The effects of companies’ face mask usage on consumers’ reactions in the service marketplace

Abstract

Purpose Face masks have been integrated into daily life and come to signify different meanings due to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on social perception and attribution theories, this paper investigates the possible additional benefits of face mask use in the service marketplace by understanding how consumers react to the new social norm. Design/methodology/approach Four experimental studies were run across different service contexts. Study 1 examines consumers’ evaluation of a service promotion when an employee wears a face mask; Study 2 focuses on the impact of face mask usage on salesperson credibility and service satisfaction; Studies 3 and 4 investigate the consequences of not using face masks on consumers’ intention to spread positive word-of-mouth for the service provider. Findings The results revealed that the presence of a face mask in a service promotion determined a higher level of service liking, while in a service encounter, it led to a higher level of salesperson credibility, which then positively affected consumer satisfaction. Finally, the non-utilization of a face mask negatively affected consumer intention to spread positive word-of-mouth about the service provider, even when the social norm is to not wear one. Originality/value The manuscript adds to research on salespeople appearance and tries to understand consumers’ reactions toward face mask use in the services sector, as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, few empirical studies in the service marketing literature have investigated the topic so far. Findings also provide useful insights that can further promote companies’ adoption of face masks beyond the COVID-19 emergency.

Filling in the gaps: a service ecosystem perspective on purchase groups as interstitial markets

“…Only a small volume of work has tried to take a longer time horizon into account. Examples include Pichierri and Petruzzellis' (2022) experimental studies on the effect of employee mask usage on consumer evaluations during different waves of the pandemic and Dahl et al's (2023) pre-and post-lockdown study of consumers' anticipatory value-in-use for digital health services. Similarly, Hwang et al (2022) illustrated how the pandemic exacerbated the impact of customer incivility on frontline service employees, while Liu et al (2023) noted how service firms' digital platform capability improved their resilience over more than a year of dealing with the pandemic.…”

“…First, by providing a narrative understanding of a service marketing adaptation that continues to persist in the post-pandemic market landscape, our work adds to research looking at long-term implications of the pandemic (e.g. Dahl et al, 2023;Pichierri and Petruzzellis, 2022) as well as other qualitative work focused on providing a more thematic understanding of changes brought about by the pandemic (e.g. Guthrie et al, 2021;Ratten et al, 2021).…”

“…Only a small volume of work has tried to take a longer time horizon into account. Examples include Pichierri and Petruzzellis’ (2022) experimental studies on the effect of employee mask usage on consumer evaluations during different waves of the pandemic and Dahl et al. ’s (2023) pre- and post-lockdown study of consumers’ anticipatory value-in-use for digital health services.…”

“…The first is the relative paucity of work looking at long-term changes in service contexts because of the pandemic. While scholars have studied immediate consumer responses to the pandemic, such as hoarding, panic buying, or switching to online shopping (Ahmadi et al, 2021;Guthrie et al, 2021;Islam et al, 2021;Laato et al, 2020), the longer term picture, barring a few exceptions (e.g., Dahl et al, 2023;Pichierri and Petruzzellis, 2022), is limited. Second, hardly any work provides a narrative understanding of service marketing adaptations made during the pandemic.…”

“…, 2020), the longer term picture, barring a few exceptions (e.g., Dahl et al. , 2023; Pichierri and Petruzzellis, 2022), is limited. Second, hardly any work provides a narrative understanding of service marketing adaptations made during the pandemic.…”