09-05-2013, 02:15 PM
A Literature Review and Critique on Customer Satisfaction
A Literature Review.pdf (Size: 107.6 KB / Downloads: 69)
Abstract:
The concept of customer satisfaction has attracted much attention in recent years.
Organizations that try to analyze this concept should begin with an understanding of various customer
satisfaction models. In this paper, the emphasis is on reviewing the main concepts and models of
customer satisfaction.
Introduction
Both public and private sectors have given much attention to the concept customer satisfaction in the
past couple of decades. Naturally, administrators have requested their staff to do customer satisfaction
studies for their own organizations. An analyst or researcher must operationalize the concept of
customer satisfaction in order to measure it. More importantly, in order to have validity for any
measurements, the analyst needs to assume some model of the subject matter. The analyst must use very
explicit conceptualizations of the subject matter (in other words, models) if she/he expects to do
research and analysis that has relevance for organizational decisions.
This paper is divided into several sections. First, a brief review of main concepts of customer
satisfaction is provided. Next, we try to provide the analyst an overview of models of customer
satisfaction. Finally, the article concludes with main research findings.
Consumer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction has been a popular topic in marketing practice and academic research since
Cardozo's (1965) initial study of customer effort, expectations and satisfaction. Despite many attempts
to measure and explain customer satisfaction, there still does not appear to be a consensus regarding its
definition (Giese and Cote, 2000). Customer satisfaction is typically defined as a post consumption
evaluative judgement concerning a specific product or service (Gundersen, Heide and Olsson, 1996). It
is the result of an evaluative process that contrasts prepurchase expectations with perceptions of
performance during and after the consumption experience (Oliver, 1980).
The most widely accepted conceptualization of the customer satisfaction concept is the expectancy
disconfirmation theory (McQuitty, Finn and Wiley, 2000). The theory was developed by Oliver, who
proposed that satisfaction level is a result of the difference between expected and perceived performance.
Satisfaction (positive disconfirmation) occures when product or service is better than expected. On the
other hand, a performance worse than expected results is dissatisfaction (negative disconfirmation).
Studies show that customer satisfaction may have direct and indirect impact on business results. Luo and
Homburg (2007) concluded that customer satisfaction positively affects business profitability. The
majority of studies have investigated the relationship with customer behaviour patterns (Dimitriades,
2006; Olorunniwo et al., 2006; Chi and Qu, 2008; Faullant et al., 2008). According to these findings,
customer satisfaction increases customer loyalty, influences repurchase intentions and leads to positive
word-of-mouth.
Customer Satisfaction Models
Models of customer satisfaction come from a vast literature from the marketing research discipline. This
pool of research includes models that integrate the concept of customer satisfaction in a network of
related concepts, such as value, quality, complaining behavior, and loyalty. In this paper, we will label
these kinds of models as “macro-models.” Macro-models have special importance for the policy-level
implications of an organization’s research in customer satisfaction. Macro-models give the researcher
the strategic context of the design and of the results for a study of customer satisfaction. The marketing
research literature extensively covers the elements that make up the concept of customer satisfaction,
such as disconfirmation of expectations, equity, attribution, affect, and regret. Because these elements
explain the composition of the customer satisfaction concept (or “construct”), we will label these kinds
of models as “micro-models.” Micro-models enable an analyst to properly operationalize measurements
of customer satisfaction, thus helping her/him to achieve construct validity in the eventual satisfaction
survey.
Conclusion
This paper has covered a vast pool of marketing research in customer satisfaction. The coverage by
necessity is partial. We grouped satisfaction models into either a macro level or a micro level to simplify
our presentation. Logically speaking, the macro-models subsume the micro-models, and overlap in
concepts should occur. Other analysts may well approach the conceptualization of these models in an
entirely different manner.
An analyst who plans to do a customer satisfaction study could benefit from consulting the insightful
works as well as the works previously cited. The mountain of information that the analyst can review
may consume a huge chunk in time and effort, but the benefits of understanding customer satisfaction
models may pay commensurate dividends in useful analyses in the future. At the very least, use of the
above material will supply a basic footing in any effort to understand customer satisfaction.