Informal Ties Scale (Customer–Employee)

What it measures

Three-item manager-rated scale measuring the strength of personal informal relationships between a firm’s customers and its customer-contact employees. Items capture whether customers and contact employees are friends, have good and trusting personal relationships, and have strong informal ties. Serves as a moderator of the effect of open downsizing communication on customer uncertainty.

Response format

7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree); manager-rated across the customer base

Scale items

• Typically, our customers and our customer-contact employees are often friends.
• Typically, our customers and our customer-contact employees have good and trusting personal relationships.
• Typically, our customers and our customer-contact employees have strong informal ties.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Composite reliability = .89; AVE = .73. Newly developed instrument. Strong informal ties moderated the communication–uncertainty relationship: open communication reduced customer uncertainty when informal ties were strong but increased it when ties were weak. Also a positive direct antecedent of perceived customer uncertainty (b = .369, p < .01) likely because customers with strong ties are more aware of downsizing.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Homburg, C., Klarmann, M., & Staritz, S. (2012). Customer uncertainty following downsizing: The effects of extent of downsizing and open communication. Journal of Marketing, 76(3), 112–129.

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