

With the five elements - information reciprocity, information capture, information

integration, information access and information use – relational information processes initiate

and augment a collection of structured activities that lead to effective customer relationship

management outcome.

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 Customer relationship performance outcome can be measured by two key aspects of

relationships: customer retention and customer satisfaction. Following the established relational

information processes, front-line employees can provide quick and effective responses to

customers, and customized service is likely to enhance customer satisfaction. Relational

information processes help to capture customer needs and make it possible to incorporate

customer needs into the development of products or services; the processes also help register

customers’ complaints and address them promptly. The integration of customer information not

only allow different functional areas support front-line customer contact employees in their

work, but also enable customers to communicate with their contact, the front-line employees

easily and effectively because the employees are empowered with integrated customer

knowledge. The fluent information flow between the organization and customers can improve

customers’ efficiency and upgrade customers’ perception in consuming the organization’s

products or services, and therefore enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

2.1.2 The Role of CRM Technology Use in Customer Relationship Performance

The rapid advance in information technology (IT) has presented firms with new technology-

based solutions, including CRM technology, to manage customer relationships. Such technology

is a set of IT solutions designed to support the CRM process (Rigby et al. 2002). Rigby et al.

(2002) define such technology as a set of IT solutions designed to support the CRM process.

Many companies have invested in CRM technology in order to identify profitable and

unprofitable customers, customize service, and retain customers (Peppers et al. 1999).

Jayachandran et al. (2005) consider CRM technology use distinct from the relational

information processes that drive CRM and evaluate the role of CRM technology use in customer

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relationship management by examining its moderating effect on the association between

relational information processes and customer performance.

The use of CRM technology enables information integration and share, facilitates efficient

and effective interaction between an organization and its customers, enables analysis of customer

information and customizes the responses to customers. Thus, CRM technology use can be

expected to boost the ability of an organization to sustain profitable customer relationships (Day

2003). Technology components of CRM include front-line office applications that support sales,

marketing and service, and data acquisition and storage, as well as back office applications that

help integrate and analyze the data (Greenberg 2001). IT does not substitute for organizational

processes, and instead its role is moderating between the processes and customer relationship

performance. IT increases the processes’ marginal value by enabling effective implementation

(Hitt and Snir 1999). Therefore, firms use IT technology to complement organizational processes

by augmenting their marginal value (Brynjolfsson and Hitt 2000). Reinartz et al. (2004) note that

CRM technology is a facilitator of CRM activities. By playing a complementary role, CRM

technology enhances the marginal value of relational information processes, thereby improving

customer relationship performance.

Although CRM technology can perform a complementary role to improve customer

relationship performance, the results of adopting CRM technology in different organizations

have been mixed. Jayachandran et al. (2005) suggest that this might happen when appropriate

relational information processes are not implemented. Further exploration about the reasons of

malfunction will be discussed in the later part of the paper.

2.1.3 The Effect of Customer Knowledge and Supply Chain Integration in CRM

Applications’ Role on Customer Service Quality

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 Mithas et al. (2005) suggest the role of CRM applications on customer service quality, in

terms of customer satisfaction, is mediated by customer knowledge and moderated by supply

chain integration. Customer relationship management applications help organizations to

understand customers’ behavior through the interaction with customers, including pre-sales,

placing order, making transaction and aftersales service. The applications facilitate the

acquisition and storage of data of customer preference and requirement, and the analysis help the

organization understand customers better and thus serve the customers better. The raw customer

data are collected with the CRM applications. After being analyzed the data turn into information

that is useful in business activities; when the customer information is accumulated, shared and

learned by employees in the organization it turns into customer knowledge.

Supply chain integration means an organization shares information about its customers with

its supply chain partners (Mithas et al. 2005). The integration connects the dots of the value

chain, including various functional areas within the organization and its suppliers. The CRM

applications facilitate fluent information flow and coordination, which is needed for product

development and delivery with better customer experience. When supply chain integration is

well implemented with the antecedent of an integrated IT infrastructure, customer knowledge

can be accessed by both the organization and all the partners in the supply chain. The

organization can leverage customer knowledge to deliver quality customer service, and the

supply chain partners can coordinate and support the delivery in the broader business process.

Based on discussion of the mediation effect of customer knowledge and moderation effect of

supply chain integration, Mithas et al. (2005) suggest that the use of customer relationship

management applications is associated with greater customer satisfaction. CRM applications

facilitate organizations to gain customer knowledge. Organizations use CRM applications to

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accumulate information across customer interactions, analyze the information and transform it

into customer knowledge. Customer knowledge assists in the product development process of the

organizations so that the products or services meet customers’ requirements and deliver best

value to customers. Suitable products and customized delivery are the foundation of good

customer service quality, after which comes customer satisfaction. Because CRM applications

facilitates customer knowledge accumulation and supply chain integration, organizations use

CRM applications to process and respond to customers’ order, request and complaints in a timely

and consistent manner. The responsiveness and consistency enhance customer experience and

improve customers’ perception of liability about the front-line employees and thus the

organization.

CRM applications facilitate supreme quality of products and customer service quality and

build customers’ perception of liability. Thereby customer satisfaction comes along. Customer

knowledge mediates the role of CRM on customer service quality, and supply chain integration

in the CRM process and the whole system moderates the service outcome.

2.2 The Role of SFA in Customer Relationship Performance

In the modern world the dynamic of the sales territory is vital, and firms need a new vision of

the sales function to create more value and to gain competitive advantage. Therefore,

organizations invest heavily in customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions. As

an operational CRM system specialized in the front end of the process, sales force automation

(SAF) has been a hot spot for the CRM investment for many organizations (Widmier et al.

2002). SFA involves the application of information technology to support the sales function

(Boujena et al. 2009). Other experts suggest that SFA means remote access to a continually

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updated centralized database by sales people (Parthasarathy and Sohi 1997). Therefore, SFA can

be categorized as an operational CRM application, and is able to collect and communicate

market information, assist sales activities and support the development of value-added customer

relationships (Ahearne et al. 2008).

SFA brings benefits to both employees and customers. Customers’ perception of the benefit

reflects the effectiveness of SFA (Ahearne et al. 2004). SFA is designed and implemented to

ensure sales force productivity, which has direct and instant impact on customers. Given the

initiative, customers’ perception of the benefit they receive, demonstrated by employees’

qualities such as productivity, skills, competencies and responsiveness, can be the measurements

of SFA success (Othman et al. 2009).

In industrial settings, customers’ perception of service quality during the interaction with

sales force influence overall customer satisfaction the most (Homburg and Rudolf 2001).

Boujena et al. (2009) also measure SFA benefits from customers' perspective, and based on a

relationship-building process, evaluate the role of SFA from the following five levels:

salesperson productivity, information processing, communication effectiveness, perceived

competence and customer relationship quality.

Salesperson Productivity

SFA is usually considered to happen when organizations computerize their business

processes or apply technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their sales force

(Boujena et al. 2009). Effective implementation of SFA can yield enhanced productivity through

better customer prospecting, development, and account profiling (Pullig et al. 2002). SFA help to

increase the organization’s capacity to learn customer needs, provide customized options, make

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informed decisions, develop mutually beneficial customer relationships and improve front-line

employees’ productivity (Hill and Swenson 1994). With SFA, salespersons can access

information that reflects both individual customer’s needs and overall market dynamic in a

timely and systematic manner. Finally, it’s proposed that IT can facilitate data interpretations and

analyses (Huber 1990) and positively impact front-line employees’ productivity and

effectiveness (Igbaria and Tan 1997).

SFA reduces the time spent on administrative tasks and provides faster access to timely

information (Rivers and Dart 1999). Customer contact management tools can enhance

salesperson efficiency by organizing contacts in a way that salespersons can use to create value

for both customers and the organization. Finally, SFA can help front-line employees to respond

faster (Gilbert 2004), which impact customer’s perception of customer service quality.

Information Processing

SFA is operated on a centralized CRM database. The database enables sales force to access

to large amount of information on products, customer records, competitive products and prices,

customer production plans, industry events and market trends. By SFA, salespeople can

communicate with customer about the features and benefits of the products or services,

understand customer requirement and fulfill customer needs better. SFA enables organizations to

offer more products and services that will be welcomed by the customers and create more

relevant information from the analyses of customer data (Boujena et al. 2009). When the relevant

information is shared, absorbed and leveraged by employees, the information can turn into

embodied customer knowledge. Therefore, using SFA technology, salespeople can reduce the

time navigating in the huge customer data and focus on critical information, use the information

to better demonstrate customer benefit and close the sale (Jayachandran et al. 2005).

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Communication Effectiveness

Sales technology applications help salespeople interact with customers rapidly and

relevantly, which improves their responsiveness and capacity to meet customer needs (Ahearne

et al. 2008). The greatest potential of SFA for an organization stems from shared contact

information and improved coordination across the organization's various customer service

functions (Boujena et al. 2009).

Perceived Competence

SFA provides more and relevant market intelligence to salespeople with easy access, and

therefore salespeople are empowered with higher competence (Huber 1990). A survey indicates

that sales managers believe information technology influences buyers' perceptions of salesperson

competency; ninety percent of those surveyed decided to adopt SFA technology because it made

salespeople appear more professional and competent (Colombo 1994; Keillor et al.1997).

Customer Relationship Quality

Although the above four benefits are presented directly about salespeople, who interact

directly with customers, they all lead to customer relationship quality, which is the direct

outcome of SFA. Lagace et al. (1991) define customer relationship quality as the bundle of

intangible value related to the interchange between buyers and sellers, and Crosby et al. (1990)

define it as a buyer's trust in a salesperson and satisfaction with the relationship.

Hitt and Brynjolfsson (1996) evaluate the impact of CRM technology on customer

relationship quality and suggest that overall IT investment leads to increased customer value.

Fisher (2001) states that the influence of people for CRM is probably the most important

element. Technological implementation can improve interactions in terms of time, intensity, and

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emotions (Kasper-Fuehrer and Ashkanasy 2001). When it comes to selling and buying activities,

SFA helps to develop buyer-seller relationships and enhance the buyer's trust in the salesperson

(Keillor et al. 1997). Hawes et al. (1989) identified five factors that may increase the potential

for buyer-salesperson trust, including customer orientation, competency, honesty, dependability,

and likability. SFA can help salespersons to demonstrate the qualifications and thus build

customer trust.

Salespeople demonstrate customer orientation when they propose products based on

customer needs, help to solve customer problems by providing adequate customer service and be

responsive. SFA technology helps to organize product information in a way that salespeople and

access and present to customer according to customer needs and provide solution combinations

automatically and quickly when salespeople only input minimum parameters of customer

requirement. The ability to quickly address customer questions and solve their problems can

increase the customer’s perception of salesperson credibility as well as trust in the salesperson.

SFA applications can manage customer contacts so that salespeople can recognize and access the

contact information anytime they need to reach to customer in any forms such as phone call,

email or even social media. When the product and service and problem solutions are delivered in

a consistent and timely manner, customers can perceive dependability of salespeople. Fisher

(1998) indicates that the implementation of SFA technology is linked to higher revenues because

it supports salespeople to enhance customer satisfaction and thus increase sales proposal closure

rates and customer retention.

Sales force automation (SFA) is one type of operational CRM technologies in the customer

side of the business process. SFA involves the implementation of information technologies to

collect and communicate information about customers and the market, assist sales activities and

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support customer relationship development. In this section, the role of SFA on customer service

is assessed from five levels: salesperson productivity, information processing, communication

effectiveness, perceived competence and customer relationship quality. SFA assists salespeople

demonstrate the performance that can enhance customer experience, by facilitating customer

information collection and analysis, providing salespeople structured product information and

solution proposal and supporting salespeople to respond to customers timely and effectively. At

each level of the relationship-building process, SFA demonstrates a powerful tool to provide

quality customer service and as a result enhances customer satisfaction.

2.3 Some Factors Why the Use of CRM Technology Might Not Always Deliver

Expected Customer Relationship Performance

2.3.1 Ineffective Interaction of Relational Information Processes and CRM

Jayachandran et al. (2005) provide insights into why the use of CRM technology might not

always deliver the expected customer relationship performance outcome by exploring the

interaction of relational information process and CRM technology.

As discussed earlier, relational information processes ensure customer relationship

orientation by structuring the routines in which an organization should use customer information

in effective customer relationship development (Jayachandran et al. 2005). If these processes are

not clearly defined or specified, front-line employees as well as supporting-function employees

will struggle to follow the predesigned routines. CRM technology is intentionally adopted for

fluent and effective customer information management. When the users, including the front-line

employees and supporting-function employees, cannot leverage the advantages of the CRM

technology to serve the customers without adequate information collecting, processing and

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utilizing. Implementing IT solutions with the absence of appropriate process design and adequate

training may cause "significant productivity losses as any benefits of computerization are more

than out-weighed by negative interactions with existing organizational practices" (Brynjolfsson

and Hitt 2000). Jayachandran et al. (2005) provided further findings of the interviews of

organizations that had implemented CRM technology. In some organizations the implementation

of CRM technology was driven by mere technology instead of IT strategy aligned with business

strategy or user needs. These organizations usually experienced frustration with CRM

technology use. In some organizations, even if the planning and execution of the IT initiatives

(CRM technology use) was carried out with strategic alignment among different functional areas,

users still struggled to adopt the CRM technology as a new way of working, because the learning

curve was too steep, and the users had to retrace their steps and redesign processes and software.

Some organizations failed to implement many aspects of the technology, so they dailed back the

technology implementation, prioritized a few specific applications, and made it to fulfill the

relational marketing intention, which is effective customer relationship management via CRM

technology (Jayachandran et al. 2005).

2.3.2 Supply chain integration

Many researchers have pointed out that it’s crucial to integrate IT systems to an

organization’s value chain in order to achieve the full benefits of fluent information sharing and

data synergy (Brohman et al. 2003). For example, the moderating effect of supply chain

integration in the role of CRM applications on customer service quality was discussed in the

previous section of the paper. Fisher et al. (2000) suggest that data accuracy enhanced by IT is

critical for accurate in-time forecasting and agile supply chain management processes. Anderson

et al. (2003) argue that "interweaving of IT links through-out the supply chain create value by

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enabling each member of the supply chain to identify and respond to dynamic customer needs."

CRM technology is an organic part of an organization’s IT systems, and it’s implemented in the

organization’s overall IT infrastructure, in which it is linked to other functional areas, including

supply chain. Nowadays customer needs are ever changing in a faster and faster pace and

competition landscape is evolving more quickly. Operating in an integrated IT infrastructure, an

organization’s functional units are able to leverage their resource effectively and efficiently

address the rapid changes while still meeting customer needs (Sambamurthy et al. 2003).

If supply chain system is not linked effectively with the CRM system in an integrated IT

infrastructure, customer knowledge cannot be accessed by the parties from both the organization

and the supply chain. Supply chain partners cannot access or leverage adequate customer

information provided by the CRM system, consequently nor can they adjust to the changes at the

same pace as the organization’s front-line units to support the quality customer service.

Researchers and practitioners have proposed that the cause of many CRM implementations’

failure is "the propensity of firms to avoid the important 'data transformation and convergence'

processes including all transactions, interactions, and networked touch points" (Swift 2002). It

When an organization effectively integrates its supply chain systems with its CRM applications,

both supply chain management and customer relationship management can benefit more from

improved customer knowledge, shared by both sides. On the other hand, if supply chain

integration is not well implemented, customer information cannot flow fluently in the

organization’s value chain; consequently, the core benefit of CRM technology, which is related

to improved customer relationship via quality customer service, cannot be fulfilled due to lack of

effective support from supply chain partners.

2.3.3 Organizational and Contextual Factors and Human Factor

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 Although the benefits of the use of CRM technology, including SFA technology, have been

widely accepted and most firms in the modern business world have adopted more or less CRM

technology, hoping to reap the benefits, a stream of literature still suggests that CRM technology

use can sometimes hurt customer service performance as well. In the studies of Speier and

Venkatesh (2002), some firms’ absenteeism and voluntary turnover got worse significantly after

implementing technology, while perceptions of organizational culture deteriorated and job

satisfaction decreased. These findings illustrate the inconsistency of IT outcomes.

Ahearne and Rapp (2010) explain the IT paradox by three factors. The first factor is the

importance of customer relationship in the selling. The more important a relationship is to the

effective interaction between the salespeople and the customers, the more likely the relationship

will moderate the link between customer-specific technology. Relational Selling will weaken the

positive link of CRM technology with customer service quality and sales activities outcome. The

second factor is the role of persuasion. Ahearne and Rapp (2010) argue that technology alone

cannot persuade a customer but will weaken the positive relationship between customer-specific

technologies and both employees and customers. A successful persuasion needs four main

components: good timing, mutual benefit, perception of authority and embodied knowledge. Not

CRM technology but salespeople and customer service employees can demonstrate the

persuasion components. The third factor is product complexity. The more complex the product

is, the more involvement of the salespeople is needed to communication with customers about

their needs and customize the product or solution proposal to address the needs.

Other literature has also supported that organizational or contextual factors are important

moderators from the link of technology usage to performance (Ahearne et al. 2005). For

example, when a new CRM technology is first adopted, adequate employee training and IT

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support need to be in place for to implement the technology and achieve the desired goals, which

is effective customer relationship management and customer satisfaction.

The technology acceptance model (TAM) can also help to explain the human factor in the

effective implementation of CRM technology (Ahearne and Rapp 2010). The TAM is a theory

(Davis et al.1989) that models how users evolve to accept and use a technology. According to the

model, a number of factors affect users’ decision about how and when they will use a new

technology upon its implementation (Davis 1989). The factors are related to the users, such as

the technology's perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use.

The organizational and contextual factors and human factor are double-sided, when it comes

to their influence on the implementation effectiveness of IT, specifically CRM technology. When

the circumstances turn to be the unfavorable side as discussed above, they will weaken the

performance of the CRM technology.

3. Factors That Affect Employees’ User Satisfaction of Information

Technology Use

Satisfaction is defined as consumer’s fulfillment response (Oliver and Swan 1989). It

depends on the consumer’s judgement if a product or service provides a pleasurable degree of

fulfillment upon the consumption. It includes categories of under-fulfillment and over-

fulfillment. Whether the consumer’s needs is fulfilled or satisfied or not involves two elements –

an outcome or performance and a comparison reference. As for information technology users,

Doll and Torkzadeh (1988) define user satisfaction as the affective attitude towards a specific

computer application by the person who interacts with the application. Information technology

user satisfaction is defined by Au et al. (2008) as an accumulative experience-base evaluation

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developed along the time and represents users’ general affection and cognition of the entire

information systems user experience.

It’s important for information technology management to evaluate the effectiveness of

information technology in organizations. Among various assessments of information technology

effectiveness or success, user satisfaction is one of the most widely applied measurements.

Aligned with the importance of its significant sense to measure information technology’s

effectiveness, studying the factors that affect user satisfaction of information systems has

become a hot topic. In business practice, it’s also crucial for organizations to understand the

factors affecting user satisfaction along the course of the implementation of an information

technology.

Some studies suggest that psychological and organizational issues instead of the systems’

technological issues are the causes of the failures of the implementation of information

technology in organizations (Regan and O’Connor 1994). Some researchers argue one of the

main causes of the failure of information systems project is that users don’t have sufficient

support and commitment. To fulfill the needs of users, on one hand, of course the information

systems have to be functionally adequate, and on the other hand, users do play a role of the

outcome of the information systems. Therefore, besides a functional information system and

technology support, employees’ willingness and ability to use the system is also required. Ang

and Soh (1997) report the relationship between user satisfaction and user variables (such as user

demographics) and user involvement. Athanassopoulos et al. (2001) discovered the strong

relationship between user satisfaction and intended use or actual use of information technology.

Aladwani (2003) refers to technological frames of reference and personality. However, not all of

the personality attributes identified in Aladwani (2003) study significantly impact user

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satisfaction. There have been assumptions that a technically well-performing information

technology will result in high user satisfaction, but these assumptions have not been consistently

demonstrated (Goodhue and Thompson 1995).

Many attempts have been made to access the effectiveness of information technology and its

user satisfaction on a more solid base of supporting theories. Expectancy disconfirmation theory

is one the main theories. But Khalifa and Liu (2004) questioned the application of expectancy

disconfirmation theory in the context of information systems. Au et al. (2008) give further

reasoning of Khalifa and Liu’s question: with the complex and fast evolving nature of

information systems development, it may be difficult for users to accurately anticipate the

performance of information systems. It may happen that users may even have no prior

expectations or don’t know what an information system can offer.

Although numerous research has been done to explore the factors that affect user satisfaction

on information systems, and researchers have proposed various factors and models for the

measurements, there still lacks of a widely agreed consensus on a set of factors. So far existing

models still may not be able to fully capture the underlying reasons for user satisfaction or

dissatisfaction with information systems. However, with a stream of theories, models and

proposed measurements, some factors are frequently referred and used.

3.1Theory Basis

Landy and Becker (1987) put forth three theories of motivation, which consist of expectancy

theory, needs theory and equity theory and all of which use satisfaction as the dependent

measure.

22
 According to the expectancy theory, fulfillment can only be measured related to a standard

that make the basis for comparison; thus disconfirmed expectation is broadly considered as one

of the key reference standards and factors of consumer satisfaction (Oliver 1989). Other

information technology researchers also identify the impact of user’s expectations of information

technology on their levels of satisfaction with the technology.

Equity theory has been applied in consumer behavior research as an important factor of

transaction or product satisfaction (Oliver and Swan 1989). According to equity theory, an

individual will feel dissatisfied if his/her own inputs are larger than the benefits he/she can get,

regardless of the benefit-input ratios of other people (Oliver 1980). Input is considered as what

an individual perceives to be his/her contribution to an exchange when he/she expects a return

(Adams 1965). In the context of information systems, the inputs and benefits for information

systems are not clearly specified yet and needs further research effort.

The needs theory was primarily developed based on the researches back in 1940’s to 1960’s.

When deficiencies of a need exist, individuals are motivated to take action to remove them so as

to meet the needs (Steers and Porter 1991). It’s been found that needs fulfillment significantly

correlates to satisfaction. Sirgy (1984) suggests that satisfaction is more likely to be determined

by the level of which product performance fulfills needs than the level of which performance

compares with repurchase expectations. Therefore, knowing an individual’s needs of different

categories is critical to satisfaction prediction. This is constantly verified in the practice of sales

and marketing, in which understanding customers’ needs is one of the primary requirements for

effective sales result and customer satisfaction.

3.2 Findings from an Equitable Needs Fulfillment Model (Au et al. 2008)

23
 Based on equity and needs theories, Au et al. (2002) propose a new end user satisfaction

(EUS) model, in which each individual user benefit received is compared against the

corresponding input required with information technology use. In a follow-up study, Au et al.

(2008) further develop the conceptual model and test the key concepts and relationships

empirically, proposing an equitable needs fulfillment model. The model is believed to offer more

explanation than many current models and provide a framework to investigate the antecedents of

user satisfaction formation. It’s proposed that information technology users seek to fulfill three

types of needs: work performance fulfillment, relatedness fulfillment and self-development

fulfillment. By identifying three separate needs fulfillments, it’s expected to reveal more insights

on the way various needs affect user satisfaction.

Work performance fulfillment refers to the user needs that are fulfilled in completing

assignments when the user use information systems at work. This is the fundamental needs that

information systems are supposed to fulfill. Relatedness fulfillment consists of the social needs

of the user that involve interactions with other people. Self-development fulfillment corresponds

to users’ higher-end needs, including individual self-growth and self-advancement that are

achieved by using the information systems.

The model includes six variables, which are information systems (IS) performance,

information systems (IS) performance expectations, equitable relatedness fulfillment, equitable

work performance fulfillment, equitable self-development fulfillment, and finally end user

information systems (IS) satisfaction (Au et al. 2008). The end user IS satisfaction is the

dependent variable.

Au et al. (2008) study of the model reveals that perceived IS performance is the most

significant determining factor of user satisfaction. Equitable work performance fulfillment and

24
equitable relatedness fulfillment are significant in directly affecting user satisfaction. There is

direct and moderating effects of IS performance expectations on user satisfaction, but the effects

are not significant. No direct significant impact of equitable self-development fulfillment of user

satisfaction was found.

4. Impact of User Satisfaction of Information Technology on

Employee Service Quality and then Customer Satisfaction

4.1 Service Profit Chain (SPC)

The service profit chain (SPC) theory can be a starting point to understand the chain of

impact. The SPC theory provides links among internal service quality, employee satisfaction,

employee retention & productivity, external service value, customer satisfaction and revenue

growth & profitability (Heskett et al. 1994). According to the theory, customer satisfaction is

largely affected by the value of the service customers receive, while the value is created by the

employees. The external service value can be considered as equivalent of the service employees’

service quality. Mediated by employee retention and employee productivity, the external service

value is driven by employee satisfaction. Internal service quality lies in the beginning of the

service profit chain and drives the employee satisfaction.

By service profit chain theory, internal service quality refers to how the working environment

facility and support the employees to fulfill their work objectives. The internal quality is

measured by the perception of the employees towards their job, coworkers and the working

environment. Internal service quality directly affects employee satisfaction. Heskett et al. (1994)

propose several factors that may influence the internal service quality, including workplace

design, job design, employee selection and development, employee rewards and recognition, and

25
finally, tools for serving customers. In context of this paper, information systems, such as CRM

and SFA, are the tools that frontline employees use to serve customers. Implied by the

technology acceptance model, IT adoption impacts employee satisfaction.

Employee satisfaction contributes to low employee turnover rate. Higher employee royalty

can be observed among satisfied employees. Employee loyalty interact with employee

productivity. When the employee turnover rate is high, the firm has to invest resource in

recruiting, hiring and training replacement. Due to the learning curve, there exists the loss of

employees’ productivity among the new replacement and coordination across the organization.

So employee royalty drives productivity.

Service employee productivity can be evaluated by multiple measurements. Proposal of the

right product or service that meets customers’ needs, prompt response to customers’ request,

appropriate handle of customers’ complaint, and maintenance of customer bond to the

organization all contribute customer satisfaction.

4.2 Impact of User Satisfaction on Employee Service Quality Under Mandated

CRM Use

When the use of information systems, specifically in this research, CRM, is mandated, which

commonly exists in the business world, if or when the employees are dissatisfied with the

mandatory implementation, the outcome of the use of CRM may be contrary to the

management’s expectation.

Hsieh et al. (2012) explore the impact of user satisfaction with CRM use on employ service

quality in the mandatory-use context and discuss the prediction effect of employee service

quality on customer satisfaction with customer service employees.

26
 Consistent with the concept indicated by the service profit chain (SPC), Hsieh et al. (2012)

highlight the importance of the factor of support or tools for serving customers, including

information systems, such as CRM. The support or tools are the initial driving factors of the

service profit chain, which leads to employee service quality and ends with customer satisfaction

and revenue growth and profitability.

Service quality provided by frontline service employees has direct and significant impact on

customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is one of the key factors for a firm to retain existing

customer, attract new customers and thus grow sales. Knowing the marketing significance and

financial significance of customer satisfaction, as well as the correlation between customer

satisfaction and employee service quality, more and more firms are implementing customer

relationship management systems (CRM) to enhance employees’ service quality.

Employees are either mandated to use the customer relationship management systems or are

allowed to use it voluntarily. In majority of the firms, once implemented, the customer

relationship management systems are imbedded in the business routine and infrastructure of the

operation system, the use of the CRM systems are obligated. McCalla et al. (2003) point out

many organizations mandate their employees to use CRM during customer interactions. The

technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis 1989; Wu and Lederer 2009) suggests the

voluntariness of the use of information systems affects the intended outcome of the information

systems, which implies that the involuntary use of information systems may have discrepant

outcome.

Different employees may need different support to do their service work, with various

education levels, experience, characters etc. So the use of the same CRM may meet different

employees’ needs to different extents. Along the time, employees’ experience with CRM, which

27
can be translated into user satisfaction, and affect their attitude toward the tool and ultimately,

the service performance. When the use of information systems, such as CRM, are mandatory, the

degree of user satisfaction reflects user’s own perception of their user experiences with the

system (Scheepers et al. 2006). Since the perception is objective, it can’t be mandated even if the

use of the system is obligated. When employees perceive the information systems (CRM) can

fulfill their needs to service the customers, they are satisfied; when employees perceive the

information systems don’t adequately support their work, they are dissatisfied. When employees

are satisfied with the implementation of the information systems, their positive attitude to the

systems will reflect on their productive use of the systems. In this way, satisfied employees can

get the most benefit out of the implementation of the information systems to serve customers. On

the other hand, when employees are mandated to use the systems of which they have negative

perception, they may still use the system because of the top-down pressure but they can not

proactively leverage the systems’ potential to serve customers; the initial intention of the

implementation of the information systems is not achieved. Hsieh et al (2012) demonstrate that

in mandatory CRM use context, user satisfaction with CRM have positive impact on employee

service quality.

4.3 Employees’ Embodied Service Knowledge as Moderating Factor Between

User Satisfaction and Service Quality

Besides the direct impact of user satisfaction with CRM on employee service quality, there

are moderating factors between the relationship of user satisfaction with CRM and employee

service quality. Aligned with the service profit chain (SPC) theory, Heskett et al. (1997) argue

that front-line employees or support systems, such as information systems, including CRM, are

the most cost-effective way for customized service to meet customers’ needs. The argument

28
implies that employees’ personal competencies are somehow parallel to the function of service

support systems, such as information systems in certain aspects of customer service.

Hsieh et al. (2012) study the role of front-line employees’ embodied service knowledge and

job dedication in the relationship between user satisfaction with CRM use and employee service

quality in mandatory CRM use contexts. When the CRM cannot fulfill an employee’s needs to

work effectively, the employee starts to be dissatisfied. The dissatisfactory perception builds up

along the time and results in user dissatisfaction. In this circumstance the employee may get

around the ineffectiveness of the system by leveraging his or her embodied service knowledge to

achieve his or her customer service goal. In the customer service front line, the service

knowledge include product knowledge, service offerings, organizational business process, sales

techniques, market intelligence, communication skills and etc. For example, if the CRM’s special

pricing process is slow, or the front-line employee’s special price request is stuck at a joint of the

evaluation chain because the backup of an absent reviewer is not effectively embedded to the

CRM system, but the employee knows what is needed to get his or her price request evaluated

and even approved, so the employee can prepare the materials for processing the request outside

of the CRM. Meanwhile the employee knows how and who to advance the evaluation process

off-line, the employee can go around the system and contact the relevant parties in person

directly. The employee’s embodied service knowledge compensates the ineffectiveness of the

CRM and overcome the dissatisfaction of the information systems.

However, employees’ personal competency and service knowledge vary. Employees with

appropriate and sufficient service knowledge are more likely to achieve their service goals no

matter they are satisfied with the information systems, such as CRM or not, because they can

leverage their service knowledge to get the work done with or without the support of the system.

29
On the other hand, employees with deficient service knowledge are more vulnerable to the

negative impact of user dissatisfaction on service quality because these employees cannot

counteract on the CRM’s ineffectiveness with adequate personal knowledge by taking other

approaches to address their needs of customer service. Inconsistences of service quality and thus

customer satisfaction may happen in case of employees’ low user satisfaction of the information

systems, such as CRM, depending on the employees’ embodied service knowledge.

The above discussion on the moderating role of employees’ embodied service knowledge

demonstrates the importance of user satisfaction of information systems, such as CRM, for

consistent and good customer service quality.

4.4 Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction

Service quality represents the degree to which the employees or entities satisfy its customers’

needs. Service quality is linked to customer outcomes in terms of customer satisfaction, customer

loyalty and purchase intentions. There has been a stream of literature studying the relationship

between service quality and customer satisfaction. Here is a closer look at service quality:

service quality is considered as the outcome of a service delivery system.

Surprisingly, there is no consensus in the research community about the causal relationship

between service quality and customer satisfaction. In practice the impact of service quality on

customer satisfaction can be affected by various other factors. For example, in a study examining

the role service quality in overall service satisfaction with nursing home residents, Duff and

Ketchand (1998) found that service quality doesn’t necessarily lead to customer satisfaction and

that an additional variable, customer well-being, significantly affects overall service satisfaction

and furthermore customers’ well-being is seemingly influenced by mood. In other words,

30
Customer satisfaction may not be affected by other factors such as service quality but by

customers themselves.

Parasuraman et al. (1998) develop the SERQUAL model to measure the service quality

perceived by customers who compare customers’ own expectation and their actual judgement of

performance. The SERQUAL model uses five service quality dimensions: reliability, tangibles,

responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman et al. 1988). Besides the SERQUAL

approach, researchers try to understand other key antecedents of service quality than the five

dimensions. The antecedents included organizational culture, employee empowerment, coworker

support, leadership, employee training, tip size, service process, price and brand awareness (Oh

and Kim 2017). With these antecedents, researchers still don’t find a clear role of service quality

in relation to customer satisfaction.

However, in research work, a common assumption is that service quality still may lead to

customer satisfaction (Anderson and Fornell 1994; Duffy and Ketchand 1998; Mirandaa et al.

2018). In the context of information systems use, it’s safer to summarize that service quality has

a weak causal relationship with customer satisfaction.

Based on the research results, in addition to the service profit chain (SPC) theory, the

relationship chain of employees’ user satisfaction with information systems (i.e. CRM),

employees’ service quality and customer satisfaction is visible. Employees’ user satisfaction with

information systems has a positive impact on employees’ service quality. However, service

quality is not commonly agreed to have strong causal relationship with customer satisfaction.

5. Conclusions

31
 The rapid advance in information technology has provided firms with technology solutions,

such CRM and SFA to manage customer relationships and provide customer service. In this

paper, an extensive literature review is conducted to understand the correlation between the use

of information systems, customer service, employees’ user satisfaction, employees’ service

quality and customer satisfaction. The role of customer relationship management systems on

customer relationship management is demonstrated from multiple aspects, including relational

information processes, technology use in CRM, mediating effect of customer knowledge and

moderating effect of supply chain integration. The role of sales force automation (SFA), an

operational CRM system, is also reviewed. Some factors that may explain why the use of CRM

technology doesn’t always deliver the expected customer relationship performance outcome are

also included. The impact of information systems on employees’ user satisfaction is investigated

and no significant and clearly stated impact is found, but the relationship between these two

variables is discussed by the three theories of motivation and a study with equitable needs

fulfillment model. The impact of user satisfaction of information systems on employee service

quality and then customer satisfaction is also examined, by applying the service profit chain

(SPC) and reviewing a setting of mandated CRM use; employees’ embodied service knowledge

as moderating factor is considered. In all the literature that is reviewed, the consensus of

significant positive impact of service quality on customer satisfaction is not found, and the

relationship between these two variables are sparse and needs future research attention to be

sorted out.

6. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Russell N. Laczniak and Dr. James A. Davis for their guidance and

support along the course of this research. I would also like to thank Dr. Anthony M. Townsend

32
for his mentorship in the early stage of the study. I would also like to thank Dr. Abhay Mishra

for his guidance on how to conduct academic research and how to write research papers. Equally

importantly, I would also like to the department faculty and staff members for making my time at

Iowa State University a wonderful journey.

The same appreciation also goes to my wonderful classmates, friends and colleagues for

making my journey enjoyable and inspiring.

33
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