Customer-to-Customer Social Bond Scale

What it measures

Measures the strength of a customer's social bond with other patrons at a specific retail or service location. Like its companion scale (CESBS), it is location-specific — capturing attachment to the people who frequent a particular venue rather than customers across a chain or in general. Developed within a sense-of-place framework where social bonds with fellow customers represent a dimension of place attachment that drives loyalty behaviours.

Response format

7-point Likert-type

Scale items

• The customer relationships I have in this place are important to me.
• The customers in this place are like family.
• I feel a social connection to the customers at this place.
• I have a bond with the customers at this place.
• I am not willing to go to another place because of the relationships I have with the customers here.
• I have a special relationship to the customers that visit this place.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Authors referred to this as the 'social bonds with customers' scale. Used in Study 2 only (n=907). CFA confirmed good model fit; convergent and discriminant validity supported. AVE = .82. Reliability is attenuated. Scale is location-specific — not a measure of general bonding tendency with customers or attachment across a chain. The word 'customers' in the items can be substituted with 'members', 'patrons', or similar terms to suit non-retail contexts. Companion scale: Customer-Employee Social Bond Scale (CESBS, ID 585), from the same paper.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Brocato, E.D., Baker, J., & Voorhees, C.M. (2015). Creating consumer attachment to retail service firms through sense of place. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(2), 200-220.

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