Effects of service quality and salesperson

1. Forster 285
Vision
17(4) 285–292
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DOI: 10.1177/0972262913505370
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Introduction
Relationship marketing has come to exist as an alternate
to building and retaining customer loyalty. Traditional
marketing models with a focus on capturing market share
are found wanting in building a stronger customer fran-
chisee. Brand management dominated the strategic land-
scape for some period of time and posited about delivering
differential value to customers. But of late, a lot of focus
is on using relationship marketing strategies to retain cus-
tomers and increase their life time value. A good customer
relationship management programme helps in building
consumer loyalty, increases life time value of customers
and brings greater accountability to marketing spend.
Literature Survey
A good customer relationship management programme in
services demands higher quality of service delivery
(Leonard and Sassar, 1982; Parasuraman et al., 1985).
Service quality model (Parasuraman et al., 1985) brings a
classical gap analysis between customer’s expectations
and company perception of customer expectations. This
model highlights four important gaps namely differences
between consumer expectations and management percep-
tions of consumer expectations, management perceptions
of consumer expectations and service quality specifica-
tions, service quality specifications and the service quality
delivered and service delivered and what is communicated
about the service to the consumers. Zeithaml (1988)
conducted qualitative research to explore the factors that
affect the magnitude and direction of each of the above
gaps. In both the above studies, service quality is treated as
a dependent variable. In this study, the author proposes
service quality to be an independent variable which plays
a role in influencing consumer’s perception about service
representative characteristics, relationship commitment
and trust.
Personal characteristics of customer service repre-
sentatives also influence the relationship commitment and
trust for service firms. By characteristics, we do not mean
the typical socio-demographic characteristics of the service
representatives. Two characteristics namely expertise and
power are taken as constructs in this study. Customers
Article
Effects of Service Quality and Salesperson
Characteristics on Consumer Trust and
Relationship Commitment: An Empirical
Study on Insurance Buyers in India
Tapan K. Panda
Abstract
This research article explores the effect of service quality and salesperson characteristics on consumer trust and relationship
commitment among life insurance buyers in India. Earlier research on service quality has revealed five key dimensions that influence
levels of consumer satisfaction. This article explores how ‘service quality’ as an independent variable influences consumer’s trust and
relationship commitment. Earlier studies have explored organizational shared values on consumer trust and relationship commitment
but no study in Indian context reveals how salesperson characteristics affect consumer trust and commitment. In this article the author
has conceptualized two models (a) linking service quality with consumer trust and relationship commitment and (b) service quality
with salesperson characteristics, consumer trust and commitment to study mediating and direct effects of independent variables on
the dependent variables in the context of term life insurance policies in Indian market by applying structural equation modelling. The
study identifies the strength and direction of these relationships and has a significant bearing in developing future relationship marketing
programmes for insurance marketing companies in India.
Key Words
Service Quality, Salesperson Characteristics, Consumer Trust, Relationship Commitment, Structural Equation Modelling, AMOS.

2. 286 An Empirical Study on Insurance Buyers in India
Vision, 17, 4 (2013): 285–292
tend to trust a service representative more when he shows
expertise on the matter of purchase. Trust based on service
representatives expertise focuses on expectancy held by a
person that the person’s word or written statement can be
relied on (Lindskold, 1978). Though a capability process,
a salesperson’s expertise build’s a consumer’s trust by
increasing its confidence that a salesperson can deliver on
his promise. Customers view sales people with higher
levels of perceived expert power as more trustworthy
(Busch and Wilson, 1976). Perceived expertise of an insur-
ance salesperson is a significant predictor of customer trust
(Crosby et al., 1990). The second construct is ‘power’. A
salesperson’s power is defined as the customer’s belief that
the salesperson is capable of providing the promised
outcome that matches to the promise of the salesperson.
Power can help in increasing trust by means of capability
process (Swan and Nolan, 1985).
Trust has assumed a central role in relationship
marketing literature (Dwyer et al., 1987, Morgan and Hunt,
1994). The concept of trust revolves around trust on the
organization and trust on the salesperson. However they
are treated as two different constructs in trust literature.
A long term relationship with an organization can be in
trouble if a lower or no trust worthy salesperson is involved
in transaction. Similarly higher trust worthy sales people
may preserve customer commitment during difficult times
which may appear against the customer’s best interest in a
shorter period of time (Kelley and Kerwin, 1992; Schiller,
1992). Trust is defined as the perceived credibility and
benevolence of a target of trust (Ganeshan, 1994; Kumar,
Scheer and Steenkamp, 1995). The first dimension of trust
is an objective credibility of the organization including
people who represent them. The second dimension of
benevolence is the extent to which one member is genuinely
interested in the other member’s welfare and is motivated
for a symbiotic gain.
Presence of relationship commitment and trust is
central to the idea of successful relationship marketing
(Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Though level of power and
ability to influence the other partner’s decision making
can force a relationship building process, but it is not
long term in nature. Commitment and trust are key because
they encourage marketers to work at preserving relation-
ship investments by cooperating with exchange partner;
resist attractive short term alternatives in favour of the
expected long term benefits of staying with existing
partners and view potentially high risk actions as being
prudent because of the belief that their partners will not act
opportunistically (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Commitment
to the relationship is defined as an enduring desire to
maintain a valued relationship (Moorman et al., 1992). So
a relationship exists when the relationship is important
to both the partners and it demands both parties to put
concerted effort to maintain and protect this relationship
for future and long term benefit.
There is hardly any study that makes one understand the
inter relationships between service quality, personal
characteristics of the salesperson, relationship commitment
and trust in Indian context. The detail literature survey
could not find out any study that assesses the interplay of
these factors in the context of insurance selling in India.
Objectives and Importance
of the Study
The objective of this study is to understand and empirically
examine how consumer’s perception of service quality
impacts trust and how consumer’s trust impacts relationship
commitment in insurance industry. The study also aims to
find out how personal characteristics play a role in the
above relationships. Indian insurance industry has woken
up to free market competition in recent past. The dominant
player in this segment is Life Insurance Corporation of
India (LIC) which holds almost 90 per cent of the market
share in life insurances. However many banks and other
financial institutions have tied up with multi-national
players and have created joint ventures like PnbMetlife,
Bajaj Alianz, Birla Sunlife and others. Insurance being a
high involvement, long term and non-tangible product in
the market place relies heavily on quality sales force who
tries to establish trust and commitment among customers.
Since insurance buying is a long term engagement and
switching cost is very high, trust and commitment are
important factors in shaping the direction and intensity of
relationship. This study will develop a strong grounding in
understanding insurance selling business and help in
strategizing future success of new generation insurance
marketers in India.
Research Design
Based on the literature survey, the researcher postulates a
theoretical model. Data collected from market survey are
used to validate the model through application of structural
equation modelling technique. The findings of this study
will throw new light into the inter-relationship among these
constructs and suggest any new relationship in Indian
context. The researcher then develops an extended model
based over the results of the first level of analysis. The first
model studies the causal effect of service quality on trust
and in turn the effect of trust on relationship commitment.
The second model adds on the personal characteristics of
the salesperson as a mediating variable. These models are
tested over a large sample of buyers of insurance products
(see models in Figures 1 and 2). Corresponding to each of
the models developed for the study, a list of hypotheses
is generated for testing them in the subsequent stages of
research.

3. Tapan K. Panda 287
Vision, 17, 4 (2013): 285–292
Figure 1.
Source: Author’s research.
Figure 2.
Source: Author’s research.
Hypotheses for Model-1
Ha1: Service quality positively affects relationship
commitment
Ha2: Service quality positively affects consumer trust
Ha3: Consumer trust positively affects relationship
commitment
Hypotheses for Model-2
Hb1: Service quality positively affects the personal
characteristics of salesperson
Hb2: Salesperson characteristics positively affect rela-
tionship commitment
Hb3: Salesperson characteristics positively affect con-
sumer trust
Hb4: Consumer trust positively affects relationship
commitment
As there are no previous studies available in India
on the above proposed models for testing their appli-
cations in insurance business, the key constructs selected
for measurement are service quality, consumer trust,
salesperson characteristics and relationship commitment.
The researcher has adopted definition and measurement of
service quality from the seminal work of service quality
dimensions (Parasuraman et al., 1985) by taking all the
five dimensions namely reliability, tangibility, assurance,
empathy and responsiveness. Reliability is the insurance
company’s ability to fulfil the promise for delivering
assured quality of service; tangibility is the financial
performance and dividend history of the insurance
company as well as outward appearance of the sales
person; assurance is the professional knowledge possessed
and courtesy exhibited by salesperson during customer
contacts and is judged by the consumer’s comfort level in
the sales promise; empathy measures the degree to which
the customer feels that salesperson really cares about the
customers; finally responsiveness is the salesperson’s
ability to provide quicker and accurate service. The
component of trust reflects consumer’s perception of the
salesperson’s trustworthiness and integrity.
The salesperson’s characteristic is measured by using a
scale based on salesperson’s expertise, power, likeability,
similarity, frequency of contact with customers, social
interaction with salesperson, length of relationship with
sales people and trust of salesperson (Doney and Cannon,
1997). This scale is modified to suit to requirements of a
business to consumer situation as the original scale was
developed for organizational buying situation. Relation-
ship commitment is represented as consumer’s perceived
importance of maintaining quality transactional relation-
ships with the company (Jih et al., 2007).
The questionnaire involves items obtained from litera-
ture survey and made relevant to the context of this
research. The instrument was tested for validity and relia-
bility. The final version of the instrument had 15 questions
on service quality, 31 items on personal characteristics and
3 each on consumer trust and relationship commitment. At
the first phase of the study service quality dimensions were
reduced to 5 from the 15 items and personal characteristics
were reduced from 31 to 8 items by applying factor analy-
sis. The reliability of data is measured by the Cronbach’s
alpha. Validity of the instrument is tested by correlation
analysis and a second stage Confirmatory Factor Analysis
(CFA). The theoretical models proposed for this study
are tested by using AMOS. The final questionnaire was
administered over 750 respondents and 663 samples were
eligible for analysis after data editing for completeness,
consistency and illegibility (see Tables 1 and 2).
The next important task is to measure the research
constructs for their reliability, convergent and discriminant
validity. This is essentially done to test the adequacy of the
instrument for explaining the causation. The two phase
confirmatory factor analysis is used for testing construct

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Table 2. Measure and Key Summary Statistics of Salesperson Characteristics
Construct Question Item
Scale
Mean
Standard
Deviation
Scale Reliability
(Cronbach’s alpha)
Salesperson Expertise The salesperson is very knowledgeable
5.76
1.11 0.89
The salesperson knows his insurance product
This salesperson has no knowledge on products
Salesperson power The salesperson has power to get his offer through his
organization
4.35
1.23 0.769
The salesperson is one of the most best in the company
The salesperson has clout inside his organization
Salesperson likeability The salesperson is friendly
4.27
1.27 0.93
The salesperson is always nice to customers
This salesperson is someone we would like to meet us very often
Salesperson similarity This salesperson shares similar interest like us
4.78
1.04 0.91
The salesperson has values similar to us
The salesperson is very similar to people in our family
Frequent Contact with
Customers
The salesperson frequently visits our place
4.65
1.39 0.89
The salesperson takes lots of time in learning about needs
The sales people takes lots of time in understanding our
family members
Table 1. Service Quality Measurement, Construct Reliability, Convergent and Discriminant Validity
Constructs Question Items
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Reliability
Cronbach’s alpha
Stage-1 Stage-2
SSC t-value SSC t-value
Reliability We received satisfactory sales service at first visit 0.738 B
0.869 8.965 0.789The company reliably provides customer service 0.754 12.28
The company fulfills the promises that it makes
to its customers
0.699 13.98
Tangibility The brochures and leaflets are good and factual
in nature
0.698 10.98
B 0.776Companies printed material and online displays
are easily comprehended
0.781 B
The sales representative is well dressed and
presentable
0.654 11.87
Assurance The behaviour of sales people are trustworthy
towards customers
0.651 B
The transactions are secured as per customer’s
understanding
0.766 13.28
The sales people answer customer questions in
a professional manner
0.687 14.76 0.796 9.655 0.698
Empathy The salespeople show genuine concern for
customer’s investments
0.876 B
0.839 9.673 0.873The salesperson is able to satisfy specific customer
needs
0.775 15.91
The salesperson shows empathy explicitly
towards customers
0.665 14.65
Responsiveness The salesperson is always willing to assist customers 0.668 15.78
0.788 8.878 0.679Sales people provide desired services immediately 0.631 B
The customer’s queries and redemption
requests are responded quickly
0.629 14.45
Source: Author’s own.
Notes: SSC: Standardized Structural Coefficient, B = Factor Loading Fixed
(Table 2 continued)

5. Tapan K. Panda 289
Vision, 17, 4 (2013): 285–292
Construct Question Item
Scale
Mean
Standard
Deviation
Scale Reliability
(Cronbach’s alpha)
Extent of Social
Interaction with
salesperson
The salesperson meets away from the workplace
2.49
1.09
Not applicable(A)The salesperson talks about sports, family and matters
of personal interest
The salesperson meets over breakfast and launch
The salesperson invites to attend entertainment events
The salesperson arranges meetings and get together
primarily to have fun
The salesperson talks about common interests besides work
The salesperson is a part of get together with other
family members
Length of Relationship
with salesperson
How long is the relationship with the salesman 5.67 4.54 Not applicable(B)
Trust of Salesperson This salesperson has been frank in dealing with us
5.97
1.20 0.91
The salesperson doesn’t make any false claims
We don’t think this salesperson is completely open in dealing
with us
The salesperson is only concerned about his interest
The salesperson is not genuinely concerned about our interest
My family members don’t trust this salesperson
This salesperson is not trust worthy
Source: Author’s own.
Note: (A) and (B) Formative scales, coefficient alpha is not appropriate for assessing reliability.
and discriminant validity. For dimensions of service
quality, the result produced values of GFI (0.929), AGFI
(0.912), NFI (0.908), NNFI (0.955), CFI (0.967) and
RMSEA (0.611). The measures GFI, AGFI, NFI and NNFI
are above 0.90 and CFI 0.95 and RMSEA 0.0.08. The
t-values also need to be significant. So the service quality
data collection portion shows acceptable validity and
reliability.
The salesperson characteristics measures had GFI
(0.91), AGFI (0.907), NFI (0.943), NNFI (0.916), CFI
(0.931) and RMSEA (0.439) with t-values being signifi-
cant. These results also show that data collected on
salesperson characteristics has acceptable validity and
reliability. It is also important to assess the discriminant
and convergent validity of the overall theoretical model
proposed for the study consisting of service quality, sales-
person characteristics, consumer trust and relationship
commitment. The factor loadings of all dimensions are
greater than 0.75. The variances explained are above
60 per cent. These results suggest acceptable convergent
validity of the measures (see Table 3).
The discriminant validity of the constructs can be
judged in terms of variance of each constructs and the
correlations between the constructs and if the variance is
(Table 3 continued)
Table 3. Reliability and Convergent Validity Measurement of Constructs
Constructs Measurement Items Factor Loadings Cronbach’s Alpha Variance
Service Quality Reliability 0.829
0.799 67.87
Tangibility 0.754
Assurance 0.787
Empathy 0.854
Responsiveness 0.799
Salesperson
Characteristics
Salesperson Expertise 0.766
0.724 78.56
Salesperson power 0.761
Salesperson likeability 0.778
Salesperson similarity 0.751
Frequent Contact with Customers 0.769
Extent of Social Interaction with salesperson 0.754
Length of Relationship with salesperson 0.731
Trust of Salesperson 0.777
(Table 2 continued)

6. 290 An Empirical Study on Insurance Buyers in India
Vision, 17, 4 (2013): 285–292
Constructs Measurement Items Factor Loadings Cronbach’s Alpha Variance
Trust I trust that the company will provide correct information 0.845
0.764 68.95I trust that if there is an error the company will
apologize and correct mistakes
0.787
I trust that the company will keep its promise and deliver
the benefits
0.711
Relationship
Commitment
I will continue to buy all my insurance products in future
from the same company
0.789
0.775 66.67
The insurance products of this company is worth
purchasing in future also
0.823
The company is like a life partner for me as it is taking
care my long term needs
0.788
Source: Author’s own.
(Table 3 continued)
higher than the correlation, the discriminant validity can be
accepted. The pre-processing analysis of the constructs not
only helps in explaining the adequacy of the constructs in
measuring the validity and reliability of the constructs but
also helps in evaluation of the proposed model by applying
structural equation modelling tools (see Table 4).
As a proposition service quality is assumed as an
independent variable and is used to measure its impact on
consumer trust and relationship commitment. The results
of SEM output is shown in Table 5 below which explains
the strength of variable relationships in model-1. Service
quality is found to be significantly impacting consumer
trust (t-value = 12.766, SSC = 0.780, p 0.01). Consumer
trust has a significant impact on relationship commitment
(t-value = 6.786, SSC = 0.731, p 0.01). It is also found
that there is no support for direct effect of service quality
on relationship commitment (t-value = 1.301, SSC = 0.109,
p 0.01). So service quality impacts relationship commit-
teemen through consumer trust. So consumer trust is a
mediating factor between service quality and relationship
commitment. So Ha1 is rejected and Ha2 and Ha3 hypoth-
eses are accepted (see Table 5).
The second model is used to test the relationship
between service quality, consumer trust, salesperson
characteristics and relationship commitment. In this model
we bring in salesperson characteristics as a mediating
variable and that leads to formation of four key hypotheses
(see Table 6).
Table 4. Measurement of Discriminant Validity
Service Quality Salesperson Characteristics Consumer Trust Relationship Commitment
Service Quality 0.564
Salesperson Characteristics 0.176 0.679
Consumer Trust 0.257 0.117 0.613
Relationship Commitment 0.299 0.343 0.221 0.621
Source: Author’s own.
Table 5. Results of Model-1
Causal Path Hypotheses
Theoretical Model
Standardized Structure Coefficient t-value
Service Quality → Relationship Commitment Ha1 0.109 1.301
Service Quality → Trust Ha2 0.798 12.776*
Trust → Relationship Commitment Ha3 0.731 6.786*
Fitness Index Fitness Criteria Fitness Values Fitness Result
GFI 0.9 0.915 Good
AGFI 0.9 0.964 Good
NFI 0.9 0.945 Good
CFI 0.95 0.977 Good
RMSEA 0.08 0.048 Good
Chi square/d.f. 3 1.854 Good
Source: Author’s own.
Note: * p 0.01.

7. Tapan K. Panda 291
Vision, 17, 4 (2013): 285–292
From the analysis of Table 6 it is evident that service
quality positively impacts salesperson characteristics
(standardized structured score = 0.781, t-value = 10.68,
p 0.01). However the direct effect of salesperson
characteristics is not supported by the standardized
structured scores (SSC = 0.136, t-value = 1.598, p 0.01).
Salesperson characteristics has a direct impact on the
consumer trust (standardized structured score = 0.873,
t-value = 11.54, p 0.01) and consumer trust has a
direct impact on relationship commitment (standardized
structured score = 0.891, t-value = 10.32, p 0.01). So we
can conclude that salesperson characteristics do not have
a direct impact on relationship commitment but has
mediating effect through consumer trust on relationship
commitment. Hence other than hypotheses (Hb2), rest
other hypotheses are accepted. Since all the hypotheses are
proposed affirmatively, as a principle, all expected signs
are treated positively for the hypotheses.
Summary and Conclusions
Relationship marketing literature has ample evidence on
service quality and its impact in building consumer loyalty
and trust. But such a relationship does not always lead into
commitment. Quality of service comes from two sources
viz: company sources through its policies and procedures
aswellasindividualsourceslikesalespersoncharacteristics.
Some sales people are very good in managing their
relationship with customers. Insurance per say as a business
is long term in nature and has a high switching cost barrier.
Once a customer purchases an insurance product, it is
hardly a possibility for the customer to come out of a life
term policy. However in cases of unit linked plan (linking
performance to capital markets, popularly known as ULIPs
in India), the customer can change within the service
offering (by changing the debt: equity structure of the
product) or switch to another insurance seller. The focus
of our research is on term plans where customer is
expected to run the policy for a longer period of time and
also expect good services from the salesperson.
Alternatively, if the salesperson can keep a good
relationship with customers, it creates an opportunity for
cross selling through referrals among other members of
family and friends in general.
This research helps in developing a theoretical model
in establishing relationship between service quality, sales-
person characteristics, consumer’s trust and relation-
ship commitment. In most of the earlier research studies,
service quality is taken as a dependent variable whereas
application of structural equation modelling tools like
AMOS helps us to treat this as an independent variable
and its impact on consumer trust and relationship commit-
ment is measured. The results show that service quality
has a positive impact on consumer trust and salesperson
characteristics and mediating effect on relationship
commitment.
Salesperson characteristic has no direct effect on rela-
tionship commitment but has a direct effect on consumer
trust. These findings in Indian context corroborate earlier
work done by Morgan and Hunt (1994) and Doney and
Cannon (1997). Further research can be conducted by
using more explanatory variables which will help in deeper
understanding of consumer trust and relationship commit-
ment and their inter-linkage to other variables. These
studies will help in developing relationship marketing
strategies for insurance industry in India
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Table 6. Results of Model-2
Causal Path Hypotheses
Theoretical Model
Standardized Structure Coefficient t-value
Service Quality → Salesperson Characteristics Hb1 0.781 10.68*
Salesperson Characteristics → Relationship Commitment Hb2 0.136 1.598*
Salesperson Characteristics → Consumer Trust Hb3 0.873 11.54*
Consumer Trust → Relationship Commitment Hb4 0.891 10.32*
Fitness Index Fitness Criteria Fitness Values Fitness Result
GFI 0.9 0.926 Good
AGFI 0.9 0.917 Good
NFI 0.9 0.939 Good
CFI 0.95 0.928 Good
RMSEA 0.08 0.063 Good
Chi square/d.f. 3 1.976 Good
Source: Author’s own.
Note: * p 0.01.

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Tapan K. Panda (tapanpanda@gmail.com) is currently a
Professor of Marketing at Great Lakes Institute of
Management, Chennai, India. He is also Director of Kotler
Srinivasan Centre for Marketing (KSCRM) and Program
Director of two-year PGDM program. He has written 17
books on various areas of marketing and has published
internationally in the area of consumer behaviour, brand
management, customer relationship management and
social media marketing. He edits International Journal of
Consumer and Business Analytics (IJCBA). Prior to joining
atGreatLakes,heworkedatIndianInstituteofManagement
Indore, Kozhikode and Lucknow.

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