The Effects of Service Employees'' Physical Attractiveness on Customer Satisfaction, Repurchase Intention and Word of Mouth Transmission－The Moderating Effect of Gender Difference

• Main Authors: Ting-Wen Hang, 韓鼎文
• Other Authors: Heng-Hui Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/rf7z3s

碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 企業管理研究所 === 97 === Previously, studies show that physical attractiveness has positive influence toward customer satisfaction and repurchase intention. However, there are very few studies which examine the moderation of this relationship. In addition, there is no research focusing on intention for word of mouth transmission from the perspective of physical attractiveness. From the viewpoint of social psychology, humans have the tendency for social comparison especially among the same gender (Bower, 2001). Hence, the persuasive effect may be weakened. On the contrary, spokesperson of an opposite sex who is physically attractive has better advertising effect. By extending the previous research, this present research continues the investigation on the influence of service employees’ physical attractiveness toward customer satisfaction, repurchase intention and word of mouth transmission in a real world setting. Moreover, the moderating effect of gender is examined. This research emphasizes on 49 service employees from 12 stores and gathers information from 300 consumers in a real world setting. Subsequently, results reveal that the relationship of service employees’ physical attractiveness with customer satisfaction, repurchase intention and word of mouth transmission intensify as the service employees’ physical attractiveness increases. Furthermore, the influence of customer satisfaction and word of mouth transmission by the physical attractiveness will be weakened by the moderation of gender. However, the repurchase intention is not moderated by gender. Practically, the business owners may hire service employees with physical attractiveness to improve the customer satisfaction, repurchase intention and word of mouth transmission. On the other hand, it is suggested that service employees of the opposite gender can be arranged to serve the customers for the maximum profit to the business during the process of service encounter.