Examining the effect of salesperson service behavior in a competitive context
Ahearne, Michael Jelinek, Ronald Jones, Eli
Ahearne, Michael
Jelinek, Ronald
Jones, Eli
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Publication Type
Journal article
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2007-12
Journal
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
Book
Publication Volume
35
Publication Issue
4
Publication Begin page
603
Publication End page
616
Publication Number of pages
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Abstract
While few scholars debate the importance of doing things to improve the quality of the buyer–seller relationship, little is known about what salespeople can do after the point of the initial sale to enhance customer satisfaction and trust. On the basis of extensive exploratory interviews across professional selling domains, this research develops a set of behaviors, referred to here as “salesperson service behaviors.” Using data gathered from 358 customers, the authors empirically demonstrate the effect of these behaviors on customer satisfaction and trust and, ultimately, on an objective measure of customer share of market. The authors develop a competitive model that uniquely features customer evaluations of competing sales representatives. The results indicate that these salesperson service behaviors are important in building trust and customer satisfaction, which in turn lead to increases in customer share of market.
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Keywords
35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3503 Business Systems In Context, 3504 Commercial Services, 3506 Marketing, Behavioral and Social Science