Employee Mere Presence and Its Impact on Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

Existing research suggests that humans are hardwired to be sensitive to the presence of other humans, and that the mere presence of someone is likely to affect human behavior. So far, however, this issue has been under-researched in physical environments in which retail and service transactions take place and with respect to the mere presence of employees. This study examined empirically if the mere presence of an employee in a physical environment has an impact on customer affect (in terms of pleasure) and customer satisfaction. Two between-subjects experiments, in two different settings, showed that the absence of an employee produced lower levels of pleasure and lower levels of customer satisfaction than the mere presence of an employee. The results also indicate that pleasure mediated the association between employee presence and customer satisfaction. In addition, a field study with mystery shoppers confirmed that the employee absent condition produced lower levels of satisfaction than conditions in which employees were visible.

Customer satisfaction in Asia

“…Two experiments are conducted with a total sample of 498 Chinese customers. Study 1, which involves a shopping situation in a clothing store, replicates Söderlund's () results and further reveals that employee mere presence has a significant positive impact on customers’ loyalty intentions. However, these results are reversed in Study 2, in which the shopping situation involves an embarrassing product (i.e., condom).…”

“…Their research focuses on shopping situations that take place in physical stores and other commercial settings where both customers and employees are likely to be present at the same time. This research attempts to replicate and extend Söderlund's () finding that customers entering a store with an employee present (vs. absent) shows higher levels of customer satisfaction. Two experiments are conducted with a total sample of 498 Chinese customers.…”

Clothes, condoms, and customer satisfaction: The effect of employee mere presence on customer satisfaction depends on the shopping situation

“…To this end, two between‐subjects experiments with a total sample of 498 Chinese customers were conducted. Study 1, which involved a shopping situation in a clothing store, replicated Söderlund's () main results and further found that employee mere presence (vs. absence) had a significant positive impact on customers’ loyalty intentions. These results were reversed in Study 2, in which the shopping situation involved the purchase of an embarrassing product.…”

“…In fact, the authors are only aware of one recent research article (Söderlund, ) that has explicitly examined the isolated effect of employee mere presence on key customer outcomes. Söderlund () found that customers entering a store with an employee present (vs. absent) reported significantly higher levels of customer satisfaction, with their increased levels of pleasurable feelings mediating this effect. However, similar to the majority of theorizing on customer satisfaction, which has been conducted in Europe and North America, Söderlund's research was restricted to data collected in a Western and individualistic society (Scandinavia)…”

“…Given the rapid economic growth in many Asian regions, there is a need to examine the applicability of such Western‐based findings from an Asian perspective, and hence include participants from Eastern societies. Accordingly, the present research investigated whether Söderlund's () results could be replicated among Asian customers. The current work also sought to extend prior findings beyond pleasure and customer satisfaction while simultaneously documenting a boundary condition for the hitherto positive employee mere presence effects.…”