Predicting Personal Loyalty to a Service Worker

Abstract

The role of trust and commitment in the prediction of a customer's personal loyalty to an individual service worker was investigated. Personal loyalty was defined as a customer's level of attachment to and exclusive use of a service individual. It was measured by the customer's attitude or relative attitude towards the service worker (relative to other service workers he/she is aware of, or has experienced in the service delivery), and the customer's level of exclusive use of the service worker over a defined period of time.

The hairdressing context provided a research setting in which personal loyalty could exist. Multiple linear regression found that customer commitment to the hair stylist and the dimensions of trust (perceived credibility and benevolence of the hair stylist) were significant indicators of personal loyalty when attitude was used to derive the personal loyalty index. In contrast, when relative attitude was used to construct the personal loyalty index, only commitment and the credibility dimension of trust were significant indicators. The two personal loyalty indices were found to be significantly different from each other. Both personal loyalty indices were effective in predicting customer loss in the event that the hair stylist was to move to another nearby salon