Wearing Expertise on your Sleeve: Increasing Customer Service Expectations through Employee Apparel: An Abstract

Christian Barney, Carol Esmark-Jones, Adam Farmer, Haley Hardman

Research output: Contribution to book or proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

With technology increasingly integrated into the retail experience and a decrease in the availability of retail employees, the responsibility for initiating service encounters in a retail setting has shifted from employees to customers in many situations. However, as many as 90% of shoppers will leave without making a purchase rather than asking for help from an employee (Businesswire 2014), adversely impacting perceptions of service quality. This paper uses signaling theory, which is primarily concerned with differential access to information (Connelly et al. 2011), to look at the process through which shoppers create impressions of an employee. Employee apparel is proposed as a primary signal regarding anticipated service quality, which may act as a predictor of their wiliness to approach an employee. Although employee apparel has been conceptualized as a potent atmospheric cue, little work has been done on the relationship between employee apparel and service expectations. A conceptual model is proposed with perceived expertise mediating the relationship between employee apparel and service expectations. This study provides evidence that formal attire increases consumers’ perceptions of expertise and, through expertise, perceptions of service quality in a retail setting. Employees in formal attire, such as a lab coat, were perceived as having more expertise than those dressed in less formal attire, such as a white polo and khakis. Additionally, consumers’ perceptions regarding expertise were positively and significantly related to service expectations. Expertise significantly and fully mediated the relationship between apparel and service expectations. This suggests that the formality of consumer apparel can influence the ways in which shoppers view a retail employee and may impact the way in which they evaluate the retail service. Therefore, in services where expertise is of substantial importance to customers (e.g., genetic testing, salons, etc.) using more formal employee apparel may signal expertise to customers as well as raise their expectations of the service being provided. This study is the first step in exploring the complicated relationship between customer perceptions of employee apparel and their evaluation of the retail service. Although much work needs to be conducted to fully understand the influence of employee appearance, these findings help to fill several gaps by showing why the outfit is important as well as showing the ways in which apparel impacts service expectations in a retail environment.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDevelopments in Marketing Science
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages647-648
Number of pages2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Publication series

NameDevelopments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science
ISSN (Print)2363-6165
ISSN (Electronic)2363-6173

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Marketing
  • Strategy and Management

Keywords

  • Embarrassment
  • Employee apparel
  • Expertise
  • Signaling theory

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