Journal of Services Marketing

Ray Chu

2002 Journal of Services Marketing

doi: 10.1108/08876040210433202

This study aims to compare the customer satisfaction index (CSI) based on two approaches: stated-importance and derived-importance approaches. The stated-importance approach uses both importance and performance scores in constructing the CSI, while the derived-importance approach uses regression analysis to derive the betas for calculating CSI. The results show that the stated-importance approach has achieved a higher CSI (79.1 percent) than that of the derived-importance approach (57.4 percent). Both approaches find that the aspects of rooms and employees are the most important factors in driving customer satisfaction. Strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches are discussed.

Hokey Min; Hyesung Min; Kyooyup Chung

2002 Journal of Services Marketing

doi: 10.1108/08876040210433211

Total customer satisfaction is one of the most important strategic weapons of best-practice hotel organizations. However, hotel organizations cannot achieve total customer satisfaction without gaining the knowledge of a hotel's competitive position in the changing marketplace and realizing the opportunity of continuous service improvement. With this in mind, this paper develops a set of service benchmarks that help hotel managers monitor their service delivery process, identify performance gaps, and take corrective action. In particular, we propose dynamic benchmarking based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) that goes beyond traditional service performance measures. Based on the longitudinal surveys of customers who have stayed at first-class hotels in Korea, this paper illustrates the usefulness of dynamic benchmarking for continuous service improvement.

Carolyn Folkman Curasi; Karen Norman Kennedy

2002 Journal of Services Marketing

doi: 10.1108/08876040210433220

Research in customer satisfaction over the past decade has lead to a much richer understanding of service quality and customer expectations. In trying to untangle the linkage between satisfied customers and long-term success for the organization, however, attention has evolved from a focus on customer satisfaction to a realization that retaining customers and developing loyalty are essential for organizational success. This interpretive investigation focuses on customer retention and loyalty in an effort to understand better these variables in the context of service organizations. In so doing we review the rise of managerial concern for customer retention and loyalty and examine the definitions and relationships of these constructs. Then, to develop a richer understanding of repeat buyers, semi-structured interviews were conducted with consumers identifying themselves as "loyal". A typology of loyalty is offered consisting of five levels of repeat buyers, ranging from "prisoners" to "apostles". Additionally, the managerial implications of this typology are discussed.

Martin O’Neill; Adrian Palmer; Steven Charters

2002 Journal of Services Marketing

doi: 10.1108/08876040210433239

This paper seeks to investigate the conceptualisation and measurement of the service quality construct and its relationship to behavioural intention through an application of the importance-performance technique within the Australian wine tourism industry. Many winery operators invite customers to their winery and the quality of service during the visit can impact on future wine sales. Research undertaken among a sample of visitors to Australian vineyards showed that service process factors were more closely linked to wine purchase than tangible elements. The study also provides further support for the use of importance-performance models of service quality, as this measure was found to be significantly related to two dimensions of behavioural intention.

G.S. Sureshchandar; Chandrasekharan Rajendran; R.N. Anantharaman

2002 Journal of Services Marketing

doi: 10.1108/08876040210433248

The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction has received considerable academic attention in the past few years. But the nature of the exact relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction (especially in the way the two constructs have been operationalized) is still shrouded with uncertainty. Many researchers have operationalized customer satisfaction by using a single item scale and many others have used multiple item scales. The present study adopts a different approach and views customer satisfaction as a multi dimensional construct just as service quality, but argues that customer satisfaction should be operationalized along the same factors (and the corresponding items) on which service quality is operationalized. Based on this approach, the link between service quality and customer satisfaction has been investigated. The results have indicated that the two constructs are indeed independent but are closely related, implying that an increase in one is likely to lead to an increase in another.