Employee Helpfulness and Responsiveness Quality

What it measures

Three items with semantic differential and rating formats assess a customer's evaluation of a specific service employee's helpfulness and responsiveness during a store visit. The first two items use bipolar adjective pairs while the third assesses whether the customer had a fair chance to explain their problem. The scale is particularly suited to repair and returns service contexts.

Response format

7-point semantic differential / rating scale

Scale items

• extremely helpful / not at all helpful
• had a good attitude / had a poor attitude
• Were you given a fair chance to explain the problems to __________? very much / not at all

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

Usage notes & scoring

Scale items were provided through personal correspondence with the lead author. The name of the specific employee should be placed in each blank. No formal validity examination was reported. The mixed format (semantic differential and Likert-type rating) should be noted when replicating the scale.

Citation

Hui, M. K., Zhao, X., Fan, X., & Au, K. (2004). When does the service process matter? A test of two competing theories. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(2), 465–475.

Keywords