Implications of physical attractiveness on time allocations from salesperson to customer

The purpose of this study was to determine if more attractive females—as compared to less attractive females—received better customer service in terms of time it took the salesperson to interact with the customer. The hypothesis was not supported; in fact, just the opposing outcome occurred. Less attractive females were served more promptly than attractive females. The study was performed in a mid-size city in the Midwest. Running head: IMPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS ON TIME ALLOCATIONS FROM SALESPERSON TO CUSTOMER 1 Implications of Physical Attractiveness on Time Allocations from Salesperson to Customer Physical attractiveness is a phenomenon that has been in existence as long as the human race, but only since the 1960s have the implications of physical attractiveness been subject to scrupulous scientific examination. The recent surge in the study of physical attractiveness effects can be partially attributed to increases in the effect of physical attractiveness in psychology, marketing, law, and the recent growth in the implications of beauty. In 1969, Elliot Aronson summarized the taboo in studying the effects of physical attractiveness in saying: “It is difficult to be certain why the effects of physical beauty have not been studied more systematically. It may be that, at some levels, we would hate to find evidence indicating that beautiful women are better liked than homely women.most social psychologists implicitly prefer to believe that beauty is indeed only skin deep—and avoid the investigation of its social impact for fear they might learn otherwise [p. 160]. ” Shortly thereafter, it seems as though the researching community interpreted Aronson’s statement as a challenge to satisfy its curiosity about the effects of physical attractiveness. Preliminary studies developed the underlying structure of future physical attractiveness studies to come. A notable study published in 1972 coined the “what is beautiful, is good” theory claiming that physically attractive people are perceived as having personalities that are more socially desirable and live a happier life than those persons who are less physically attractive (Dion et al., 1972). Studies in the field have evolved to focus more narrowly on the utilitarian benefits and setbacks of varying levels of physical attractiveness throughout the life cycle. Research has shown that attractiveness has an effect on hiring potential, level of pay, and even opportunity for climbing the corporate ladder (Hamermesh and Biddle, 1994). Finding a positive correlation Running head: IMPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS ON TIME ALLOCATIONS FROM SALESPERSON TO CUSTOMER 2 between high physical attractiveness and personal benefit, researchers found that entire organizations could benefit from a similar exploitation of beauty. While dozens of studies on physical attractiveness were being published, academia was also producing publications on business strategy operations, specifically customer service. A qualitative model for measuring service quality was developed in 1985 stating the ten determinants of service quality including: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding/knowing the customer, and tangibles (Parasuraman et al., 1985). Modified in 1988, the new SERVQUAL model became a quantitative measure of service quality and collected the former ten determinants into five categories, including: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy (Parasuraman et al., 1988). The same model was revised again in 1996 to specifically meet the service quality measurement needs in the retail store industry (Dabholkar et al., 1996). The retail store-specific SERVQUAL model is comprised of two tiers under the overall umbrella of retail service quality. The second tier under retail service quality includes: physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving, and policy. A third tier then extends to include the categories of appearance, convenience, promises, doing it right, inspiring confidence, and courteous/helpful (Dabholkar et al., 1996). The second-tier dimension of personal interaction in the retail service quality model of SERVQUAL correlates with the second-most important dimension from the original SERVQUAL model—assurance. Additional research expands on the idea that the personal interaction or service encounter is a key component in customer service quality perceptions and expectations by developing measurable components of personal interaction and service encounters. One of the Running head: IMPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS ON TIME ALLOCATIONS FROM SALESPERSON TO CUSTOMER 3 measurable components is communication time which accounts for 74 percent variability in customer perception (Soteriou & Chase, 1998; Kellogg & Chase, 1995).