Exploring the role of fitness instructors’ interaction quality skills in building customer trust in the service provider and customer satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Research question

This study aimed to propose and test a model that depicts fitness instructors’ interaction quality (IQ) skills (i.e. technical, social and communication/listening) and their role in building customer trust in the service provider and customer satisfaction.

Research methods

Data were collected from a sample of customers of a national fitness chain in Greece. Structural equation modeling was used to establish the factorial validity of the scales and test the proposed model.

Results and findings

The results indicated that fitness instructors’ social and communication/listening skills positively relate to the development of customer trust in the service provider (fitness club). Furthermore, social skills were found to positively affect customer satisfaction. Nevertheless, technical skills did not have any impact either on customer trust in the service provider or on customer satisfaction. Finally, customer trust in the service provider was shown to be a key variable in the model since it partially mediated the relationship between social skills and customer satisfaction.

Implications

An in-depth understanding of fitness instructors’ skills, that improve the quality of interactions with customers, can guide fitness club managers to develop effective human resource policies in order to differentiate their organizations within competition, capitalizing on customer trust in the service provider and customer satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Interaction quality skills
• technical, social and communication/listening skills
• customer trust in the service provider
• customer satisfaction
• fitness industry
• Greece
• social

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The term ‘organizational frontlines’ is introduced by Singh et al. (2017) to signify the service organizations’ interaction with its customers as a distinctive and emergent field of study and a mechanism for value creation.