The Impact of Customer Sacrifice and Attachment Styles on Perceived Hospitality [Summary]

A newly developed indicator of the experience of customers being served — perceived hospitality — outlines the interplay between customer generosity and consumer attachment patterns. The study indicates, that the impact of attachment avoidance (resisting relationships) on perceived hospitality is more important to attachment anxiety and that customer-sacrifice attitudes have both a direct influence on perception of hospitality and the effects on perception of hospitality of attachment styles. In this context, perceived sacrifice includes direct and indirect sacrifice, including sacrifice of effort in the course of the journey, money sacrifice and emotional sacrifice. The implications for marketers in hospitality include the understanding and recognition of customer attachment styles and addressing sacrifices to better meet customers' needs. Results should support managers with their public relations initiatives. In order to improve interpersonal customer interaction, the report suggests three guidelines for hospitality service providers. They are: • To understand guest sacrifice • To recognize guest sacrifice. • To ensure an effective involvement of frontline staff in the field of sacrificial perceptions requires effective training and recruitment of the right staff.