Customer Loyalty in a Service Setting

ABSTRACT - In this paper the antecedents and consequences of perceived service quality in a retail context are examined both from the employee and the customer perspective. We investigate the impact of role stress (role ambiguity and role conflict), on organizational commitment and commitment to quality. Furthermore, we look at the effect of these types of sales personnel commitment towards the organization on delivering customer perceived service quality by retail sales persons. Next, we explore the impact of sales personnel commitment and customer perceived service quality on customer loyalty.

Citation:

Josee Bloemer, Ko de Ruyter, and Martin Wetzels (1998) ,"Customer Loyalty in a Service Setting", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 3, eds. Basil G. Englis and Anna Olofsson, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 162-169.

European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 3, 1998      Pages 162-169

CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN A SERVICE SETTING

Josee Bloemer, Limburg University Centre, Belgium

Ko de Ruyter, Moostricht University, The Netherlands

Martin Wetzels, Moostricht University, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT -

In this paper the antecedents and consequences of perceived service quality in a retail context are examined both from the employee and the customer perspective. We investigate the impact of role stress (role ambiguity and role conflict), on organizational commitment and commitment to quality. Furthermore, we look at the effect of these types of sales personnel commitment towards the organization on delivering customer perceived service quality by retail sales persons. Next, we explore the impact of sales personnel commitment and customer perceived service quality on customer loyalty.

Empirical findings reveal that especially role ambiguity has a negative impact on organizational commitment as well as on commitment to quality. Organizational commitment in turn is negatively associated with perceived service quality whereas commitment to quality is positively related to perceived service quality. The impact of perceived service quality on customer loyalty is overwhelming.

INTRODUCTION

As the majority of service providers are operating in markets that are increasingly characterized by intense competition, expanding price pressures and most importantly decreasing customer loyalty. The growing recognition of perceived service quality as a significant determinant of customer loyalty and business performance in terms of economic returns has generated considerable interest in the strategic value of service quality from academics as well as retail practitioners (Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann 1994; Buzzel and Gale 1987; Jacobson and Aaker 1987; Reichheld and Sasser 1990; Rust, Zahorik and Keiningham 1995). However, implementation of a strategy delivering high service quality depends strongly on the attitude and behavior of customer contact personnel. As they are responsible for putting strategy into operation in their encounters with customers. To improve the delivery of high service quality in order to increase quality, more insight is needed in the factors that enhance or impede the delivery of quality services by customer contact personnel who perform on the #front stage’ of the company (Mangold and Babakus 1991). In the emerging body of literature on the service encounter, several authors have pointed to the fact that customer contact personnel have to deal with #back stage’ demands from superiors as well as with the needs and wishes of customers (e.g., Weatherly and Tansik 1994). In their boundary spanning role, they are limited in their flexibility to go beyond the normal call of duty by organizational guidelines procedures (Parkington and Schneider 1979; Schneider 1980; Hartline and Ferrell 1993), while customizing retail services to a customer’s needs, or #adaptive servicing’, will often be critical to a favorable evaluation of service quality (Bitner 1990; Bitner et al. 1990; Goodwin and Radford 1993). These conflicting demands frequently lead to role stress.

Role stress has been shown to have a negative impact on organizational commitment, sales personnel’s commitment to quality and eventually perceived service quality by the customer (Behrman and Perreault 1984; Goolsby 1992; Jackson and Schuler 1985; Johnston et al. 1990; Micheals et al. 1987; Rizzo et al. 1970; Sager 1994; Weatherly and Tansik 1993; Zeithaml et al. 1988). The impact of perceived service quality on customer loyalty has been addressed among others by Parasuraman et al. (1994) who found a clear positively relationship. Others (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) however, failed to find the same relationship. So it definitely needs more indepth attention and research. Not only in relation to the perspective of the customer but also in relation to the perspective of the customer-contact personnel.

Such a stand is adopted in this article. It is structured as follows. First, we will offer a brief synthesis of the extant services marketing and organizational literature on key conceptual issues concerning the antecedents and consequences of perceived service quality in terms of role ambiguity, role conflict, organizational commitment, commitment to quality, perceived service quality and most importantly customer loyalty. The first four variables will be studied from an employee perspective while perceived service quality and customer loyalty are studied from a customer perspective. We subsequently discuss the results of an empirical study designed to provide insight into this matter. We conclude with a discussion, including limitations of our study and directions for future research. We end this article with some managerial implications.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Three important antecedents have been associated with perceived service quality: role stress of service employees, organizational commitment and commitment to quality. Kahn et al. (1964) define role stress as a composite construct consisting of the so-called role stresses of role conflict and role ambiguity. Role conflict is defined as "...the simultaneous occurrence of two (or more) sets o pressures such that compliance with one would make more difficult compliance with the other" (Kahn et al. 1964, p. 19). For boundary spanning personnel expectations of the organization and expectations of customers may clash. For instance, when a superior expects that an employee serves as many customers as possible, while a customer demands personal attention. Role ambiguity occurs when a person does not have access to sufficient information to perform his or her role as an employee adequately (Kahn et al. 1964; Walker et al. 1975). For example, role ambiguity may result from the fact that employees are uncertain about the expectations of management or from the fact that they do not know how their performance will be evaluated (cf. Shamir 1980; Schneider and Bowen 1993).

Porter et al. (1974, p. 604) define organizational commitment as "the strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organization". As an attitudinal construct organizational commitment can also be characterized in terms of three components: (1) a strong belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values, (2) a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization and (3) a strong desire to maintain membership of the organization (Monday et al. 1979, 1982). When customer contact personnel shares a set of common values aimed at one common purpose, a specific kind of commitment or #service minuends’ may arise (Howard 1990; Redrawn and Tennis 1990). Service quality can be viewed as an example of such a common purpose (Hartline and Ferrell 1993). Hence, commitment to (service) quality by customer contact employees could be an important antecedent of perceived service quality by customers.

A very important consequence associated with perceived service quality (PSQ) is customer loyalty. The relationship between service quality and customer loyalty intentions has been examined by Boulding et al. (1993), Cronin and Taylor (1992) and Parasuraman et al. 1994. Cronin and Taylor (1992) focused solely on repurchase intentions, whereas Boulding et al (1993) focused on both repurchase intentions and willingness to recommend. In the study by Cronin and Taylor service quality did not appear to have a significant (positive) effect on purchase intentions (in contrast to the significant positive relation between satisfaction and repurchase intention), while Boulding et al. (1993) found positive relationships between service quality and repurchase intentions and willingness to recommend. Parasuraman et al. 1994 also report clear positive relationships between perceived service quality and different loyalty indicators.

Thus, we identified three antecedents of perceived service quality. Organizational commitment and commitment to quality which in turn are a consequence of the role stress as experienced by the employee. Furthermore, customer loyalty is seen as a consequence of perceived service quality. To understand how aforementioned antecedents and consequences are related, we will develop a number of hypotheses on the relation between these concepts and their antecedents and consequences in the next section.

DEVELOPMENT OF HYPOTHESES

In formulating the hypotheses on the relations between the constructs we have looked at the services marketing, salesforce and organizational theory for guidance. First of all, we will develop hypotheses on the relationship between the outcome variable of role stressors and organizational commitment. Mowday et al. (1982), indicate that this relationship still has not completely been untangled. However, several meta-analytic studies have consistently found a negative relationship between organizational commitment and role ambiguity and role conflict (e.g., Fisher and Gitelson 1983; Jackson and Schuler 1985; Mathieu and Zajac 1990). Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H₁: There will be a negative relationship between role ambiguity and organizational commitment.

H₂: There will be a negative relationship between role conflict and organizational commitment.

With regard to commitment to quality as a consequence of role stressors, previous research confirmed a negative relation between role ambiguity and role conflict and commitment to quality (Hartline and Ferrell 1993). Consequently, the following hypotheses will be tested:

H₃: There will be a negative relationship between role ambiguity and commitment to quality.

H₄: There will be a negative relationship between role conflict and commitment to quality.

Employees who are committed to their organizations exhibit less commitment to the customers. Commitment is multiple consistuency construct. In other words, employees may be committed to multiple agents, such as their organization, their work unit or their customers (Reichers 1985; Hunt and Morgan 1994). It is likely that these employees will perform their jobs with the interest of the organization at heart. They may uphold company #policy’ or do things #by the book’, which may have a negative impact on customers perception of quality (Hartline and Ferrell 1993). Although it must be admitted that the relationship between organizational commitment and performance has been subjected to empirical research only scarcely (Mathieu and Zajac 1990).

Alternatively, employees who are committed to quality will be more oriented to delivering service quality to the customer. This is likely to have a positive impact on customers’ perceptions (Cespedes 1991; Howard 1990; Piercy and Morgan 1991; Reardon and Ennis 1990). This leads to the next hypotheses:

H₅: There will be a negative relationship between organizational commitment and customer perceived service quality.

H₆: There will be a positive relationship between commitment to quality and customer perceived service quality.

We are not aware of any literature on the relationship between organizational commitment and commitment to quality on the one hand and customer loyalty on the other hand. However, based on the hypothesized relationship between organizational commitment and perceived service quality and the hypothesized relationship between commitment to quality and customer loyalty together with the expected positive relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty, we formulate the following hypotheses:

H₇: There will be a negative relationship between organizational commitment and customer loyalty.

H₈: There will be a positive relationship between commitment to quality and customer loyalty.

Although prior resarch has not comprehensively examined the impact of service quality on customers’ behavioral intentions, we expect, in accordance with Parasuraman et al. 1994, service quality to have a positive correlation with customer loyalty. This leads to the final hypothesis:

H₉: There will be a positive relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty.

Figure 1 offers an overview of aforementioned relationships. In the next section we will report on the results of an empirical study designed to test these hypotheses within a retail context.

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Research setting

In this study we adopted an internal as well as an external focus on retail organizations. Within the retail organizations, we measured role stress, organizational commitment and commitment to quality. For this part, retail salespersons from seven major service providers in Belgium were interviewed on the basis of a structured questionnaire. Our sample included retail services associated with the marketing of goods (department stores, supermarkets, fast food) or #customer services’ as well as #pure’ services (entertainment, health care services) (Gr÷nroos 1983). In total, 148 retail sales persons were included in the study. Taking an external perspective, we measured customer perceived service quality and customer loyalty. For this part, approximately 100 customers were interviewed for each service provider with respect to their perception of the quality of service offered by the retail organization. In total, 708 retail customers participated in our study.

Questionnaire design

Role conflict and role ambiguity were measured by using the 14-item instrument developed by Rizzo et al. (1970). In this instrument role ambiguity is represented by 6 items and role conflict is measured by 8 items. Organizational commitment was operationalized using the 9-item version of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) proposed by Mowday et al. (1979) and orter et al. (1974). It has been pointed out by several authors that the 6 reverse-scored items do not assess organizational commitment, but rather turnover intention (Mathieu and Zajac 1990; Tett and Meyer 1993). Therefore, we reduced the 15-item original OCQ scale to a 9-item version, excluding the items measuring turn-over intention. Commitment to quality was measured in a similar manner. Instead of the organization as the object of commitment, service quality was denoted the object of commitment. This adaptation of the OCQ was suggested by Hartline and Ferrell (1993).

FIGURE 1

THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Perceived service quality was operationalized using the 22 item SERVPERF-instrument proposed by Cronin and Taylor (1992). This adaptation of the original SERVQUAL-instrument only incorporates the perception element of the original scale. Finally, customer loyalty was measured with three items of the most comprehensive behavioral intentions taxonomy to date proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1994). The customer loyalty cluster originally consists of six items from which we use the three with the highest item-total correlation for the cluster here: say positive things about XYZ to other people; recommend XYZ to someone who seeks advice and do more business with XYZ in the next few years. All items on the different scales were measured with a 9-point Likert type format.

Measurement Properties

As can be observed from Table 1, all scales exhibit a value of coefficient alpha exceeding 0.7, as suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994).

Data Analysis

This study used a cross-level design. In this design phenomena at one level affect those on another level (Klein et al. 1994; Rousseau 1978, 1985). In our study we distinguished two levels: (1) the organizational unit and (2) the individual retail employee. It was the purpose of our study to measure all constructs at the lowest possible level. However, perceived service quality and customer loyalty are not so much the result of an individual effort, but of the organizational unit as a whole. As a result, it might be extremely difficult to attribute perceived service quality and customer loyalty to particular retail employees. Therefore, we measured perceived service quality and customer loyalty at the level of the organizational unit. All other constructs were measured at the level of the individual retail employee. As suggested by Rousseau (1978), the individual retail employee should be the unit of analysis. For the organizational level this means that, average perceived service quality and customer loyalty scores were calculated for the 7 retail units. These mean scores were assigned to the corresponding individual retail employees. In other words, each employee in a particular unit had the same perceived service quality and customer loyalty score.

We used path analysis to test the aformentioned hypotheses. As published scales with favorable psychometric properties were used, we decided not to break the scales into several indicators (Schmitt and Bedeian 1982; Williams and Hazer 1986). Nevertheless, the potentially biasing effect of measurement error had to be taken into account (Bagozzi 1980 Bollen 1989; James et al. 1982; Kenny 1979). Therefore, we used an alternative approach as proposed by Williams and Hazer (1986). They suggest a two-stage process, in which the measurement model is first specified and then employed in the second stage when the structural model is estimated. More specifically, the reliabilities of the measured variables are used to specify the measurement model (cf. Kenny 1979; Loehlin 1987). The path from any construct to its indicator (l_ijX,Y) equals the square root of the reliability of the indicator and the error variance (d_i,e_i) equals one minus the reliability in the case of using a correlation matrix as input.

TABLE 1

MATRIX OF ZERO-ORDER CORRELATIONS

TABLE 2

RESULTS OF PATH ANALYSIS

A correlation matrix on the basis of listwise deletion of missing values was calculated using PRELIS (See also Table 1) and was used as input to LISREL 7. This program provides maximum likelihood estimates of the free parameters in the conceptual framework. The goodness-of-fit can be assessed using the corresponding c² statistic, the root mean square residual (RMSR) and several fit indices, such as the goodness-of-fit index (GFI) and the adjusted goodnes-of-fit index (AGFI) (Hu and Bentler 1995; J÷reskog and S÷rbom 1989). Apart form these absolute fit measures, we also used the value of the normed fit index (NFI) as proposed by Bentler and Bonnet (1980). This so-called incremental fit index is based on the comparison between the structural null model and the proposed model. The structural null model assumes no relation between the endogenous and exogenous variables (cf. William and Hazer 1986). More in particular, the NFI is defined as follows (Bentler and Bonett 1980):

EQUATION

The use of causal models is highly advocated by leading researchers in the field of organizational theory (Jackson and Schuler 1985; Van Sell et al 1981). Causal models allow to jointly test the effects of antecedents and outcomes of perceived service quality and are as such clearly preferable to correlation and regression analyses.

RESULTS

Table 2 summarizes the results of our analysis. From this table it can be observed that the proposed conceptual model shows an adequate fit to the data. The c² statistic equals 46.33 with 37 degrees of freedom (p=0.140) with GFI=0.942 and AGFI=0.896. The NFI equals 0.884 which approximates the recommended level of 0.9 (Bentler and Bonett 1980). Additionally, the RMSR has an acceptable value of 0.023. Further indications for the goodnes-of-fit are provided by an analysis of the fitted standardized residuals and the Q-plot (J÷reskog and S÷rbom 1989). Only 1 out of 65 fitted standardized residuals exceeds the absolute value of 2.58, which was proposed by J÷reskog and S÷rbom (1989) as a cut-off value. Visual inspection of the Q-plot corroborates our findings, as the residuals are grouped around a line of 45^o. Finally, the coefficient of determination of the structural model is 0.351. In other words, 35.1% of the variance is accounted for by the exogenous variables.

Although we foundan acceptable fit for the proposed model, we further modified the model in order to achieve a more parsimonious representation of the data (cf. McCallum 1986). To begin with, we deleted nonsignificant paths from the model. Next, we inspected the modification indices. These indicate the improvement in overall c² test that would be achieved if that parameter would be free. The resulting revised model (M₀₂) is presented in Figure 2. From Table 2 it can be seen that the c² value for M₀₂ is 46.81 with 40 degrees of freedom (p=0.213). The RMSR, the GFI, the AGFI and the NFI values nearly similar to those of model M₀₁. Furthermore, findings from the Q-plot are similar to Model M₀₁.

FIGURE 2

RESULTS FOR REVISED MODEL (M₀₂)

With regard to the antecedents of perceived service quality, the results indicated a negative association between perceived service quality and organizational commitment while a positive association was found between perceived service quality and commitment to quality. These results support hypothesis 5 and 6. The association between organizational commitment and role ambiguity was found to negative. There seemed to be no significant relationship between organizational commitment and role ambiguity. Also no significant relationship was found between commitment to quality and role conflict. While role ambiguity and a commitment to quality were negatively related. Hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 3 could be accepted while hypothesis 2 and 4 have to be rejected. Concerning the impact of organizational commitment and commitment to quality on customer loyalty, it was found that only commitment to quality has a significant but rather small positive relationship with customer loyalty. Therefore hypothesis 8 can be accepted, while hypothesis 7 has to be rejected. Finally the effect of perceived service quality on customer loyalty was found to be overwhelmingly positive. Therefore the results strongly support hypothesis 9: there is a positive relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty.

DISCUSSION

First, we will discuss the antecedents of perceived service quality in terms of organizational commitment, commitment to quality and the role stressors. Next we will discuss customer loyalty as the consequence of perceived service quality and the implication of the ultimate link between the role taking of the customer-contact personnel and customer loyalty.

There is a negative association between organizational commitment and perceived service quality. This is in contrast with the outcome of a study reported by Boshof and Mels (1995) who reported a positive causal path from organizational commitment to service quality. This difference in results may be accounted for in two ways. Boshof and Mels (1995) used management assessment of perceived service quality instead of evaluations by customers themselves which might explain the difference in results. Moreover, it has been argued that customer contact personnel with extensive boundary spanning activities (such as sales persons in retail selling) are more likely to be committed to constituencies whose interests may seem at odds with those of the organization (Johnston et al. 1990). These other commitment bonds may result in multiple commitments of retail sales persons to colleagues, professional norms and customers (Reichers 1985). The latter argument is supported by the positive impact of commitment to quality on customer perceived service as this type of commitment is more oriented toward the customer. Commitment to quality will help to reduce the different service gaps and ehance the delivery of quality services. Concerning the consequence of perceived service quality in terms of customer loyalty the strong positive relationship striking. An increase in perceived service quality is almost perfectly related to an increase in customer loyalty. This is in line with the findings of Parasuraman et al. (1994) and Boulding et al. (1993). It seems that perceived service quality is the key success factor to customer loyalty.

Role ambiguity is negatively associated with both organizational commitment and commitment to quality. This is in accordance with previous empirical findings. If employees think of organizational commitment as the net result of revenues minus costs, then higher degrees of role ambiguity would represent a cost which would eventually lead to weakened individual commitment bonds if returns from the organization remain constant (Michaels et al. 1988). Alternatively, less role ambiguity enables organizational members to define a clear commitment to service quality (Hartline and Ferrell 1993).

Role conflict does not seem to have an effect on organizational commitment, commitment to quality and perceived service quality. Several reasons for these results have been brought forward in the literature. Behrman and Perrault (1984) argue that aspects of conflict are inherent to sales positions and therefore independent of either formalization and empowerment. Singh and Rhoads (1991) has pointed out that role conflict cannot easily be controlled by management in terms of formalization and/or empowerment strategies. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that personal characteristics of sales persons (e.g., innovativeness, locus of control) offer a better explanation of role conflict (Behrman and Perrault 1984). Furthermore, Johnston et al. (1990) suggest that a moderate level of conflict may even be good for salespeople and therefore will not have a negative effect on their commitment to the organization. Finally, it has been argued that only those employees who can cope with role conflict will eventually stay in their boundary spanning positions (Goolsby 1992).

Commitment to the organization seems not a desirable objective as it has a negative impact on customer perceived service quality and customer loyalty. In a retail services setting, employees that are too committed to the organization might let the organization’s interest prevail over the customer’s. However, this does not mean that measures should be taken to decrease organizational commitment for the benefit of increasing perceived service quality. Other issues may be at stake, as organizational commitment has been shown to reduce employee’s intentions to leave (Williams and Hazer 1986). We need to know more about the organizational commitmentBperceived qualityBcustomer loyalty and how this operates in the context of retail services. On the other hand, our findings suggest that commitment to quality has a positive effect on service quality. While the two types of commitment incorporated in our study explain more than 20% of the variance in perceived service quality, the notion of a multiple commitment construct in retail setting merits further attention. Future research should examine other types of commitment (e.g., commitment to colleges, the department, the community, management vs. employee commitment to quality) and their potential and relative impact on perceived service quality.

The link between the role taking of the employees in terms of organizational commitment and commitment to quality and customer loyalty is almost non existing. Only a very small positive significant relationship between commitment to quality and customer loyalty could be detected. This seems to imply that neither organizational commitment nor commitment to quality of the employees has a direct impact on customer loyalty. However, both variables do have an indirect influence on customer loyalty through perceived service quality that might not be disregarded.

The overlap between perceived service quality and customer loyalty is striking. Perceived service quality seems to be the key to customer loyalty. Our results are in line with Boulding e al. (1993) and Parasuraman et al. 1994, although they are even somewhat more pronounced. This might be the result of the operattionalization of customer loyalty. We used a relatively narrow approach to customer loyalty, as we included a limited subset of the original scale by Parasuraman et al. (1994). Another explanation might be the setting of the study. Within a retail setting the relationship between perceived service quality and customer loyalty might be stronger as the result of the number of alternatives available and the low switching cost (Hirschman 1970).

Part of the strength of a research project lies in the recognition of its limitations. These limitations may serve as points for a future research agenda. For instance, we find a negative association between organizational commitment and perceived service quality. It should be investigated whether this relationship is moderated by variables, such as motivation and ability to work, personality, jobsatisfaction, etc. Limitations lie also in the compatibility of the procedure of structural equation modeling that was followed. Although the formulated model captures the observed relationships satisfactorily and allows us to test the hypotheses on the antecedents and consequences of perceived service quality, it should be noted that a statistical fit might also be achieved with models other than the ones we tested in our study. Despite of the fact that we used a multicompany sample, well-established multi-item composite measures and a dyadic (employee-customer) perspective, our findings are constrained by intricate artifacts due to sampling bias both at the organizational, employee and customer levels, measurement error and social desirability. Finally, our results need to be verified by longitudinal research designs and extended to service settings beyond retailing in order to provide evidence for the generalizability of our findings.

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

The managerial implications of our findings apply to antecedents and consequences of perceived service quality in retail organizations. Commitment to quality is a significant determinant of customer perceptions of service quality and customer loyalty. Service providers should undertake steps to increase this type of commitment among their employees. Previous research has suggested that an efficient way to encourage customer-oriented attitudes and behavior is to evaluate and reward this type of commitment (Reardon and Ennis 1990). More specifically this means establishing service quality performance criteria, monitoring of and providing individual and group feedback on service quality and customer loyalty establishing a recognition program containing both financial and non-financial rewards and integrating service quality in personnel development programs.

Organizational commitment is a variable that should be handled with care by service providers. Although is has a negative impact on perceived service quality and customer loyalty, the implications of lowering or disregarding organizational commitment might be hazardous in other ways. Service providers should develop training programs that focus both on organizational commitment as well as serving the customer well. Related to this it would be premature to formulate recommendations concerning the treatment of role ambiguity. The negative impact on commitment to quality seems beneficial in the end. This would implicate a recommendations of lowering role ambiguity. However, on the other hand the negative impact on organizational commitment might probably have a negative result in the end.

The major implication of this article is that perceived service quality seems to be the key success factor to customer loyalty. Increasing perceived srvice quality is the key to customer retention and asset efficiency. This implicates close monitoring of the expectations and perceptions of customer by market research and a direct implementation of adjustments that seem to be necessary by the service organization and her employees.

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