The Role of Customer Service In Determining Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

Most consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction research is focussed either on identifying product classes and personal/usage characteristics associated with dissatis faction, or is focussed on modelling the psychological processes underlying the phenomenon. Most retailers, on the other hand, focus only on handling customer complaints. This paper focuses on retailer controllable sources of customer dissatisfaction. Findings frorn a large scale Canadian survey of 982 cases of recent automobile buyers show that while there are some differences in the determinants of consumer satisfaction among four different car models, it is the dealer-related factors that exert the greatest effects. Specific implications are highlighted for the retailer's attention and possible retail responses are discussed.

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