Perceived idle wait and associated emotional discomfort: An analysis of retail waiting experience

Waiting involves both cognition and emotions. It has a bearing on the overall perception of retail service quality. The advancement in retailing has triggered scholarly conversations on the psychological impact of waiting at the retail checkout. Prior studies confirm customers being deeply involved in the passage of time and time estimation during the entire waiting period. This study investigates the customer idle time and its implication on emotional discomfort resulting from crowding stress. The study employed confirmatory sampling wherein specific sample elements are chosen since they are the key respondents to confirm hypotheses being tested. Accordingly, 385 respondents (shoppers) visiting the leading organized retailers located in major localities in Bengaluru were approached. The responses were analyzed using a Chi-squared test and Pearson correlation. The outcome reveals that irrespective of age and gender, customers visiting the offline retail outlets experience emotional discomfort. The young customers aged 18-30 dislike waiting in the queue at the checkout compared to older customers. In contrast, gender did not affect the inclination to wait. The idleness during the checkout waits causes emotional discomfort on most occasions. The findings supplement the growing research in psychology on the actual and perceived consumption of time, focusing on idleness. The study concludes that customers desire to avert an unproductive use of time, thus lowering their emotional discomfort.

How does salespeople’s personal interaction affect customers’ word-of-mouth in retailing?

Purpose Drawing on the philosophy of retail service quality, this study aims to empirically investigate how salespeople’s personal interaction affects customers’ positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intention through the lens of affective customer experience and consumers’ cross-cultural attitudes toward domestic or foreign products. Design/methodology/approach The hypothesis was tested with a two-step structural equation model using survey data obtained from 529 shopping center customers in China. Findings The positive impact of salespeople’s personal interaction on customers’ positive WOM intention is fully mediated by affective customer experience. In addition, consumer ethnocentrism strengthens the positive impact of salespeople’s personal interaction on affective customer experience, whereas this study fails to find the moderating effect of foreign product affinity. Practical implications To increase customers’ positive WOM intention, store managers need to encourage their frontline sales personnel to personally interact with customers to support customers’ problem-solving. Also, frontline salespeople should pay more attention to consumers’ cross-cultural attitudes such as consumer ethnocentrism when interacting with their customers. Originality/value By linking affective customer experience and consumers’ cross-cultural attitudes of ethnocentrism and affinity toward domestic or foreign products, this study further extends the knowledge of retail service quality on the relationship between salespeople’s personal interaction and customers’ positive WOM intention.

Customer satisfaction on service quality dimensions

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the influence of dimensions of service quality towards satisfaction in the context of Indian retail market. The paper focused to examine the relationship between satisfaction and service quality dimensions. A study has been conducted on 20 supermarkets in Kadapa district, A.P. India. The results of this research indicate that retail service quality positively influences satisfaction and trust. It is found that satisfaction also positively influences trust and loyalty. Satisfaction and trust mediate the relationship between retail service quality and loyalty on customer satisfaction.

Technology Analysis and the Need of a Value Framework

We make purchases almost every day. We buy some products very often (e.g. food), others less often (e.g. furniture, car). Shops, selling products to customers, are not their producers, but rather provide them with services (commercial service). It is important that the customer, after making the purchase, is satisfied not only with the product, but also with the purchasing process itself. In order to determine what are the reasons for customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, it is necessary to assess the quality of services, i.e. the process of making purchases by customers. In the available literature, there are many methods that are used to assess the service quality. However, their use is associated with the need to identify attributes that could well describe the service provision process, but also be a source of knowledge about customer satisfaction. The Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) developed by Dabholkar and his colleagues is applicable to assess the quality of services provided by shops, so it can be a ready-made tool that does not require the researchers to define attributes, as would be the case when using traditional methods. The aim of the paper was to assess the quality of operation of a traditional shop using the RSQS methodology. This study was carried out using a paper questionnaire that contained the attributes proposed in the RSQS. The survey was conducted among customers of a selected shop. The analyzed results made it possible to determine the quality level of commercial services provided by the research shop and to indicate its strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, the possibility of using the ready-made RSQS scale to assess the quality of commercial services provided in Polish economic realities was confirmed.

Online Retail Service Quality: Scale Development and Validation

The growth of online retailing has created an opportunity to create a scale specifically for online retail services. At the same time, the increasing rate of internet penetration in India coupled with electronic banking and wallets has formed new market place for many online retailers. In this context, to gain competitive advantage, the online retailers should provide better service quality. Thus, the present research tries to know the various constructs of retail service quality (RSQ) in online format and develop a measurement scale. The study has borrowed the constructs from ‘Retail Service Quality’ (RSQ) and ‘Technology Acceptance Model’ (TAM). For this purpose, we collected data from 600 respondents. The scale has been confirmed and validated by using CFA. The study confirmed that online RSQ (ORSQ) scale consists of four constructs: ‘Ease of Use’, ‘Problem Solving’, ‘Policy’ and ‘Reliability’ with 18 variables. The article has concluded and validated a scale for ORSQ which can help the online retailers to design their service offering. The implications of the ORSQ scale for practitioners, as well as for future research, are discussed in this article.

Impact of Retail Service Quality and Store Service Quality on Patronage Intention towards Organized Retail Industry

Purpose: A proper service increases the customer satisfaction and positive word of mouth. The aim of this paper is to find out the impact of retail service quality and store service quality on patronage intention and word of mouth towards organized retail industry. Design/methodology/approach: The study data were collected from [location masked for blind review] using a structured questionnaire. A sample of 419 was used. A structural model was developed for analysis to find out the linkage between study variables. Findings/results: Findings reveal that retail service quality and store service quality are increasing the customer satisfaction. The findings showed that retail service quality, store service quality, and customer satisfaction significantly impact patronage intention and word of mouth. Problem solving is the major issue faced by the retail stores. Hence they have to take immediate action towards it to maintain their loyal customer base Practical implications: Problem-solving is not having significant relationships with customer satisfaction. Store managers have to create a pleasant experience and amplify the strength factors to create a bond between the store and the customers Originality/value: This paper is helpful to the retail store managers as well as new entrepreneurs who are going to start a new venture in the retail business.

A Discriminant Analysis Of High End And Budget Stores In Apparel Retail In India Using Retail Service Quality Scale Model

Service Quality is a blend of two words, Service and Quality where we discover accentuation on the accessibility of value services to definitive users. RSQS scale has been used for identifying the discriminant service quality factors differentiating the consumer perception of high end apparel retail stores and budget apparel retail stores. All out 600 surveys were circulated, 300 for high end and 300 for budget apparel retail stores and that we got 548 complete surveys of which 258 were from consumers of high end apparel retail stores and 290 were from consumers of budget apparel retail stores which were utilized for examination. The high end stores included in the study include H&M, Veromoda, ONLY and Westside and budget stores included in the study include Trends, Max, FBB and Pantaloons. The discriminate function revealed a significant association between groups and all predictors, accounting for 64.5% of between group variability, the structure matrix revealed three significant predictors, namely Reliability, Physical Aspects and Policy with problem solving and personal interaction as poor predictors. The cross validated classification showed that overall 76% were correctly classified.