The effect of service contact personnel attributes on customer satisfaction and purchase intention

The aim of the article. The aim of this study is to examine the main and interactive effects of four service contact personnel attributes (physical attractiveness, displayed emotion, helpfulness or appropriateness of dress of service contact personnel). In this research, we conduct to test the effects of service contact personnel attributes on customer satisfaction and purchase intention in sport store services.The results of the analysis. In this research we used two methods for examination of effect of service contact personnel attributes on customer satisfaction and purchase intention. In study 1, using experimental method the data of 960 students in Tehran universities, Iran was collected by scenario-based questionnaire. The result shows the service contact personnel physical attractiveness, displayed positive emotion, and helpfulness all positively influenced customer satisfaction and purchase intention. But appropriateness of dress did not positively influence on customer satisfaction.In study 2, using the survey method the data of 264 customer of sport store in Tehran, Iran was collected by questionnaire. The results show service contact personnel displayed positive emotion, appropriateness of dress and helpfulness all positively influenced customer satisfaction. But physical attractiveness did not positively influence on customer satisfaction. Displayed positive emotion, appropriateness of dress and helpfulness all positively influenced on purchase intention except Service contact personnel physical attractiveness.The results show interactions among the four service contact personnel attributes. The displayed positive emotion is important than appropriate of dress and helpfulness is the most important of attributes of service contact personnel.Conclusions and directions of further researches. The novelty point of this study is to illuminate the impact and interaction of Service contact personnel Attributes on Customer Satisfaction and Purchase Intention for the first time based on the background of Iranian culture. Totally, for enhancing customer satisfaction and purchase intention to ensure the success of retention strategies is highly dependent on the effectiveness of frontline employees specially helpfulness is the most important of these attributes.