You can probably recall a customer service experience that left you feeling good. A recent study has shown not only that positive emotion from sales staff is
contagious1（感染性的） to a customer, but that a satisfied customer also improves the salesperson's mood. The research is now available in Human Relations, published by
SAGE2.
Sandra Kiffin-Petersen, and Geoffrey Soutar from University of Western Australia and Steven Murphy from Carlton University, Canada used a
qualitative3 diary study with 276 sales employees to shed light on the sales experience from the employees' perspective. In
psychology4, 'affect' is the experience of feeling or emotion. We often feel emotions in response to specific events, particularly social interactions. Affective events theory (AET) suggests that a salesperson's thoughts about how they rate their interaction with a customer (
appraisal5) will then help determine the emotions they feel. Until now, studies of how an individual's positive emotion
appraisals6 fluctuate（波动） in real life, or organizational settings, have been thin on the ground.
Data from employees' diary entries that outlined their daily interactions with customers, recorded 874 positive events over a five day period.
Helping7 customers to solve their problem was most likely to trigger positive emotions. The data and resulting model revealed that how employees configured event appraisals could be used to predict their emotions:
Problem solving events where the employee felt the outcome was a result of his/her own intention (self-agency) and personal mastery elicited8 satisfaction;
Recognition for service events with the appraisal configuration9 of self-agency and enhanced ego-identity led to pride;
Pleasant customer events with the appraisal configuration of other-agency and positive encounter generated happiness and relaxation10;
Deal-making events where the employee felt the outcome was a result of his/her own intention (self-agency) and goal achievement elicited excitement and relief.
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