Ž . Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 15 1998 505–517 Warmth during non-productive retail encounters: the hidden side of productivity Jos Lemmink a, ) , Jan Mattsson b a Department of Marketing and Marketing Research, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht UniÕersity, P.O. Box 616, NL-6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands b Roskilde UniÕersity, Roskilde, Denmark Abstract Productivity in retailing usually has been narrowly defined in short term economic performance. Although this is important, underlying salespersons’ decisions are at work. As the core encounter of the entire value adding process from beginning to end, the interaction between salespeople and customers in the final step before consumption must be vital to Ž . understand the underlying human factors at work. We argue that this ‘soft’ side human factor determines the ‘hard’ productivity outcomes and that the dynamics of the service delivery process must be understood. Therefore, in this paper the point of sale has been studied second-by-second from the customer perspective to simulate how evaluations and perceptions vary during the encounter. By mapping the dynamic aspects we attempt to unravel the hidden side of how productivity is generated. The results obtained in two different ‘non-productive’ retail encounters show that there is a substantial correlation between perceived warmth during the service encounter as a measure of perceived relationship and likeability, perceived service quality and loyalty. q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Warmth; Retailing; Productivity 1. Introduction Productivity in retailing usually has been narrow- ingly defined in short term economic performance. Although this is important, underlying human sales- persons’ decisions are at work. As the majority of retailers is operating in markets that are increasingly characterized by intense competition, decreased retail outlet loyalty and expanding price pressures, it is important that they focus on providing excellence in service quality. The growing recognition of per- ceived service quality as a significant determinant of ) Corresponding author. Tel.: q31-43-388-3814r3839; Fax: q31-43-3210265; E-mail: j.lemmink@mw.unimaas.nl business performance in terms of economic returns has generated considerable interest in the strategic value of service quality from academics as well as Ž retail practitioners Buzzel and Gale, 1987; Jacobson and Aaker, 1987; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; An- . derson et al., 1994; Rust et al., 1995 . However, the final result depends strongly on the attitude and behaviour of retail salespeople. More insight is needed in the factors that enhance or impede the delivery of quality services by retail salespersons who perform on the front stage of the company Ž . Mangold and Babakus, 1991 . In their boundary spanning role, retail salespeople are usually limited in their flexibility to go beyond the normal call of duty by organizational guidelines and procedures 0167-8116r98r$19.00 q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž . PII: S0167-8116 98 00016-0