Customer Satisfaction Literature

Theme 3 “Consumer Satisfaction”:

Consumer satisfaction is the perhaps the most important element of understanding the response of a customer and it forms a major pillar and a key to relationship marketing. If the satisfaction level is identified of a customer in the most generic form it becomes some what easy for any company to strengthen the bond with the customer in the long run and create an impact of loyalty in the minds of a consumer, depending on the satisfaction level. As defined by Mittal and Frennea, A customer's post-consumption evaluation of a product or service” determined by the perceived discrepancy between prior expectations and the actual performance is what it is that helps the company to evaluate the level of Customer satisfaction

In examining why the market share-future customer satisfaction relationship is generally negative, most of the recent scholars have found strong support for preference heterogeneity as a key mediator in this relationship. They also show that marketing more brands moderates the negative effect of preference heterogeneity on future customer satisfaction. Thus, larger brand portfolios offer a strategy solution for the general market share-satisfaction trade-off. Making the element of customer satisfaction a key to determining the market share and future customer loyalty in a more subjective manner (Morgan, et

The notion that preference uncertainty may lead to choice deferral when no single alternative has a decisive advantage is tested in seven studies. Building on recent research, the article shows that the decision to defer choice is influenced by the absolute difference in attractiveness among the alternatives provided and is not consistent with trade‐off difficulty or the theory of search. These findings are then extended to show that choice deferral can also be modified for the same alternatives by manipulations that make them appear more similar in attractiveness, or that decrease the need to differentiate among them. The results are consistent with the notion that preference uncertainty results in a hesitation to commit to any single action since small differences in attractiveness among the alternatives are potentially reversible. Consistent with this premise, the effect of attractiveness difference on choice deferral decreased significantly when subjects were first allowed to practice making monetary trade‐offs among the available alternatives (Dhar,