The role of emotion in the relationship between customers and automobile salespeople

This study examines potential precursors, as well as consequences, of customers' emotions that arise during interaction with automobile salespeople. Perceived attributes of a particular automobile salesperson in the automobile purchasing process are proposed to have an impact on customer emotions. Emotion is posited to affect customers' relationship satisfaction and intention to remain in the relationship. The findings reveal that certain characteristics of automobile sales personnel do indeed influence customer emotion. Automobile salesperson trustworthiness, empathy, and professional appearance are observed to be positively related to customers' positive emotion. An inverse association between automobile sales-person trustworthiness and accessibility, and customers' negative emotion is shown. In addition, both positive and negative customer emotion are found to be related to relationship satisfaction. Results further indicate that customers are more likely to maintain their relationship with the automobile salesperson when they are more satisfied with that relationship.