'Employees First': The Relationship between Employee Experience Management Systems and Customer Experience Management Completed Research

The purpose of this study is to understand the importance of Employee Experience Management Systems (EEM) in supporting Customer Experience Management initiatives (CEM). CEM can be characterized as the data-driven process of designing customer experiences or experience co-creation opportunities to create enduring customer value. Following the same logic, EEM is a data-driven solution directed to offer employees positive, meaningful and engaging work experiences. This study examined the role of EEM in supporting CEM and ultimately on Customer Equity. The results revealed the direct effect of EEM on CEM and its indirect effect on Customer Equity through CEM. In particular, the study proposes three EEM system affordances that can support CEM and drive Customer Equity: identifying employees' experiential needs for job-crafting, engaging employees in innovation and including employees in customer experience design. The proposed model is validated in the context of the hotel industry with implications for the service industry in general.