As the majority of industries have shifted to the age of maturity, it is not such an easy undertaking any more to create new customers. On account of this, companies are required to focus on maintaining long-term relationship with customers. In this r...
As the majority of industries have shifted to the age of maturity, it is not such an easy undertaking any more to create new customers. On account of this, companies are required to focus on maintaining long-term relationship with customers. In this regard, the data of American Customer Service Association demonstrated that attracting new customers cost five-times more compared to existing customers, and also found that when the churn rate decreased by 5%, the profit increased by 25% to 85% that can vary depending on industry, meanwhile when the churn rate decreased by 2%, ordinary cost price decreased by 10%. In this context, relationship quality serves a crucial factor, which is very important in maintaining consistent relationship with customers and designing service products.
Typically, as relationship quality is higher, customers have more reliability to service providers, which enabled customers to immerse themselves in the relationship and serve as a positive role such as favorable word of mouth and willingness to visit a store. Such relationship quality can stand for emergence of interactive combination where quality is formed in the relationship between customers and service providers, which indicates that a signature method is communication in process of service, and interaction. Notably, service industry has its characteristics that production simultaneously occurs with consumption. So is the food service enterprise, which requires interaction between customer and service provider, so that interaction through communication is very important in their relationship. This is because the quality of employees' communication is more important than any other things to enhance quality of interaction at the contacting point where customers and employees meet.
On the other hand, authenticity, one of the very important factors recognized by service companies, is a concept dealt with for a long time in philosophy and psychology, and it is actively discussed in recent years due to the advent of the ethics in companies. Such authenticity can be defined as coincidence of the inner state and behavior, which not only expands self-efficiency but also promotes the relationship at the contact point. The authenticity of service provider at the service contact point increases customer will to build long-term relationship with service providers, and positive expression in which authenticity is included exerts a positive effect on satisfaction and intimacy related to customer loyalty and revisit intention at the service contact point.
The reason why authenticity perceived by customers is important in service companies is that if customers perceive authenticity lacking at the customer contact point, negative evaluation and behavior can be caused. Namely, emotional expression lacking authenticity from a customer perspective can be recognized as falsified, which cannot cause a positive response from customers after all, and on the contrary to this, can bring out a positive response as customers perceive more authenticity. Today customers' desire for service authenticity increases, not wanting automated, mechanized inhumane service but wanting heartwarming service considering customers genuinely. Under these circumstances, authenticity is recognized as an essential factor that evaluates service quality and even companies. Therefore, authenticity of service provider perceived by customers can serve as moderating effect in the effect of verbal, non-verbal communication as a typical method in interacting with customers on relationship quality, a factor of determining consistency with customers.
This research herein aimed to investigate moderating effect of authenticity in relationship between effect on relationship quality, a determining factor of consistency with customers, and each of the factors, non-verbal communication (i.e. body language, paralanguage, spatial behavior and physical appearance), a tool that conveys non-verbal messages, not verbal messages including communicative verbal communication by using symbolized language. To accomplish this, a questionnaire survey was conducted for customers who has experience in foodservice companies in Seoul and Gyeonggi for 43 days from July 25, 2014 to September 5, 2014. Out of the 250 copies distributed, 218 copies were retrieved, and out of them, 21 copies in which some responses were omitted or filled in one direction were excluded for analysis. A total of 197 copies were used for analysis as final valid sample. Results derived from analysis are as follows.
First, when it comes to the effect of verbal communication of foodservice employees perceived by customers on relationship quality, verbal communication exerted a positive effect on reliability and commitment, a sub factor of relationship quality. This indicates that verbal communication serves as an important role in forming reliability on counterparts, and an important factor that affects relationship quality that represents consistence between foodservice companies and customers, which is consistent with previous studies that verbal communication is very significant in companies.
Second, when it comes to the effect of non-verbal communication of food service employees perceived by customers on non-verbal communication, the effect of body language, paralanguage, spatial behavior, and physical appearance as a subfactor of non-verbal communication on reliability a subfactor of relationship quality, paralanguage and spatial behavior alone affected reliability, and spatial behavior such as arrangement, general placement, and atmosphere affected reliability more that paralanguage such as speech speed and volume of employees. On the other hand, the effect of body language and physical appearance on reliability had no statistical significance. Apart from this, when it comes to the effect of body language, paralanguage, spatial behavior, and physical appearance as a subfactor of non-verbal communicat