Title: An empirical study on apparel retail service quality and its impact on customer loyalty in specialty store

Authors: N. Prakash; R. Somasundaram; V. Krishnamoorthy

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, Erode, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Management Studies, Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, Erode, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Management Studies, Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, Erode, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine the different dimensions of retail service quality (RSQ) in the apparel retail store and its impact on customer loyalty. About 250 retail apparel store customers in Tirupur were surveyed by implementing the questionnaire method. Structural equation model (SEM) was used to examine the impact of different dimensions of retail service quality factors on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The study acknowledged the five important RSQ factors (personal aspects, reliability, personal interaction, policy and problem solving) and proved that there is a relationship between the RSQ factors and customer satisfaction and not associated with customer loyalty. From this study it is inferred that most of the customers are satisfied with services of apparel stores, those satisfied are not loyal customers. Therefore, the article recommends that the management of apparel retail stores should design effective policy to retain customers.

Keywords: apparel retail store; customer satisfaction; retail service quality; RSQ; customer loyalty; structural equation model; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2018.093515

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2018 Vol.30 No.4, pp.505 - 519

Received: 01 Mar 2016
Accepted: 28 Oct 2016
Published online: 27 Jul 2018 *

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