The influence of salesperson psychological attributes on customers’ performances

Abstract

This study comprehensively investigates the influence of salesperson attributes (customer orientation, role obviousness, role conflict, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment) on customer’ performances (service quality, service value, satisfaction, and loyalty). We use a survey of 160 salespersons working at department stores for the salesperson variables, and 160 of their customers, for the customer variables. We integrate their responses in one-to-one matches. To test our hypotheses proposed on the premise that salespersons influence customers, we use four-stage multiple regression models on the 152 responses. We exclude eight responses owing to missing values. Salesperson attributes explain 23% of the variance in service quality, 33% of the variance in service value, 39% of the variance in customer satisfaction, and 25% of the variance in customer loyalty. Customer orientation and job satisfaction positively influence service quality. Customer orientation and job satisfaction positively influence service value. Customer orientation and role obviousness positively influence customer satisfaction. Customer orientation and organizational commitment positively influence customer loyalty. We confirm that salespersons influence customers, not fully, but partially, to the substantial extent. We explicate some rationales for the intriguing non-significant results and suggest further research directions. Key words: Customer orientation, role obviousness, role conflict, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, service quality, service value, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty.