When retail employees go “above and beyond,” which often involves deviating from organizational rules, it has been shown to enhance customer loyalty for the store. New university research shows it can also lift engagement for the infracting employee.
“Customers clearly recognize when employees take risks to be helpful, and research shows that pro-customer rule breaking has desirable customer outcomes,” wrote the study’s authors, Irene Kim of the University of British Columbia; and Yujie Zhan at Wilfrid Laurier University, in the Harvard Business Review.
