The Convergence of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality Evaluations with Increasing Customer Patronage

Abstract

Customer evaluations of services are critical to service providers. However, there is some ambiguity as to whether these evaluations should be measured as customer satisfaction or service quality and whether it makes a difference which type of evaluation is used. A conceptual framework is proposed to suggest that for customers who have recent associations with a service organization, it is helpful to measure both customer satisfaction and service quality because these constructs are distinct for recent customers and have additive predictive power for the future behavior of these customers. The framework also suggests that for customers who have a long-term association with a service organization, measuring either customer satisfaction or service quality may be sufficient because the constructs tend to overlap over time. An empirical study of retail customers supports the proposed framework. The implications of this framework and the findings of the study are discussed.