Influence of salesperson characteristics and customer emotion on retail dyadic relationships

Abstract

Retail salespeople often serve as a critical nexus between retailers and their customers. Salespeople can provide information and service that assist customers during the purchase process. Through buye–seller interaction, salespeople conceivably will influence how customers feel when shopping; in essence, salespersons are likely to have an impact on customers' emotions. Prior research has found that customer emotions have beneficial effects for both the store and the salesperson. Although previous work has considered the effect store environment has on customer emotions, no extant research has examined how customer emotions emerge after interacting with salespeople or what the outcomes of those emotions are. Consequently, this paper examines potential precursors of customers' emotions that arise during interaction with retail sales personnel, as well as consequences of those emotions. A conceptual framework is developed, propositions are posited, and retail management and research implications are presented.