The Effects of Attractiveness of Service Employee’s on Interpersonal Trust, Satisfaction and Loyalty

Abstract

Purpose - Most past studies related to this focused on the physical attractiveness of service employees, but this study emphasizes the social attractiveness and not just the physical attractiveness of employees. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to first categorize attractiveness as physical attractiveness and social attractiveness and to examine the impact of physical attractiveness on social attractiveness for service industry employees. Secondly, this study aimed at verifying the impact of physical attractiveness and social attractiveness on interpersonal trust. Third, it aimed at revealing the impact of interpersonal trust on customer satisfaction, as well as satisfaction on loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology - Questionnaires were distributed to customers that used beauty salon services, among the various service industries, to verify the hypothesis of this study. Also, hypothesis was analyzed with the structural equation method using Amos 20.0. Results - When presenting the results on verifying the research hypothesis, it was found that physical attractiveness had a positive impact on social attractiveness. Second, while physical attractiveness did not have a positive impact on interpersonal trust, social attractiveness was found to have a positive impact on interpersonal trust. Such results show that in forming interpersonal trust, social attractiveness was more important than physical attractiveness for service industry employees. This result is in contrast with the results of past studies, but it is different in that previous studies suggested only physical attractiveness and did not present social attractiveness in the hypothesis. Third, it was found that interpersonal trust had a positive impact on satisfaction, while satisfaction did not have a positive impact on loyalty. Conclusions - The biggest implication of this study is that it presented social attractiveness, which was rarely dealt with in past studies. Also, this study is significant in that it examined the relationship of physical attractiveness and social attractiveness. The results of this study show that in the service industry, the role of human elements such as service employees is important and that in addition to physical attractiveness, social attractiveness in the course of interaction such as communication with customers can also be an important strategic element.