Customer Satisfaction

An Overview of Customer Satisfaction Models

Willard Hom, M.B.A. Interim Director of Research Policy, Planning & External Affairs Division Chancellor’s Office, California Community Colleges

Abstract The concept of customer satisfaction has attracted much attention in recent years. Organizations that try to analyze this concept should begin with an understanding of various customer satisfaction models. Such models clarify various theories about customer satisfaction, making research and analysis in this topic more focused and less wasteful of research resources. In this paper, the emphasis is on two levels of models. Macro-models of customer satisfaction theorize the place of customer satisfaction among a set of related constructs in marketing research. Micro-models of customer satisfaction theorize the elements of customer satisfaction. This paper gives an overview of various models of customer satisfaction from the perspective of the marketing research discipline. Coverage is thus limited to material published in the marketing research literature. However, this paper discusses the relevance of this material from marketing research for the design of research in the public sector, specifically the domain of the community college (public, two-year institutions).

Customer Satisfaction Models

100

RP Group Proceedings 2000

Introduction Both public and private sectors have given much attention to the concept of customer satisfaction in the past couple of decades. Naturally, administrators have requested their staff to do customer satisfaction studies for their own organizations. An analyst or researcher must operationalize the concept of customer satisfaction in order to measure it. More importantly, in order for any measurements to have validity, the analyst needs to assume some model of the subject matter. The analyst must use very explicit conceptualizations of the subject matter (in other words, models) if she/he expects to do research and analysis... [continues]

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