Serve others with all your heart: driving proactive customer service performance through employee emotional competence and service hospitableness

This study seeks to explore the impact of employee emotional competence on proactive customer service performance, mediated by service hospitableness, in the Tanzanian restaurant industry. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Dodoma, Tanzania, with data collected from 423 customers of selected restaurants. The data were analysed through structural equation modelling. The results indicate that employee emotional competence significantly influences proactive customer service performance. Additionally, the findings indicate that service hospitableness positively mediates the relationship between emotional competence and proactive customer service performance. The study provides implications for managers in the restaurant industry as they develop strategies to enhance emotional competence and improve service performance. The study offers a novel customer-centric perspective on proactive customer service performance, moving away from traditional self-reporting methods. The study’s novelty lies in its use of customer evaluations of employees’ emotional competence to enhance service performance.