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The cost (and the value) of customer attire: linking high- and low-end dress styles to service quality and prices offered by service employees

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  • Iris Vilnai-Yavetz
  • Shaked Gilboa

Abstract

This study tests the impact of customer dress on the price of goods and services offered and on service quality. Mystery shoppers visited stores in three different business contexts. For each context, 30 mystery shoppers paid three visits each, once in sloppy, once in casual, and once in fashionable attire. Supporting research hypotheses, dress had conflicting effects on employees: customers wearing fashionable/casual clothing received better service than those dressed sloppily, while the latter were offered goods and services at lower prices. The findings imply that organizations should reconsider their customer discrimination policies, and engage customers in developing accepted dress codes. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Iris Vilnai-Yavetz & Shaked Gilboa, 2014. "The cost (and the value) of customer attire: linking high- and low-end dress styles to service quality and prices offered by service employees," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 8(2), pages 355-373, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:svcbiz:v:8:y:2014:i:2:p:355-373
    DOI: 10.1007/s11628-013-0199-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Dana Yagil & Hana Medler-Liraz, 2019. "The effect of customer social status and dissatisfaction on service performance," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(1), pages 153-169, March.
    2. Sung-Bum Kim & Seunghwan Lee & Dae-Young Kim, 2018. "The effect of service providers’ facial hair on restaurant customers’ perceptions," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 12(2), pages 277-303, June.

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