As competition in the service industry intensifies, companies and related workers are also striving to increase their own value by focusing on
customer-centered management and providing service products that meet customer needs. In these service indu...
As competition in the service industry intensifies, companies and related workers are also striving to increase their own value by focusing on
customer-centered management and providing service products that meet customer needs. In these service industries, services are created in a physical environment, and internal environmental factors in stores where customers interact affect the psychological environment of the customers, which in turn influences their purchasing decisions. Customer orientation refers to a customer-centric strategy that places the customer at the center of all business activities and decision-making, prioritizing customer needs. It is a very important factor to understand and respond to the services that customers require. In other words, customer orientation helps service providers understand customers' active needs, provide the services they want, and enable them to make satisfactory purchasing decisions.
Servicescape refers to the physical environment that provides a number of types of services for this purpose, and should be designed so that interaction between service providers and customers can occur smoothly and both parties can be satisfied.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the servicescape of manual therapy shops on customers' revisit intentions, examining both the individual and dual mediating roles of emotional responses and customer relationship continuity. It also aimed to verify the moderating effects of age and usage period on the relationships among customer relationship continuity, servicescape, and revisit intentions.
An online survey was conducted with adults residing in Seoul and the metropolitan area who had visited manual therapy shops. Out of a total of 410 respondents, 407 valid responses were analyzed.
The main results of this study are as follows:
First, the sub-factors of servicescape—modernity, cleanliness, convenience, customer responsiveness, and professionalism—had significant positive effects on revisit intentions, with customer responsiveness and cleanliness showing the strongest influences.
Second, the modernity, convenience, customer responsiveness, and professionalism of the servicescape significantly and positively affected
customers' emotional responses. Among these, customer responsiveness and professionalism showed relatively stronger effects.
Third, customers' emotional responses had a significant direct positive impact on revisit intentions.
Fourth, emotional responses significantly mediated the relationship between servicescape factors and revisit intentions.
Fifth, servicescape factors significantly influenced customer relationship continuity, with professionalism and customer responsiveness identified as particularly important.
Sixth, within customer relationship continuity, emotional factors had a greater influence on revisit intentions compared to cognitive factors.
Seventh, customer relationship continuity was found to mediate the relationship between servicescape factors and revisit intentions.
Eighth, positive emotional responses also had a significant positive impact on cognitive customer relationship continuity.
Ninth, a dual mediating effect involving emotional responses and customer relationship continuity was confirmed between servicescape factors and revisit intentions.
Tenth, the moderating effect of the service usage period was observed in the relationship between customer relationship continuity and revisit
intentions, as well as in the relationship between the modernity and convenience of servicescape and revisit intentions.
This study contributes academically by expanding the concept of servicescape within the specific context of manual therapy shops and
clarifying complex relationships among customer behaviors. Practically, it provides useful management guidelines for shop operators. However,
limitations exist, including sample representativeness, a concentration of older respondents, and reliance on self-reported data. Future research should focus on securing more diverse samples and implementing longitudinal study designs.