Positive Interruptions in the Commercial Interaction: When Sellers Receive Unexpected Help: An Abstract

Abstract

Retailing is changing profoundly because of digitalization (Cascio and Montealegre 2016; Hagberg et al. 2016). Grewal and al. (2009) suggest that “retailers must assess every location; if it does not produce profit, the store will not be viable” (p. 1). Thus, it is important for retailers to improve the customer experience in order to promote loyalty and long-term relationships (Jones et al. 2006; Verhoef et al. 2009). However, because most retailers are open to the public, retailers do not have control over many aspects of the retail environment. In particular, customers interact with one another. There are a number of high-profile new stories in which customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions may be negative, such as the woman in a U.K. grocery store who attacked employees and other customers over a disagreement about social distancing. While negative interactions are more likely to generate news stories, there are also instances of positive C2C interactions.

Oftentimes customers interrupt one another to make nice comments or help each other. The literature on shopping task interruptions shows that interruptions vary in the extent to which they generate negative feelings (Niculescu et al. 2014). We propose that customer interruptions can benefit other customers in two ways. First, a customer can receive advice from another client. For example, one customer might explain how a product works or give an impromptu product review. It is likely that providing advice to other customers improves customer trust in the retailer and product, which then improves their customer satisfaction. Second, customers can make each other feel good by giving compliments, reducing cognitive dissonance or socializing with other customers. For instance, one customer might tell another that they look nice. This positive expression of emotions is likely to improve customer satisfaction via the process of emotional contagion, in which one person’s emotions spread to others (Hatfield et al. 1993).

This research aims to provide a better understanding of whether interruptions from other customers during a commercial interaction can have a positive impact on a focus customer’s retail satisfaction. In theory, customer-to-customer interruptions can impart useful information and positively impact customers’ emotional state. The findings show that imparting useful information does not lead to better satisfaction, but positive emotional messages improve customer satisfaction via emotional contagion. Interestingly, opposite gender interruptions that impart useful information appear to be viewed negatively and increase likelihood of leaving without making a purchase.