Customer Satisfaction A Literature Review
Customer Satisfaction: A Literature Review
There is a great paradigm shift in the contemporary business environment and this intermarried with the day-to-day economic conditions that various businesses are subjected to; it becomes very essential for every business to explore the aspect of customer satisfaction thoroughly as an important aspect and process of business survival and growth. By exploring customer satisfaction, the business organizations not only gain knowledge of the customer satisfaction drivers but establish strategies to retain them and have a competing edge over the competitors in the market. This provides the rationale upon which this review examines the studies that have attempted to explore the issue of customer satisfaction. The review takes a multi-faceted perspective of various professional fields, deeply analyzing the concept of customer satisfaction in those fields.
Knowledge of the customer satisfaction factors is a strong backbone upon which an organization can base its customer retention by knowing the satisfaction drivers of the customers it has attracted. Furthermore, though there is a great significance of using customer opinions and attitudes in various fields, not many studies have specifically focused on assessing the attitudes of customers with respect to their satisfaction with the products offered especially in developing economic systems (SSP 2006). This chapter attempts to give an assessment of the studies that have been undertaken in an attempt to investigate the relationship of the two broad dimensions of customer satisfaction and that of customer retention. These two dimensions are powerfully related when attempts are made to understand or debunk on customer satisfaction. After all, the ideological significance of endeavoring to satisfy the customer is to retain the attracted customer and attract more hence creating a pool of loyal customer in the market. The end result: – strong customer base and hence formidable market dominance.
Research studies that have investigated customer satisfaction in various fields are also explored. Moreover, the trend in the literature indicates that the number of research studies exploring customer satisfaction in these fields steadily increasing. This is probably due to the increasing need for information by the business organization arising from the heightened competition. Businesses want to know ways of staging their competition to assert their presence in the market. This is very important, as knowledge regarding customer satisfaction should enhance customer care services by providing the customer service practitioners and sales personnel in these institutions with information that can make planning a better exercise. This knowledge should in the end lead to optimal customer satisfaction (Kacel et al 2005).
The literature examines original investigations, other literature reviews, peer reviewed academic literature, research databases, reviews, journals in various academic fields and original manuscripts that relate to customer satisfaction. This is intended to bring a better understanding. One of the most recent studies, which directly involved investigation of customer satisfaction of consumer is the study carried out by SSP (2006). Since a search in the research databases produces a big number of results, the reviewed literature sources are picked on a random- sample strategy. Databases searched include the BMC research database, JAMA database among others.
In definition, customer satisfaction can be understood as an attitudinal concept which reconciles the customer expectation and actual experience (Mont & Plepys 2003). When the difference between the two aspects (i.e. expectation and actual experience) is wide, then there is little satisfaction and an organization stands high chances of losing the attracted customers.
Kersnik (2008) carried out an investigation into the determinants of customer satisfaction in a reformed healthcare system in Slovenia. Customer satisfaction is a vital tool for operation of any business in all industries. In the health care system, Kersnik (2008) notes, the satisfaction of the customer is defining to the customer’s choice of family physician. The research used postal survey to conduct the research with a response rate of 84%. This response rate is statistically sufficient to represent the opinions of the targeted group. Since the objective of the study was to determine the customer satisfaction in the reformed health care system in Slovenia, the results of the survey study indicated that the choice of health care services provider even in the reformed system is anchored on the satisfaction of the customer (or perceived customer).
The study by Kersnik (2008) revealed that about 58% of the respondents who were satisfied with the current health care system would only choose any other system if it offers a better satisfaction than what they currently get. This is a very important point for a business manager to note. If the business cannot offer a better satisfaction to the consumer out of a desired change in the customer service, it would do well by maintaining the level of satisfaction being given to the customers. Finally, since the most powerful determinant of ultimate customer satisfaction with the health care system in Slovenia was revealed as the patient’s satisfaction with the services offered by family physician, family health care systems must be included as integral part of health care planning in the country.
One study carried out in Germany (Bates et al 1995), revealed that there is a complex interrelation between job satisfaction of doctors and the end user – customer satisfaction which again in turn is intermarried with improved customer loyalty, retention, employee compliance, continuity and eventually better outcomes. These findings also are in agreement with the findings of Cooper (2008).
Cooper (2008) observes that because of this knowledge about customer satisfaction with the services of doctors and nurses in the field of health care services, it should therefore help in strengthening the complex intermarriage of various variables across the board with respect to satisfaction of the consumers in the healthcare industry. He further observes that consumer satisfaction will eventually lead to job satisfaction in the service providers. Put in the business setting of any other industry, what this implies is that when the customer is satisfied and the organization’s employees are made aware of the fact, they too are motivated and hence become satisfied with their job; satisfaction of one is dependent on satisfaction of the other in one or more ways. It in part therefore stresses the significance of involving the employees in the employee satisfaction plans.
With the changing characteristics of the market platform on which business is conducted, the aspect of customer satisfaction becomes even more relevant. Online businesses that deal with clients in a virtual world would wish to know the satisfaction of their customers. This is the basis of the research article by Nusair and Kandampully (2008) which sought to establish the factors that influence customer satisfaction in online business platforms. Nusair and Kandampully (2008) conducted a survey of travel websites with respect customer satisfaction. The objective of their research study was to establish the relationship of various customer satisfaction dimensions and then attempt to investigate if the customers of the analyzed websites are actually satisfied. The researchers provide a good rationale upon which the results of their study may not attain external validity. One of the research limitation identified by the researchers and which limits external validity is that the extent to which their results could be generalized to other business websites or organizational settings is greatly impounded by the fact that they conducted the study on a sample of six travel websites. Another limitation was that the attributes of customer satisfaction could be covered only to a limited extent. This also contributes to reduced generalizability of the results.
In 2007, Balabanis and Souitaris conducted a related research though their research aimed at investigating the extent to which segmentation and differentiation strategies could be used to create increased customer satisfaction in online businesses. Their sample was drawn from UK grocery online buyers. Since consumer behavior is diverse, the researchers classified their respondents as either experiential or goal-oriented. Their findings showed that each group of consumers required different approach to achieve satisfaction. However, they found out that both groups exhibited more loyalty when satisfied with the services provided (Balabanis & Souitaris 2007).
As a component of the contemporary business model, corporations and business organizations customarily examined the consequences of changes in customer satisfaction on sales volume and customer retention (Tang & Bougoure 2007). Tang & Bougoure (2007) posit that there is an integral link connecting customer satisfaction and service quality, a link which cannot be doubted. The two researchers make an observation, which concurs with what Bates and associates (1995) had observed in their study. The two research associates observe that for a better business standing in the market and better performance, the business should aim at providing an excess of the satisfaction customers expect out of the services (Tang & Bougoure 2007). This gives an organization’s marketing department and customer service departments a fundamental challenge.
Another comprehensive research study on customer satisfaction is the research done by Conklin (2005) investigating the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. The researcher gives a comprehensive approach with a systematic methodology, which aims at exploring the concept of customer retention with respect to various aspects of customer satisfaction like quality of services (that is, reliability of the services, responsiveness of the business to customer needs and assurance) and the marketing strategy adapted by the organization (promotional tactics and the channels used among other aspects). The setting for the study is the Bangkok Airport. The researcher used a 5- point rating questionnaire design to collect data related to the above mentioned aspects and subjected the data to statistical analysis.
The findings of the study by Conklin (2005) showed that there was a strong positive correlation between customer satisfaction and the quality of services offered by the institution. Of the 134 respondents involved in the study, 91.27% exhibited greater satisfaction when they perceived the services offered to be of high quality. With respect to marketing strategy, a significant proportion of the respondents (83.91 %) indicated that the marketing strategy used by the organization is very important to determining satisfaction. In these two instances, customer satisfaction was measured against the two variables as a dependent variable. That is to say that it was postulated to depend on marketing strategy and quality of services.
On another perspective, the researcher also subjected customer satisfaction to analysis as an independent variable. Here, the dependent variable was the customer loyalty. Since the researcher also wanted to establish if there was any relationship between satisfaction of customers and their loyalty, he subjected the data collected to this analysis. The findings of the analysis pointed to a strong positive relationship between the two variables. The researcher therefore managed to derive a string of correlations leading to customer satisfaction. The implication of this study is that customer satisfaction as a fundamental aspect of business and welfare economics of consumer behavior should be understood as a process (Mont & Plepys 2003).
Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty have a causal link, which means that utmost care must be borne in mind when attempts are made by business organizations to develop satisfaction strategies. An oversight may easily lead to the plan not working at all. Since the characteristics of the variables a long this causal link may not be similar across the industries and may also vary from business to business, every organization must examine directionality of its customer satisfaction thoroughly (SSP 2006).
Based on the literature review, a number of issues are evident. First, given that customer satisfaction is not a quantitatively measurable variable and it ideally depends on the behavior of consumers, more investigative efforts should be put in understanding consumer behavior of consumers in a particular industry, geographic location and across gender. However, it must be taken into account that consumer behavior is not only a profound process in business interaction with the society but it also has many intervening variables which cannot be assumed. For instance, a business that wishes to gain customer loyalty without satisfaction is unlikely to succeed. On the same basis, an organization that wants to ensure a satisfied customer without examining the consumer behavior of customer with respect to changes in quality of services offered and market approach strategies employed may also not be planning to succeed.
References:
Bates DW, Cullen DJ, Laird N, Petersen LA, Small SD, Servi D, Laffel G, Sweitzer BJ, Shea BF, Hallisey (1995). Incidence of adverse drug events and potential adverse drug events. Implications for prevention. ADE Prevention Study Group. JAMA; 274:29–34. doi: 10.1001/jama.274.1.29.
Conklin K. M. (2005) Customer satisfaction with Services at Bangkok Airport. Retrieved online at: http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:Yz1rkd7PYhAJ:library.utcc.ac.th/onlinethesis/onlinethesis/M0228901/chapter3.pdf+methodology+chapter+on+customer+satisfaction&hl=en&gl=ke&sig=AFQjCNE45F0XMq0TpVDXl8WXQeMAwVdS8Q
Cooper, J. F. (2008) – The Relationship of Morale and Productivity: A Historical Overview http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED147985&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED147985
Kacel, B., Miller, M. & Norris, D. (2005). Integrating Nurse Job Satisfaction and Patient Satisfaction with Health care Services; Time Warner Publishing
Kersnik J. (2008) Health Policy: Determinants of customer satisfaction Health Policy, Volume 57, Issue 2, Pages 155-164
Mont O. & A. Plepys (2003) Customer satisfaction: Application to the product-service systems: Accessible online at: http://www.citeulike.org/user/jlreis/article/2783227
SSP (2006) Customer Satisfaction Survey: Accessed online on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 from URL: http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:EP9AChtI-ccJ:biology.usgs.gov/ssp/docs/Final%2520SSP%2520Survey%2520Report%2520July%25202006.pdf+research+proposal+customer+satisfaction&hl=en&gl=ke&sig=AFQjCNFSMIGoUyLueoytXeDtIZ2pC5tU2Q
Tang, K. M. & Bougoure, Ursula (2007) Service Quality: An investigation into Malaysia consumers using DINESERV
Balabanis G. & Souitaris V. (2007) Tailoring Online Retail Strategies to Increase Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty; Long Range Planning, Volume 40, (2): 244-261 INCLUDEPICTURE “http://www.sciencedirect.com/scidirimg/clear.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET HYPERLINK “http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2006.11.006” t “doilink” doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2006.11.006
Nusair, K. & Kandampully J. (2008)The antecedents of customer satisfaction with online travel services: a conceptual model; European Business Review 20 (1): 4 – 19; DOI: 10.1108/09555340810843663
