Running head: Customer Service Job Improves Communication Competency 1

Having a Customer Service Job while in College improves Communication Competence

A. Ayers

Winona State University

Running head: Customer Service Job Improves Communication Competency 2

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were over 137 million jobs in all levels

of customer service in 2015 in the United States (BLS, 2015). Many of these jobs are filled by

college students who work to help pay for various expenses such as rent, books and tuition.

Customer service jobs can entail two parts of selling, one is service and the other is products.

Since a lot of students need a customer service job while in college, it is important to know the

influence the job has on a persons communication competency. Jobs, no matter the type, take a

portion of a persons day and week and the repercussions of investing in a company or job can

leave lasting impacts whether positive or negative.

The retail industry is a sub group that I will target one of my focus groups on and because

of its role in the economy. The retail sector plays a vital role in the U.S. economy, supporting 1

in 4 American jobs (PWC, 2014). Since the retail industry provides 25% of the jobs in the U.S.

it is important that these jobs are improving communication competency for those working in

those jobs. Another real world significance is that oral communication, which is one of the top

skills needed in any career is improved in customer service jobs (Brink & Costigan, 2015). The

goal of this review is to discuss the following question:

Does having a customer service job while in college improves communication

competency?

A customer service job is defined as an organization or companies ability to provide or

supply for their customers needs and wants (Ward, 2016). Communication competency is

defined in this paper as the knowledge of appropriate communication patterns in a given

situation and the ability to use the knowledge (Cooley & Roach, 1984). Literature from the

following areas will be examined: (1) customer service jobs (2) communication competence, and

(3) the effects of having a customer service job while in college and how if positively affects
Running head: Customer Service Job Improves Communication Competency 3

communication competency. This paper will compare research and literature from customer

service jobs and communication competency.

Customer Service Job

Customer service can be defined as supplying the needs and wants of customers.

Customer service jobs are occupied by many different people in multiple stages of life, according

to La Londe (1966), many retailers hire teen-agers, part time college students and married

women looking for just a few hours of work a week to pay bills (la Londe, 1966). This study also

shows that the customer service and retail industry are expanding at such a fast rate that the work

force is not able to keep up with the demand of jobs available (la Londe, 1966). Another study

explains the importance of customer service and the employee always putting the customer first

and the implications of applying this definition of customer service.

McAtee (1999) study found that:

Customer service is the supplying of all my customers with the product or service

that they desire, with the quality that they expect, at the price that they can justify,

at the time that they require, with the follow-up and support that they deserve.

(p.18)

Along with ensuring that customers are the number one priority in customer service jobs, the

manufacturing, marketing and developing of the products also needs to keep customers in mind.

(McAtee, 1999).

A study by Brink and Costigan (2015) shows that one of the main skills needed in the

customer service job and the one that employers look for is oral communication skills (Brink &

Costigan, 2015). Oral communication can also be used in multiple different forms of

communication. According to Roberts et al. (1974), information exchange is a common element

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in all forms of communication that include oral communication. (Roberts et al., 1974). This

study shows the significance of learning oral communication skills in school and applying it to

the workplace whether that be in the business field or in the retail customer service industry.

Another study shows the importance of verbal communication in the workplace which

customer service jobs require. This study defines interpersonal skills and a persons ability to

work in a group as a team towards one goal one of the main things employers seek when they are

hiring new employees or promoting from within. (Keyton et al., 2013). The main goal that

companies have and those that work in customer service is to sell the product or service and to

make the customer happy and wanting to come back to their company.

Studies show that although the job may seem easy in customer service, there are complex

tasks involved in various customer service roles and jobs. Bitner explains how employee

attitudes can affect the customers attitudes towards the service quality even if the product is good

and what they are looking for. Research has shown that employees attitudinal and behavioral

responses can positively and negatively affect customers perceptions of the service encounter

and their judgements of service quality (Bitner, 1990, p.53). A study about the effects of

manager-employee, employee-role and employee-customer interactions talk about the

importance of managers effectively controlling their employees in a hierarchy effect. (Hartline &

Ferrell, 1996).

Customer service is not just selling product but a lot of the customer service jobs are also

for services. According to a study by Gu and Siu about customer service in Casinos, one of the

most important customer service skills is respecting the customers. Gu and Siu state the features

that help their casinos to have repeated customers. Interpersonal features, such as respecting

guests, greeting customers, smiling and being willing to help customers, are important service
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attributes needing to be strengthened among the labor force (Gu & Siu, 2008). In customer

service cases such as the casino industry where they are not necessarily selling product but a

service, this study concluded that there must be training done more often for employees to keep

their service level at a higher level to keep customers coming back to their casino.

When students graduate from college, many go into their field but a lot struggle to find

jobs right away and dont know what to do in the meantime or how to find experience. 56% of

22-year-old college graduates in 2009-2011 were working in jobs that did not require a college

degree (Wessel, 2014). This statistic suggests that many customer service jobs such as sales

workers or bartenders do not need college degrees but they also give the recent college graduate

experience in oral communication and in a teamwork. A study conducted about the differences

of graduating with a full-time job or a full-time job with ones major shows the distinct

difference that the experiences are both positive but different skills are learned in each path (Blau

et al., 2016). This study was conducted from a sample of Business students from Temple

University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Seniors were strongly encouraged to fill out a student

satisfaction survey. The survey asked about their full time college experience, internships in their

field and outside their field as well as what skills they have in these areas.

Another study found the internal communication satisfaction an employee has in the

retail sector can be used as a motivational tool. A study conducted by Pradyna Chitrao (Chitrao,

2014) in the European Journal of Social & Behavioral Sciences shows whether retail employees

have the necessary information to help engage with customers on products and how that

communication is best reached. This study showed that retail employees need to have day to day

interactions with managers to be more successful when interacting with customers and selling
Running head: Customer Service Job Improves Communication Competency 6

products. It also showed that only 90% of employers said it is necessary to talk to employees

daily to give instruction (Chitrao, 2014).

The retail industry also relies heavily on nonverbal communication and retail context

because of its predominantly fast paced atmosphere (Puccinelli, Motyka, & Grewal, 2010).

Retail employees use their conflict management and prior knowledge to help determine how to

work with customers and their co-workers. They need rely on nonverbal cues such as looking

frustrated or ready to ring up their items rather than asking the customer in a hectic environment

that can be helpful for making their shopping experiment more enjoyable. Retail employees are

not always taught this in training for a job so it is necessary that co-workers help each other as

well as managers evaluating employees often.

Communication Competence

The second variable I will be studying will be the communication competence, how

competent people are in communication situations. Communication competence can be defined

a few different ways according to a few recent articles. Morreale et al. defines it one of the ways

in the following quote. Scholars have worked to define communication competence

conceptually and theoretically and to identify the components that comprise it(Morreale, Staley,

Stavrositu, & Krakowiak, 2015 p. 107). These authors, Morreal, Stanley, Stavrositu and

Krakowiak all wrote articles about communication competency in the 1980s and 1990s but have

since reevaluated the meaning and context of communication competency. They also said in a

2015 article about first-year college students and their understanding of communication

competency that the importance of the notion of competence is emphasized by the recent

development of an international volume devoted entirely on communication competence in

Running head: Customer Service Job Improves Communication Competency 7

various contexts and situations (Morreal, Stanley, Stavrositu, Krakowiak, 2015, p. 108). An

article about communication competency in a changing business says that this concept is used in

multiple different ways including teamwork, leadership, planning, organizing and many other

basics for successful career behaviors. (Waldeck, Durante, Helmuth, & Marcia, 2012).

Many articles have shown that group or team work communication in the workplace is

increasing. Group Communication competency can be described as the following by Chaudhury,

where a group comes together to get tasks done and where the learner must make attempts in

order to develop accuracy and frequency within the group. (Chaudhury, 2015). This study is

explaining that communicative language teaching has switched form the teacher explaining the

process to the learner putting it into practice more (Chaudhury, 2015). Their ability to be

competent is directly related to how their supervisor explains something to them which causes

the supervisor to need effective communication competency.

Another form of communication competence learning is the argumentative and

alternative communication style (AAC) (Light & Mcnaughton, 2014). A recent study found the

effects of having this alternative communication for students to be positive for their learning.

This type of learning is when students listen to words and directions on a device that helps

students with disabilities learn at a faster rate (Chung & Douglas, 2014). There are many positive

ways this communication style is helping students with their competency, one of the promising

inclusion outcomes of AAC users, along with learning the content, is the rich opportunity for

peer interactions. The context of peer interactions facilitates social skill learning, knowledge

acquisition and establishment of social connections (Chung & Douglas, 2014). This type of

learning helps the students become more competent in their communication and gives them the

ability to learn at the same rate as others.

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Communication competency could also be measured in job satisfaction and through

supervisor-subordinate communication. According to a study done in Malaysia, other countries

outside to the United States demonstrate the importance and impact that the Leader Member

Exchange (LMX) has on commitment and satisfaction within a group. (Ansari, Lee & Aafaqi,

2007; Lo, Ramayah, &Hui, 2006). Other studies done in the United States show that the

correlation between communication competency and job satisfaction is lacking, the current

study addresses this gap in the literature in two ways by comparing within-group and between-

group subordinate and supervisor evaluations of job satisfaction, communication competence

and communication satisfaction (Steele & Plenty, 2015). For this study, Cooley and Roach

(1984, p. 25) define communication competence as the knowledge of appropriate

communication patterns in a given situation and the ability to use the knowledge (Cooley,

Roach, 1984). From this definition and the studies on communication competency in accordance

with job satisfaction and how the supervisor communicates, a strong correlation was found

between supervisor communication competence and job satisfaction (Steele & Plenty, 2015).

Having communication competency skills can be learned in a variety of ways even in the

classroom. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) shows that

there are some variation in the ways in which the concept of communicative competence is used

in the academic and professional literature(Leung & Lewkowicz, 2013). This study shows that

the CEFT descriptors are conceptually concerned with three areas of communicative

competence, pragmatic, linguistic and sociolinguistic. (Leung & Lewkowicz, 2013). This shows

that communicative competency isnt only concerned with how they are understanding a topic

but how they can relay it to others as well. The CEFT is a type of testing and measuring and

learning for individuals to describe their communication style.

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Competency also refers to the ability for people to communicate information to others,

working in a group or being evaluated on a persons completion of a task is another way to

measure this. Task interdependence refers to the degree to which team members identify with,

and intend to help, one another both through their actions and through providing resources

(Johnson & Johnson, 1999). A story by Wang et al. (2001) showed a positive correlation

between team corporation and job performance which shows that their communication

competency was a positive impact.

Communication Competence from a Customer Service Job

Having a customer service job while in college promotes communication competence

through planning, teamwork, analyzing decisions and customer orientation. Customer orientation

(CO) is defined as how employees or customer service workers are able to meet the customers

needs based on their service (Donavan, Brown, & Mowen, 2004). By studying how customers

service jobs in college promote people being more competent in communication, it encourages

students to gain other skills than those they learn in the classroom.

The skills that college students learn in the classroom are not always enough to help in

the workplace when obtaining a job but the use of technology in the classroom and workplace

have helped (Michelli, 2016). A recent study through the Mercedes-Benz company and their use

of technology in the workplace emphasized the need for people to use technology in customer

service atmospheres. With one of the main qualifications and job duties for customer service jobs

is oral communication, many students are able to learn this and perfect these skills in public

speaking and group projects in a college classroom.

Running head: Customer Service Job Improves Communication Competency 10

After examining the Literature on these two topics, there is shown to be a positive

correlation between having a customer service job while in college and having communication

competency. The goal of this study is to analyze the question:

Does having a customer service job while in college improves communication

competency?

The results I expect from my study is to determine that having a customer service job

while in college helps the student or employee with more than just rent money but lasting skills. I

also hope to promote the impact of balancing customer service jobs while also being a student

because of the communication and leading skills that are obtained. A customer service job

defined as a job that involves working with people to satisfy their wants and needs in a retail

industry in this study (McAtee, 1999). The definition for communication competency in this

study is the ability to know how to communicate in different situations based on a persons

knowledge (Cooley, Roach, 1984). This hypothesis is important because many students may be

more inclined to obtain a customer service job while in college if they know the positive

implications it will have on their communication in the future career.

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