The influence of salesperson trust on customer behaviour

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of salesperson trust and commitment on store trust, satisfaction and customer purchase intention. Interpersonal relationships between retail salespeople and the customers form a very critical and important aspect in ensuring repeated customer purchase intentions. This study investigates a five-variable conceptual model to test these relationships on person-to-person level. The five variables are investigated in depth on the basis of the model. The target population is retail consumers from whom data was collected and analysed through descriptive analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and path modelling. The results proved to be reliable, valid and significant with the overwhelming majority showing that salesperson trust and commitment indeed influence store trust and satisfaction. These findings further reveal that where an interpersonal relationship exists on the basis of trust, commitment and satisfaction, there is an inclination towards repeat purchases. This provides further evidence of the value of generating and maintaining interpersonal relationships between salespeople and customers.