Service Employee Social Competence

What it measures

Nine items assess a service employee's interpersonal and social competence, encompassing personalised attention, connection with the customer, willingness to go beyond expectations, and genuine character.

Response format

Response format not stated; likely 5- or 7-point

Scale items

• The employee connected to my life/experiences.
• The employee revealed personal information.
• The employee invited me to reveal personal information.
• The employee paid special attention to me.
• The employee went out of his/her way.
• The employee gave me a break (something special).
• The employee was truly out of the ordinary.
• The employee was his/her own person.
• The employee was genuine.

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

Usage notes & scoring

Items used by Dolen et al. (2002), originally developed by Price, Arnould, and colleagues. Alpha .92 (Dolen et al. 2002). Extraction produced 11 items with two duplicates ('The employee was his/her own person.' and 'The employee was genuine.') — the 9 unique items are retained here. Companion task competence scale measures technical performance.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Price, L. L., Arnould, E. J., & Tierney, P. (1995). Going to extremes: Managing service encounters and assessing provider performance. Journal of Marketing, 59(2), 83–97.

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