Most definitions fall in one of the two categories referring to Customer Satisfaction as
a) an outcome: “an emotional response” (Westbrook and Reilly 1983), “the summary psychological state” (Oliver 1981)
b) a process “an evaluation rendered that the (consumption) experience was at least as good as it was supposed to be” (Hunt 1977:459).
We tend to see satisfaction as a process and use it in the sense given by Oliver (1997:13)
“..satisfaction is the consumer’s fulfillment response. It is a judgment that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provided (or is providing) a pleasurable (italics not added) level of consumption-related fulfillment, including levels of under- or over fulfillment.”
What you should be aware of is that nobody, up until now, came up with a universal model of measuring satisfaction. Although there are several national satisfaction indexes (American Customer Satisfaction Index, UK Customer Satisfaction Index) these are not suitable to be used in small scale, company level research. Starting from validated research, each company should create their own customer satisfaction model.
What you should be aware of is that nobody, up until now, came up with a universal model of measuring satisfaction. Although there are several national satisfaction indexes (American Customer Satisfaction Index, UK Customer Satisfaction Index) these are not suitable to be used in small scale, company level research. Starting from validated research, each company should create their own customer satisfaction model.
