The concept and assessment of customer satisfaction

In all sectors of the economy, organizations need to know how well they are satisfying customer needs and expectations. To achieve this, they have to translate general conceptions of customer satisfaction into decisions about what to measure and what methods to use to collect data. Both conceptualization and operationalization of customer satisfaction, as well as the logic of measuring it, have to be examined. The framework for this examination can be either the business-to-customer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) setting. The discussion in the chapter pertains to interactions within both of these. The chapter also addresses the interrelated concepts of customer satisfaction, perceived service quality and customer loyalty. Further, it deals with methodological issues relevant in survey collection of customer satisfaction data. Fianlly, the chapter evaluates the ABC ACSS questionnaire from the conceptual and methodological points of view.