Mystery Shoppers

Featured Article June '09

Beauty's in the eye of the beholder, and the wallet's in their hand

Good looks launched a thousand ships and, with them, the Trojan War. By the Renaissance they were a physical sign of the worth of one’s soul and God’s favour, and by the early 19th century Keats was able to write ‘beauty is truth, truth beauty’.

At the end of the 20th century things got more prosaic with a court case over ‘lookism’. That is, discriminative practises in favour of the pretty.

Recent research in the Journal of Retailing and Customer Services suggests that physical attractiveness of a customer-facing employee does have an impact on customer satisfaction.

Until now the evidence suggested something rather odd: a physically attractive person was considered more trustworthy and honest, they were believed to provide better service, and yet, the customer’s satisfaction wasn’t any higher.

The results were consistent across genders and all age groups.

As in all things, however, moderation is best. The research also found that if the perceived difference in attractiveness between service employee and customer was too high (that the sales assistant’s just too good-looking) then satisfaction is considerably lower.

Luckily, the research has hope for everyone. Apparently the biggest impact on the customer’s perception of physical attractiveness was the cleanliness and tidiness of the sales assistant’s hair.

So there’s even hope for us.

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