Customers are more forgiving when businesses identify religious affiliations, study finds

[rug]

Being closed on Sunday or other religious holidays can help a business, according to a study co-authored by a Grand Valley State University professor. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com) (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)

By Jim Harger | [e-mail]
on August 10, 2014 at 7:00 AM, updated August 10, 2014 at 7:43 AM

GRAND RAPIDS, MI –Advertising your religious affiliation or closing your business on a religious holiday can help your business regardless of your faith, according to a study co-authored by a Grand Valley State University professor.

Customers also are more forgiving to businesses that advertise their religious affiliations, even if their religion doesn’t match their customers’ beliefs, according to Kelly Cowart, an assistant professor of marketing at GVSU.

“If something didn’t go right and you knew this organization was faith-based, are you willing to cut them a little bit of slack? We found they were,” said Cowart, who based her conclusion on research she performed with fellow professors in Florida and Texas.

The team based their conclusions on two experimental studies that looked at how customers reacted to “service failures” at restaurants that openly identified with a religious belief. Their findings were recently published in the Journal of Services Marketing.

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2014/08/customers_are_more_forgiving_w.html

Abstract: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0887-6045&volume=28&issue=1&articleid=17106529&show=html

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Florida and Texas are conservative.

If someone advertises that they have a "Christian business" I would avoid them. I see lots of ads with fish symbols in them. If they have to advertise their faith, then I think that makes them insecure and does not mean necessarily that they are honest.

[Brettongarcia]

2. These are preliminary, biased studies designed to make Hobby Lobby look acceptable.

But consider the problems not adequately considered in these studies: what happens to 1) businesses that do NOT reveal religious affiliation? So you go to a conservative pharmacy. You ask for birth control. But get a seemingly endless lecture instead.

Or day, what about business 2) aside from forgiving bad service? What about ... a thousand other situations? Where say, your Catholic bid to provide service to a Protestant business is turned down ... and no reason is given?

In these cases, note too, you are experiencing hidden religious discrimination. And you thought you were just getting honest facts and service.

The Hobby Lobby decision might seem to open up a can of worms. When one religion exercises its rights ... it often discriminates against other religions that believe differently.