The Standards Issue: An Accessibility-Diagnosticity Perspective

Abstract

Consumer satisfaction (CS) is critical to business profitability. To implement any customer measurement program, businesses must understand bow consumers evaluate their (dis)satisfaction. Researchers have proposed that our satisfaction evaluations involve a comparison process between product (service) performance and standards of comparison. However, little research has been devoted to the understanding of the circumstances under which consumers utilize one or more standards, construct ad hoc or retrieve prior standards, or when standard disconfirmation would have little impact on CS. Based on the accessibility-diagnosticity model we propose preliminary answers to these issues. A standard is utilized only when it is accessible and diagnostic for (or relevant to) the judgment task or goal. Multiple standards however may be utilized when they are moderately diagnostic. Applying the same model, we suggest that accessibility and diagnosticity or goal relevance determine whether or not a consumer will construct or retrieve one or more standards from memory. When product performance is more diagnostic than. disconfirmation (and standards), it is more likely to affect customer satisfaction. Accessibility and diagnosticity are affected by individual, product and situational variables.