Personnel Service, Consumption Emotion, and Patronage Intention in Department Stores

This paper explains customer patronage intention by analyzing the relationships among personnel service, consumption emotion and patronage intention. The findings are as follows: (1) customers’ perceptions of the reflection and assurance of personnel service significantly influence their consumption emotion. Reflection and assurance significantly influence happiness, dominance and arousal. However, the influence of reflection is negative, meaning customers who perceive stronger reflection from service personnel feel lower consumption emotion when shopping for relaxation; (2) customers’ perceptions of the consumption emotions of happiness and arousal significantly influence their patronage intention. That is, the more happiness and arousal customers feel, the more patronage intention they exhibit; (3) Consumption emotion mediates between personnel service and patronage intention. This research not only improves understanding of customer patronage intention, but also provides management guidance for department store operators.