The impact of retail sales force responsiveness on consumers’ perceptions of value

Abstract

Extant research suggests that salespeople can significantly impact consumers' outcome perceptions. Examines the importance of initial contact with salespeople on consumers' perceptions of value and the impact of salesperson service failure on perceptions of value among non-purchasers. An exit survey of shoppers was conducted to realistically study these issues. Results show that outcome perceptions were significantly lower when either there was no contact with salespeople, or the consumer had to initiate the contact. The retailer that had the highest percentage of salesperson initiated contact, earned the highest perception ratings and also had the highest ratio of buyers to browsers. Furthermore, non-purchasers that experienced service failures (slow service or offended by a salesperson) discounted not just the perception of that retail visit, but also overall value compared to other retailers. These results suggest that retailers must encourage their sales staff to initiate consumer contact.

When service fails: The role of the salesperson and the customer

“…Indeed, salespeople's recovering from service failures has been positively associated with customer satisfaction with the service and companies (Widmier & Jackson, 2002). For a service firm, service failures may be inevitable, but salespeople can take action to assist a firm in recovering from service failures to keep dissatisfied customers from taking their business elsewhere (Blodgett, Hill, & Tax, 1997;Naylor & Frank, 2000). As Reichheld and Sasser (1990, p. 148) aver: "Errors are inevitable, dissatisfied customers are not.…”

“…Salespeople, being boundary spanners between the organization and customers, play a critical role in enhancing customer satisfaction in order to maintain the buyer-seller relationship in situations involving service failures (Naylor & Frank, 2000). Literature suggests that customer retention, particularly retention of customers of long-term potential, is a major task of salespeople (Moncrief & Marshall, 2005).…”

O efeito da sinalização de qualidade no contexto de serviços

“…Responsividade está sendo considerada um elemento de sinalização, por estar em sintonia com os pressupostos da teoria de sinalização identificados por Kirmani e Rao (2000), como, por exemplo, o consumidor ter uma ideia, antes de efetuar a compra, do montante investido na ação de sinalização, o qual deve ser passível de comparação com os investimentos realizados pelos concorrentes. Note que outras pesquisas têm abordado, de forma mais particular e isolada, apenas uma das dimensões da SERVQUAL, como por exemplo, a confiabilidade dos funcionários (e.g., Sharma, 1990;Swan, Bowers, & Richardson, 1999), os tangíveis (e.g., Baker, Dhruv, & Parasuraman, 1994;Berry, Wall, & Carbone, 2006;Bitner, 1990;Reimer & Kuehn, 2005), a empatia dos funcionários (Varca, 2009;Wieseke, Geigenmüller, & Kraus, 2012), e a responsividade (e.g., Hocutt, 1998;Naylor & Frank, 2000, Richins, 1983.…”

A B2C Business Agenda: Analyzing Customers’ Perceptions towards Bumiputera Retailers

“…Several authors believe that the internal factors of the company or the facilities offered by retailers play an important role in building business image. Naylor and Frank (2000) believe that the employees' performance will affect the consumers' perception. Other authors further suggest facilities offered by the business (Shaw & Haynes, 2004); price of the products (Sheinin & Wagner, 2003); quality of service offered (Gangliano & Hathcote, 1994).…”