酒店管理学Literature Review范文-(customer satisfaction)

Customer Satisfaction消费者满意度

 

Table of Contents

1.0 Definition of customer satisfaction 3

2.0 Importance of customer satisfaction 4

3.0 Customer satisfaction measurement theory model 5

3.1 Expectation and perception gap model 5

3.2 Equity theory model 5

3.3 Attribution theory 5

3.4 Emotion theory 6

4.0 Factors affecting customer satisfaction and hotel countermeasures 6

5.0 Empirical study on customer satisfaction in hospitality industry 7

6.0 Critical analysis 9

7.0 Conclusion 9

References 11

1.0 Definition of customer satisfaction 1.0客户满意度的定义

本研究回顾了客户满意度的定义和重要性，理论模型，实证研究结果，指出了当前客户满意度研究中存在的局限性，为今后的研究提出了方向。

This study reviews definition and importance, theoretical models, empirical research results related to customer satisfaction to note the limitations existing in current researches on customer satisfaction, thus bringing forward directions for future researches.

Assaf和Magnini观察到，学者们从不同角度提出了对客户满意度的各种理解和认识。在学术界，有两种观点来定义顾客满意度（2012，pp.625）。 Homme和Raymond总结说，一种观点认为客户满意度是顾客对购买行为的后期感受，这是消费体验产生的结果（2013年，第120页）。正如Howard和Sheth所定义的那样，客户满意度是客户的一种认知状态，即他们是否获得了足够的报酬（1969年，第318页）。 Omar，Ariffin和Ahmad认为，当根据消费体验形成的消费者期望与消费体验一致时，顾客满意度就会出现一种情绪状态（2016，pp.390）。另一种观点认为，顾客满意度是消费过程中消费行为的整个过程或之后的评价。正如Keith所说，客户满意度是一个由经验和评估引起的过程（1977，pp.21）。 Westbrook和Reilly进一步表明客户满意度是伴随或购买过程中产生的情绪反应，它是通过产品展示，整体购物环境，产品和服务质量因素对消费者心理的影响而产生的（1983，pp.260 ）。 Deng，Yeh和Sung指出，考虑到客户满意度的内涵，评估过程是核心部分，它们是从过程的角度来定义客户满意度（2013，pp.138）。Assaf and Magnini observed that scholars are from different angles to bring forward a variety of understanding and awareness about customer satisfaction. In academia, there are two types of point of view defining customer satisfaction (2012, pp. 625). Homme and Raymond summarized that one view is that customer satisfaction is customers’ post-feeling towards purchase behavior afterwards, which is a result generated from consumption experience (2013, pp. 120). As Howard and Sheth defined that customer satisfaction is customers’ a kind of cognitive state for whether they obtain a sufficient compensation for what they pay (1969, pp. 318). Omar, Ariffin, and Ahmad argued that customer satisfaction is an emotional state emerged when consumer expectations formed according to consumption experiences are consistent with consumption experience (2016, pp. 390). The other view is that customer satisfaction is the evaluation throughout or after the process of consumption towards consumer behavior. As Keith posited, customer satisfaction is a process arising from experience and assessment (1977, pp.21). Westbrook and Reilly further showed the views that customer satisfaction is an emotional reaction accompanied by or produced in purchase process, it is produced by affecting by product display, overall shopping environment, product and service quality factors on consumers’ psychology (1983, pp. 260). Deng, Yeh and Sung indicated that considering connotation of customer satisfaction, evaluation process is the core part, they are from the perspective of process to define customer satisfaction (2013, pp. 138).

Jiang and Zhang proposed that the first point refers to post-evaluation of customers towards specific purchase behavior, the second view refers to a thorough evaluation of customers carrying out based on the overall purchase and consumption experience (2016, pp. 86). Since the latter takes into account all purchase and consumption experience of customers in consumption process, so it is more basic, more effective definition (Homme & Raymond, 2013, pp. 125). In this study, it tends to define customer satisfaction from consumption process. Rhee and Yang concluded that customer satisfaction is comparison of consumers’ expectations of a process of consumption and their actual consumption experience, so as to determine whether it reaches what they expect (2015, pp.585).

2.0 Importance of customer satisfaction

Jiang and Zhang upheld that profit is proportional to customer satisfaction of a hotel, the higher customer satisfaction there is, the higher customer loyalty there will be, and the time for customers’ consuming in a hotel will be increased, sum of customers’ single consumption in the hotel is likely to be increased, while there is high customer satisfaction to form public praise propagation, attracting a large number of other customers to consume in the hotel (2016, pp.87). And low customer satisfaction will not only lead to loss of profits brought by a customer, but also cause loss of more profit brought by other clients probably because of negative public praise propagation (Omar, Ariffin & Ahmad, 2016, pp. 390). 

Khan, Garg and Rahman commented that customer satisfaction is closely related to a hotel's reputation and image (2015, pp. 271), if products or services provided by a hotel can satisfy customers, the hotel's reputation and image will be greatly enhanced, thus helping the formation of positive word of mouth effect among consumers to improve the reputation of the hotel (Chen, Yang, Li & Liu, 2015, pp. 137).

As Kralj and Solnetdescribed mentioned that improved customer satisfaction will help to maintain good relationships established between a hotel and customers to improve customer loyalty, especially in the situation when there is serious competition in hotel industry currently, by providing high quality personalized services and products to meet consumers’ personalized demand will improve customer satisfaction, which has a special significance for the development of a hotel (2010, pp. 717). At the same time, considering from a marketing point of view, costs for developing a new customer are six times more than costs for keeping an old customer, thus increasing customer satisfaction will help to retain existing customers and thus save large sums of corporate marketing costs and operating costs for a hotel (Ali, Hussain & Ragavan, 2014, pp. 278).

3.0 Customer satisfaction measurement theory model

3.1 Expectation and perception gap model

Lahap et al. concluded, the model describes that before purchase, customers will have expectation for various interests and utility provided by products that they will purchase later (2016, pp.153); after purchase, they will compare the using experience obtained in consuming the products with their expectation formed in advance: when the actual perception and expectation are the same, customers will have a moderate satisfaction; when actual perception exceeds expectation, it will lead to customers’ satisfaction; and when the actual perception can not reach the desired result, it will make customers unsatisfactory (Homme & Raymond, 2013, pp. 123).

3.2 Equity theory model

Omar, Ariffin and Ahmad claimed, whether customers are satisfied with products not only depends on the comparison between expected and perceived quality, but also on whether customers think whether the transaction is fair and reasonable (2016, pp.390). When customers feel that the ratio of utility they get and what they invest is the same as the ratio of product provider, they will feel fair and satisfied. The higher degree of equity there is, the higher customer satisfaction there will be; on the contrary, the degree of equity will be lower, and customers are more dissatisfied (Lee & Heo, 2009, pp. 636).

3.3 Attribution theory

Ren et al. observed that if customer perception towards a product or service is below their expectation, customers are always trying to determine the cause (2016, pp.19). The reason determined has a significant impact on their satisfaction. If customers attribute to a product or service itself, then their satisfaction will be greatly reduced, if customers attributed to accidental factors or customers themselves, the possibilities of their dissatisfaction will be greatly reduced (Su, 2004, pp.403).#p#分页标题#e#

3.4 Emotion theory

Westbrook and Reilly suggested that customer satisfaction is affected by their own subjective feelings in the process of purchasing products and accepting services (1983, pp.258). If a consumer's subjective feelings are negative, his dissatisfaction with a product or service will be increased, on the contrary, customer satisfaction will be increased (Syaqirah & Faizurrahman, 2014, pp.385).

4.0 Factors affecting customer satisfaction and hotel countermeasures

Xu and Li asserted that hotel products and services are the main factors affecting customer satisfaction, including whether quality of products and services meets consumer demand, whether the price of products and services has been recognized by consumers, whether stability of products and the services can be consistent, and so on (2016, pp. 66). Based on expectation and perception gap, Syaqirah and Faizurrahmancommented that satisfaction comes from that customers’ perception is more than their expectation, therefore, advertisement of a hotel for its products and services should be true, and hotel's commitment to guests must be enforced, otherwise it will increase customer expectations and reduce customer experience, leading to customers’ dissatisfaction (2014, pp. 386). In terms of individual needs, Ren, Qiu, Wang and Lin claimed that in the current highly homogenized competition in hotel industry, how to provide target customers with valuable personalized products and services, as well as how to carry out good customer relationship management is an important way to improve a hotel’s customer satisfaction (2016, pp. 18).

Emotion theory suggests that consumers’ own emotional state is an important factor affecting consumer satisfaction, for a hotel, in addition to the factors of products and services, keeping a clean, bright and comfortable environment, professional, positive, friendly attitude can greatly ease the negative emotions of consumers towards the hotel to reduce decreased satisfaction arising from negative emotions of consumers (Subramanian, Gunasekaran & Gao, 2016, pp. 216).

From the perspective of attribution theory, Zhou, Ye, Pearce and Wu echoed that when consumers contribute failure in products and services to a hotel, their satisfaction will be greatly reduced, therefore, they point out that if there is an accident, the hotel should take timely remedial measures, through communication and interpretation to obtain consumers’ understanding (2014, pp.7).

Khan, Garg and Rahman  supported that if hotel staff can establish a good interaction with customers and show their sincerity and respect in the process of communication with guests, then if there is a mistake, guests usually will not contribute all failure to the hotel (2015, pp.270).

Assaf, Josiassen, Cvelbar and Woo insisted that it is very important for a hotel to maintain a good reputation and high quality services, products, and therefore when guests consume in such a hotel, consumers will be more likely to attribute mistakes encountered in the hotel to accidental factor, and they will not have much dissatisfaction towards the hotel (2015, pp. 82).

From the perspective of equity theory, Liu, Wu, Yeh and Chen summarized that establishing smooth communication channels between a hotel and consumer, feedback in a timely manner to inquiries and complaints of consumers are possible to reduce consumers’ feeling of unfairness (2015, pp. 143). Rhee and Yang noted that if there is an incident happens during the process of providing of services by a hotel, consumers are eager to be treated fairly. Therefore, the results of the hotel compensate, the compensation process, the attitude of the staff, compensation rules and procedures of the hotel should try to be fair and equitable, so that customers will feel again the sincerity and enthusiasm of the hotel to eliminate customers’ original dissatisfaction (2015, pp. 585). Kralj and Solnet denoted that a hotel can also make procedures of dealing with compensation transparent, open and fair to enhance customers’ perception towards the fairness of the complaining process (2010, pp. 713).

5.0 Empirical study on customer satisfaction in hospitality industry 

Lahap et al. were through questionnaires towards 300 Malaysian respondents to carry out regression analysis to conclude that there was a positive relationship between hotel image and customer satisfaction, they analyzed that a good image of a hotel indicated a hotel's high-quality products and services, which was one of the main reasons for a hotel to attract customers (2016, pp. 153).

Based on expectancy-disconfirmation framework, based on expectancy-disconfirmation framework, Agyeiwaah, Adongo, Dimache and Wondirad carried out questionnaires towards guests in Hong Kong to report that customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are positively correlated (2016, pp. 73). Then further note that meeting personalized demand of consumers, paying attention to communication with consumers and a good customer relationship management is the most important factor to improve customer satisfaction.

Deng, Yeh and Sung made use of a hotel customer satisfaction index (H-CSI) model to conduct a survey towards 412 international travelers, they identify that past satisfaction study on hotel guests has ignored investigation on guest emotion, based on traditional studies to increase investigation on guest emotional contributes to a better estimation of customer satisfaction and behavior, which also helps to improve hotel management level and competitiveness (2013, pp.137).

Jiang and Zhang made use of quantitative research methods to explore Chinese tourists’ satisfaction towards hotels, they note that in addition to quality of service, price is one of the reasons affecting Chinese consumers’ satisfaction, while they also point out that consumers with different backgrounds are affected by different factors in terms of satisfaction (2016, pp. 86). Therefore for a hotel, good customer relationship management to improve targeted service and marketing strategy is one of the effective ways to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

From the perspective of efficiency, Assaf and Magnini adopted distance stochastic frontier method to investigate the satisfaction of US guests (2012, pp. 82), Lee and Heo revealed that efficiency of a hotel in terms of management and service has influences on guests’ satisfaction, including efficient of the front desk staff, communication efficiency, room service efficiency and so on, of which communication efficiency is the most important factor affecting customer satisfaction (2009, pp. 636).

6.0 Critical analysis

Theoretical and empirical research on satisfaction is already quite mature, but there is still room for improvement in some respects. Firstly, in theory, according to Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory, needs are divided into five levels, satisfaction is also a state of mind of humanity, and therefore satisfaction performs differently at different levels, for example, considering hotels of a lower level, customers are satisfied as they can prove quality products and services; in hotels of a medium level, hotels should provide better personalized services and products, as well as maintain good customer relations to reach high customer satisfaction. In hotels of higher levels, consumers not only want the hotels to be able to provide good products and services, but also hope that the hotels can have a sense of social responsibility and live in harmony with the surrounding environment (Homme & Raymond, 2013, pp. 125). Therefore, how to elaborate on the performance of different levels of satisfaction theoretically may be a valuable research direction of further research.

Secondly, from the perspective of empirical research, the majority of empirical studies on consumer satisfaction are from a single enterprise’s or a single hotel's point of view, but in reality, customer satisfaction is also investigated through comparison, for example, if a hotel has some flaws in terms of hardware facilities, as long as it is a little better than other local hotels, then the consumer satisfaction for the hotel will not be low, especially in current situation when network usage is very convenient, consumers have an easy access to information of each hotel, on the one hand, consumers will contrast hotels with each other to choose the hotel which makes them more satisfied; on the other hand, a hotel needs to more highlight its own characteristics and personality to improve consumer satisfaction. Therefore, whether consumer satisfaction can be obtained by comparing needs to be further explained and confirmed by empirical study.

7.0 Conclusion

Customer satisfaction is comparison of consumers’ expectations of a process of consumption with their actual consumption experience, so as to determine whether what they perceive has reached their expectations. Customer satisfaction is very important for a hotel, improving customer satisfaction will help a hotel to increase revenue and reduce costs, so as to improve customer satisfaction and image. Theoretical model of customer satisfaction includes perception forecasting model, equity theory, attribution theory, theory of emotion. These theories better explain the reasons for customer satisfaction generated, it also provides a theoretical guidance for a hotel on how to improve customer satisfaction. Theoretical and empirical research on satisfaction is already quite mature, but as described above, it should also be improved in some aspects.

 

References

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