Within the framework of relationship marketing, the authors hypothesized that the degree to which customers’ expectations were disconfirmed for different service dimensions would place customers on different levels of a commitment ladder. The steps on the commitment ladder studied ranged from being a one-time patron of an organization (a “customer”) to persuading others to switch to one’s own service firm (an “advocate”). On a sample of 2,007 patrons from three service businesses, some support for predicting commitment levels based on disconfirmations of specific facets of service was found. Implications and conclusions are discussed.
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