He Said, She Said: Gender Bias and Customer Satisfaction With Phone-Based Service Encounters

This study investigates the effects of 2 types of gender bias on customer evaluation of phone-based service encounters. Specifically, a field experiment was designed to determine (a) if customers had a stronger preference for dealing with female customer service representatives (CSRs) rather than male CSRs (a congruency bias); and (b) if customers had a preference for dealing with CSRs who were of the opposite gender (an opposite-gender matching bias). Results indicated that customers were equally satisfied with male and female CSRs, but that customers were more satisfied with CSRs of the opposite gender than with CSRs of the same gender.