Abstract
This study examined the impact of employee empathy on customers' advocacy directly and indirectly through customers' loyalty. Moreover, the interacting effect of customers' trust was verified between the association of customers' loyalty and advocacy. The attributes of the proposed model were examined in the context of first line employee and patients' interactions. A total of 220 responses were collected for analysis from the private hospitals of Peshawar. The model fitness was confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis and hypotheses were examined. Findings confirmed the positive and significant impact of employee empathy on customers' advocacy. Further, the mediating effect was examined and found that loyalty partially mediates employee empathy and customers' advocacy. Additionally, trust was found a significant moderator between the association of customer loyalty and advocacy. Furthermore, findings revealed that trust based loyalty significantly and positively mediates employee empathy and customers' advocacy. Findings of the present study provide understanding for the service sector, particularly in healthcare, to enhance customers' loyalty, advocacy, and trust through service employee's empathic aptitude.
Keywords: Employee empathy, Service Eco-system, Customers' Loyalty, Customers' Advocacy, Trust-Based Loyalty, Healthcare, S-D Logic