Improving upselling revenue: a longitudinal field study

Purpose This study provides a comprehensive empirical framework on the longitudinal interplay of perceived organizational support, employee engagement, perceived service value and upselling. Design/methodology/approach We achieve our research objective by building an empirical framework calibrated on unique field data from the car rental industry. The data include a large pool of cross-sectional, time-series employee and customer survey responses, both of which are matched with actual transaction details. Findings Findings suggest that both employees and customers perceive benefits in past exchanges and show reciprocation efforts toward those from which benefits are received. Specifically, the return on organizational support is more prevalent among frontline employees responsible for direct customer contact, and customers’ perceived service value from employee–customer interactions increases the acceptance of future upselling offers. Originality/value First, drawing upon theoretical foundations of the reciprocity inherent to employee and customer behavior, this study advances our knowledge of the effective utilization of employee groups for which the levels of customer interactions differ. Second, unlike previous upselling studies using cross-sectional or one-time survey data, this study leverages a granular and comprehensive customer panel to uncover the robust effect of reciprocity in both employee and customer behavior on upselling revenue gains and provide meaningful guidance to practitioners.