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.

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.