Proactive customer service performance in hospitality and tourism: A systematic review and future directions

Proactive customer service performance (PCSP) has emerged as a critical construct in service research, enabling organizations to anticipate and address customer needs before they surface. This proactive approach is associated with higher satisfaction, loyalty, and trust, giving businesses a competitive edge. This is particularly salient for the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry, where personal connections and smooth service experiences are key to success. Despite its importance, scholarly understanding of PCSP remains dispersed, with limited integration of its theoretical bases, antecedents, contextual environments, and methodological approaches. To address this gap, this study systematically reviews 57 articles using the theories, contexts, characteristics, and methods (TCCM) framework, providing an integrative synthesis of prior work. The review develops a framework that maps direct and indirect influences, mediators, moderators, and control variables identified in PCSP research. By consolidating and extending these insights, the paper aims to advance theoretical development, identify promising avenues for future inquiry, and offer practical guidance for leveraging PCSP to support customer engagement and organizational performance in the H&T sector.