Title: Frontline employees experience about customer contact

Authors: Tina Häppick Biancofiore, Sofie Franzén and Glen Karsberg

Supervisor: Anders Wrenne 

Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology 

Course: Bachelor’s thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits   

Purpose: The purpose of our work is to contribute to the knowledge about the impact of customer contact on the frontline employees’ daily work condition. This is done by investigating how frontline employees, who have a large share of customer contact in their work, experience that the customer contact contributes to motivation at work.

Method: The essay was chosen to be conducted using a qualitative method where the empirical material was collected through a digital survey distributed to frontline employees within fast moving consumer goods business. The digital survey included open questions, allowing for a deeper gathering of empirical data that allows respondents to develop their answers.

Results: The essay shows that the frontline employees work motivation is influenced by the customer contact, both in a positive and a negative direction. The customer contact can thus influence the frontline employees’ work motivation in several ways and in several directions by influencing amongst others the sense of security, social contact, the ability to perform good customer service and personal development.