Customer loyality

African Journal of Business Management Vol. 5(1), pp. 187-195, 4 January, 2011
Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM
DOI: 10.5897/AJBM10.951
ISSN 1993-8233 ©2011 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A study of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and quality attributes in Taiwan’s medical service industry
Hsiu-Yuan Hu1, Ching-Chan Cheng2, Shao-I Chiu3* and Fu-Yuan Hong3
1

Department of Food Technology and Marketing Management Taipei College of Maritime Technology, Taipei City,
Taiwan and Teaching Director, Da Chien Health Medical System, Miaoli City, Taiwan.
2
Department of Food and Beverage Management Taipei College of Maritime Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan.
3
The Center for General Education, Taipei College of Maritime Technology, Taipei City, Taiwan.
Accepted 15 October, 2010

Measurement of customer satisfaction in behavioral health services has received increasing emphasis due to clinicians ' and researchers ' desire to measure outcomes that reflect the patient 's unique perspective. This study examined how overall customer satisfaction and customer loyalty associate with the medical service quality attributes offered in Taiwan using Kano’s integrated model and the
Customer Satisfaction Index Model. The results show that customer satisfaction was influenced by the one-dimensional and attractive attributes, and negatively affected by customer complaints. Surprisingly, the must-be attributes could not predict customer satisfaction, which suggests that competitive convergence played a role within the Taiwan context. As well, customer loyalty proved to be independent of customer satisfaction and customer complaints, which may have been due to the barriers erected to dissuade patients from changing to a new provider. The major finding suggests that hospital managers should identify and emphasize the relevant one-dimensional and attractive attributes so as to increase patient satisfaction levels.

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