Satisfaction is generally viewed as a broader concept, whereas, service quality focuses specifically on dimensions of service. Based on this view, perceived service quality is a component of customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is influenced by the perception of service quality, product quality, price as well as situational factors and personal factors. The quality of the services that a store provides is related to the satisfaction of customers and it is estimated by dissatisfying and satisfying the service provided by the store over time. The perceived service quality has a positive effect on the satisfaction of customers.
“Everyone knows what is customer satisfaction is, until asked to give a definition. Then, it seems, nobody knows.”
Oliver defines satisfaction in his formal definition as:
“Satisfaction is the customer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a product or service feature, or the product of service itself, provides a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment”.
In addition to a sense of fulfillment in the knowledge that one’s needs have been met, satisfaction can also be related to other types of feelings, depending on the particular context or type or type of service.
Determination of customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is influenced by specific product or service features perceptions of product and service quality, and price. In addition, personal factors such as the customer’s mood or emotional state and situational factors such as family members’ opinions will also influence satisfaction.
In addition to product and service features and one’s own individual feelings and beliefs, consumer satisfaction is often influenced by other people. For example, satisfaction with a family vacation trip is a dynamic phenomenon, influenced by the reactions and expressions of individual family members over the duration of the vacation. Later, what family members express in terms of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the trip will be influenced by stories that are retold among the family and selective memories of the event.
In Tse and Wilton’s (1983) definition, three antecedents of satisfaction can be identified:-
- Customer expectations, or expected performance,
- Actual performance or perceived performance,
- The discrepancy or confirmation/disconfirmation is the gap between the expected performance and perceived performance.
Whether a customer’s positive expectations about a product or service are met, or whether a customer’s negative expectations about a product or service are not met; in both cases, the result is moderate satisfaction. The former is derived from positive confirmation, and the latter is resulted from negative confirmation or disconfirmation. The term disconfirmation in this context relates to the fulfillment of expectations and may be positive (where product performance exceeds expectations), negative (where product performance falls below expectations), or zero (where performance equals expectations).
There is an important relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. This relationship is particularly strong when store customers are very satisfied. Thus stores that simply aim to satisfy customers may not be doing enough to engender loyalty-they must instead aim to more than satisfy or even delight their customers. Customer loyalty can fall off precipitously when customers reach a particular level of dissatisfaction or when they are dissatisfied with critically important service attributes.
The attitude of employees to some extent is very much related towards maintaining satisfaction at the workplace. In other words, employee’s satisfaction significantly affects the performance of the retail store.
Customer satisfaction is ‘a post-purchase, global affirmative summary response occurring when customers are questioned and are undertaken relative to retail store services offered by competitors. There has been some confusion regarding the relationship of perceived service quality and customer satisfaction. However, service quality is considered as a transactional-level construct, and customer satisfaction as a global-level construct. Service quality (SQ) and satisfaction are distinct constructs, and SQ is the antecedent of satisfaction. Satisfaction is considered an important determinant of customer loyalty and has a moderating effect on the relationship of service quality with behavioral outcomes. Bloemer et al. (1999) found that both customer satisfaction and customer perceptions of service quality were important predictors of loyalty in retail banking services. They also found that quality has both direct and indirect (through satisfaction) impacts on loyalty.
Satisfaction plays a mediating role between the service quality and loyalty of customers. The employee delivers their quality services to their customers, they are satisfied and they will be the loyal customers of the store.
For Citing this article use:
- KAVITHA.M. (n.d.). SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS OF STORE BRAND A STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CHENNAI CITY.
