2.1 Introduction
The literature review examines research and literature relating to customer and employee behaviour in the context of “the customer is always right”. The objectives of this are to identify the behaviour of customers and employees and looking into how the organization deals with both the employees and customers in that context and how are the employees affected by this.
The review begins with the definition of the service industry on which the study is based on and the brief definition of customers, customer service and the history of the phrase “the customer is always right”. The literature then goes on to discuss the motivation that the customer and employees have to achieve their goals, and the negative and positive effects of the phrase “the customer is always right” towards the customers, employees and organization. An overview of emotional labour theories is also presented and strategies for controlling and predicting employee behaviour are examined. The literature start by focusing on all parties involved which are the customers, employees and organization but the main focus will primarily be based on the employees as topic is to find out how this phrase affects employees in the service industry. The literature will show the overall picture of all the parties involved in the service industry thus understanding how employee is affected directly or indirectly by the customers and organization that are involved in the use of this phrase.
The literature review will include different aspects of marketing, management and service quality management but an in-depth discussion of these theories will not be presented as they are not the core aims of this study. The literature was chosen as it provides a detailed analysis of customer service, customer and employee motivation, and employee behaviour in the context of “the customer is always right”. The study focuses on the service industry thus hospitality and service