Contactless but loyal customers: The roles of anxiety and sociability in the hotel service context

Mingfei Li and Shanshan Huang

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2022, vol. 66, issue C

Abstract: To move their businesses in a positive direction, service providers are increasingly adopting contactless technologies. However, the influence of contactless service (CS) on important customer outcomes has been ignored. This study formulated a research framework to investigate the roles of customer anxiety and sociability in the relationship between CS and customer loyalty in the hotel setting. The findings revealed that CS is positively related to customer loyalty. Pandemic-related customer anxiety helps transit the positive impact of CS on customer loyalty. However, customer sociability dampens the effects of CS on customer loyalty. More specifically, as customer sociability increases, the positive impact of CS on customer loyalty decreases directly and indirectly via customer anxiety. Our findings provide novel contributions to the emerging CS literature by disclosing the psychological mechanisms under the “contactless effect†and the potential theoretical boundary condition. In addition, the findings deliver practicable benefits to service managers in fighting the COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords: Contactless service; Customer loyalty; COVID-19 pandemic; Customer anxiety; Customer sociability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:66:y:2022:i:c:s0969698922000030

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.102910

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