The Influence of Service Quality, Customer to Customer Interaction, Staff Warmth, Staff Competence and Interaction on Intention to Recommend: Case Study at a English Language Institute in Indonesia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether staff warmth and Competence and Customer to Customer interaction and service quality has positive influence to intention to recommend at a English Language Institute in Indonesia. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework is conduct with service quality, staff warmth and competence and customer to customer interaction, that has empirical study before which influence to intention to recommend. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research is a quantitative method and individual unit analysis and was conducted using Structured Equation Method (SEM) with Smart PLS 3.2.9 and the number of respondents was 152 respondents from students studying at LIA. Findings: The Service quality and staff warmth and competence and customer-to-customer interaction have a positive effect on the intention to recommend by 70.1%. Customer to customer interaction that influence the intention to recommend is the highest value of 32,8 % and also the staff warmth and competence has the second highest value of 31,2 %. Research, practical and social implications: The study found that customer to customer interaction has significantly influence the intention to recommend, so the institute has to control especially for the negative issues, and also the institute has to increase the capability from the staff and the lecturer. Originality/Value: The value of the study, at digital era especially in pandemic, the value tangible factor is very low, but the value of the staff warmth and competence and also customer to customer interaction is very high, because the customer is very easy to interact with other using digital platform.