Frontline employee lying behaviour shaping the customer experience

Hannah Snyder and Lars Witell

Chapter 20 in Handbook of Service Experience, 2025, pp 271-281 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Service research is built on the underlying assumption that service encounters are honest interactions between frontline employees and customers. In this chapter, we challenge this assumption by suggesting that employee lying behaviour is prevalent in almost all interactions with customers and is an important factor that shapes the customer experience. Specifically, we identify and discuss two main paths, where lying either shapes the service encounter in either a constructive or destructive way. Simply, lying can contribute to low or high valence of the customer experience depending on the situation. We discuss both planned and spontaneous lies and their consequences for the customer and the firm. We further identify the carryover effects of lying between touchpoints and the important role of the symbolic dimension of the customer experience. The chapter ends with the implications for theory and management on the role of employee lying in shaping customers’ experiences.

Keywords: Business and Management; Economics and Finance; Geography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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