The effect of service providers’ facial hair on restaurant customers’ perceptions

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of the varying amounts of service providers’ facial hair (clean-shaven, light stubble, heavy stubble, light beard, and full beard) on participations’ perceptions of employee attractiveness, food handling issues, cleanliness, personal hygiene, as well as customer satisfaction, and loyalty within the restaurant context. A one-way ANOVA analysis was performed on a total of 514 U.S. consumers to examine the differences in their responses to the amounts of service providers’ facial hair. This research also employed a between-subjects 5 (types of facial hair) × 2 (individual preference for facial hair vs. individual no particular preference for facial hair) experimental design. The results revealed that there were significant differences in all five of the constructs for amounts of facial hair. There were also interaction effects between the amount of a service provider’s facial hair and customer’s individual preference for facial hair on the dependent variables (except for satisfaction). Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.