DME Seminar - How Minority Frontline Employees Shape Solo Customer Service Experiences

Presenter: Dr The Khoa Do

Title: How Minority Frontline Employees Shape Solo Customer Service Experiences

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed a growing number of solo customers (e.g., solo diners, solo travellers), who consume services alone in the marketplace. Yet, limited attention has been devoted to improving the service experiences of this expanding group. This research investigates whether, how, and when employing minority frontline employees (FLEs) (e.g., ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ and disabled workers), as compared to nonminority FLEs, can enhance the experiences of solo customers. Using a multi-method approach (text mining, Facebook A/B test, field, and controlled experiments), we find that interacting with minority (vs. nonminority) FLEs leads to improved solo service evaluations, such as satisfaction or spending. This effect arises because solo customers feel more psychologically close to minority FLEs, who share the same feeling of marginality and empathize with the nuances of their solo status. This in turn enhances their perception of warmth toward these employees and ultimately facilitates positive service outcomes for solo customers, but not for joint customers. Moreover, the effect is amplified when solo customers pursue hedonic (vs. utilitarian) consumption goals but attenuated when the service delivery is personalized. With the rise in solo consumption across services, this research provides nuanced insights into leveraging minority workforce to serve this growing market segment.

Biography: Dr. The Khoa Do (Bin) is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Royal Holloway-University of London. His main research area is services marketing (AI & service robots, transformative service research). His dissertation received an honourable mention at the 2023 Psychology of Technology Institute's Dissertation Award and was the winner of the prestigious 2024 AMA SERVSIG Best Dissertation Award. He was also the 2025 recipient and 2026 finalist of the AMA Organizational Frontlines Young Scholar Research Award. As a consumer behavioural scientist, Dr. Do employs a multi-method approach in his research, including field experiments, controlled experiments, social media A/B tests, text mining, eye tracking, and secondary data analyses. His work has been published in Journal of Service Research, Psychology & Marketing, among others. His other works are under review at premier journals, including Journal of Marketing and Journal of Service Research.