Using social comparison theory, the purpose of this study is to examine how service employees’ dress shapes employee-customer interactions and customer-brand relationship in full-service restaurants. An analysis of 437 useable customer responses collected via an online survey indicated that appropriateness of employee dress improves employee-brand congruence, which then enhances both employee aesthetic trait and enjoyable interaction. Both employee aesthetic trait and enjoyable interaction also improve the customer-employee connection. Furthermore, gratification motivation and social motivation each mediates the effects of customeremployee connection on customers’ affective commitment toward the full-service restaurant brand.

Introduction

Dress refers to modifications (e.g., changes to nails, hair, and muscular structure) and supplements (e.g., enclosures, body attachments, and hand-held objects) to an individual’s body (Roach-Higgins and Eicher, 1992). In service encounters, dress is a form of nonverbal communication (Bonaccio et al., 2016; Choi and Mattila, 2016), and the dress of a service employee directly influences customers’ expectations of a service experience (Kim and Baker, 2017; Pounders et al., 2015). Former studies have shown that not only does employee dress impact employees’ work performance and social identity (Yeh et al., 2013), but it also influences customers’ perceived value of and relationship with a service brand (Shao et al., 2004). In general, customers’ interactions with service employees provide a foundation for their evaluations of service encounters, and employees’ nonverbal communications have been shown to play a crucial role in enhancing the perceived quality of service (Sundaram and Webster, 2000). To date, however, few studies have examined the importance of employee dress in the service industry, especially as it relates to the formation of employee-customer interactions and how it influences customers’ relationship with a service brand. Most studies have looked at customers’ short-term responses to employee dress such as how it affects tipping (Jacob and Guéguen, 2014) and customer satisfaction ratings (Magnini et al., 2013). An investigation of long-term outcomes driven by employee dress, though, have not been explored in prior studies. According to service-profit chain (Homburg et al., 2009; Larivire, 2008), employee-customer interactions during service experiences may help customers develop social identity with the service company, resulting in the formation of long-term customer loyalty behavior and increasing firms’ financial performance.