journal article
LitStream Collection
Customer Satisfaction A Comprehensive Approach
Nagel, Pieter J.A.; Cilliers, Willem W.
1990 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management
In recognising the need to research the conceptof customer satisfaction the study aims to developa strategic approach to measuring a customerssatisfaction with a particular enterprise. The studyis an attempt to 1 develop an overall concept ofcustomer satisfaction 2 provide a detailedrelationship structure for implementation withina company and 3 identify potential researchareas.A basic premiss of the study is that the focusshould be on maximising total product value tothe customer and then, second, that customersatisfaction of external customers is interdependenton the satisfaction of internalcustomers. The framework of the researchcentres on a proposed model which integrates allaspects so as to maximise the potential of theorganisation and all its subsystems to create andsustain satisfied customers.The approach begins with a conceptualisationphase in which the concept of customersatisfaction is explored. Attributes are thenclassified into services and this is then extendedto integrate the internal customer into a totalservice model applying gapanalysis to thismodel. Enterprise satisfaction provides the basisfor extending the total service model positioningis applied to the customer satisfaction strategyand operationalising of this strategy is proposedthrough an implementation model.