The influence of social interactions on senior customers’ experience and loneliness

This study aims to understand how elderly consumers’ social interactions in small hospitality businesses (e.g. restaurants, cafes, and pubs) could promote their customer experience and alleviate their loneliness. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis was performed using SPSS and AMOS to first identify different dimensions of the four constructs and then assess the significance of the relationship between these constructs. The results of the study show that the social interactions with employees (service manner and need identification) and social interactions with customers positively affect customer experience and the service manner of the employees has a positive influence on the reduction of loneliness of the elderly customers This study offered insights into how small hospitality organizations can facilitate elderly customers’ experience and help them to alleviate loneliness. The study will also demonstrate that loneliness as a social issue can not only be tackled by healthcare and psychological interventions but also with the help of commercial activities oriented towards experiential consumption.

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