Service worker appearance and the retail service encounter: the influence of gender and age

Carley Foster · Sheilagh Mary Resnick

38 citations0/0 files storedService Industries Journal

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Consumer Retail Behavior Studies Customer Service Quality and Loyalty Emotional Labor in Professions

Abstract

This study explores how the age and gender of service workers influence customers' perceptions of the retail service encounter in a health and beauty retailer. An analysis of qualitative interviews with 40 customers and 20 service workers suggests that customers seek reassurance in the service encounter by ‘matching’ and ‘mirroring’ the age and gender of customer-facing staff with their expectations of who should deliver appropriate service during the retail service encounter. These non-verbal cues, as a way of assessing the credibility of the service provider, are particularly important when customers are involved in high-involvement purchase occasions.

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References

1984Case Study Research: Design and Methods 1994Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook 1991Case Study Research: Design and Methods 1985A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research 2004The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior 1986Psychology of intergroup relations 1996Research Design: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches 1990Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surroundings and Employee Responses

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