Custom satisfaction is key to today’s business because of these reasons. Firstly, customers are an almost-hard-to-find resource which is easier to retrieve from a customer of old than one of the recent times. Secondly, customer satisfaction affects the profitability of a company positively regarding revenues (Rosenberg and Czepiel, 2017). In the present scenario, corporations that are successful gain competitive advantage via increased efficiency, improved customer relationship as well as high quality of service. Customers obtain the corporation’s information via customer advocacy. Creation and maintenance of customer’s loyalty have turned out to be vital in the service markets of today. Elsewhere in the financial service industry such as in the banking sector, maintenance of paramount quality of service is taken as vital in attaining customer satisfaction, growth as well as value creation. One’s ability to comprehend customer wants/needs concerning the service or product is key to measuring customer satisfaction level. Every business firm aims at satisfying its customers to a greater extent. This is so because customer satisfaction builds the foundation for the booming of any business. The measurement of customer satisfaction plays a vital role in today’s competitive business environment (Sharma and Chaubey, 2014).
Among the priority tools to birth a prospering business is customer satisfaction. It can be described as the totality of evaluation based on consumption experience with goods and services as well as a total purchase over time (Fornell et al., 1996). Marketing goes hand in hand with customer satisfaction which means that it ascertains the customer expectation with how firms and companies are facilitating goods and services. Actionable and reliable information on the way to get customers more satisfied is, the hence an vital result (Oliver, 1999). Customer satisfaction can be seen as the principal component of the strategy of business as well as product repurchase and retention of customers. Companies or firms should sell methods and ideas after completing all relevant documents to maximize customer satisfaction. For instance, customers will purchase a car after looking closely at its attributes including the functionality of the engine, what is its millage, what is its model and if there are scratches on its surface. Therefore, after keenly looking at it they are disappointed after buying it. Otherwise, if the firm or company utilizes their build and sell mechanism, clients may anticipate that the car looks exactly like what they saw on pictures or in an exhibition. Hence the company might receive complaints if anything is wrong or faulty. According to Hill, Roche, and Allen (2007), customer’s satisfaction mimics a barometer forecasting the future behaviour of a particular customer.
1.2 Customer satisfaction and its relation to the product/service provided
The product and its features, reliability, functions, customer support and sales activity, however, are the most vital aspects needed to hit or supersede customer satisfaction. Satisfied clients go back and purchase even more. Apart from buying more, customers also function as a link to get another potential customer. This is done by the sharing of previous experiences with goods or services (Hague and Hague, 2016). Client retention value and cost is only ten percent of winning and retaining a new one. Hence, when a company earns the trust of a customer, it ought to be keen to develop a good or perfect relationship with such a customer (Rebekah and Sharyn, 2004). Provision of excellent quality services and goods in this twentieth century is not all about satisfying clients but also gaining a position that is safe. This move has indeed significantly benefited the clients on the consumption of quality products.
Customers in most cases search for value in the whole service provided which entails team-wise collaboration within the department concerned with distinct elements of such offering including the core product (services or goods), product documentation and delivering the product. Furthermore, from the perspective of productivity and profitability, only activities producing value for clients should be undertaken (Hill, Brierley and MacDougall, 2003). Thus, firms need to study core attributes of the clients. Arguably, entrepreneurs should build customer’s trust so that it becomes easier to retrieve customer’s feedback. This is the way customer-oriented service or product could be build up.
Customer gratification is relative and dynamic. Only the notion of “customer-centricity” can assist businesses improve customer’s happiness and hence, maintain customers truly. On the contrary, when competitors enhance the satisfaction of their customers, then the company can lose corporate customers. Customer expectations should be noted while adjusting customer satisfaction. Value for money and product and service quality positively affect customer satisfaction. Before achieving customer happiness, employee satisfaction is equally important. If workers possess a positive impact, then they can boost the level of customer gratification (Lovelock and Wright, 2007). Satisfaction is such a dynamic target that could evolve, and various factors influence it. In particular, when the product usage or experience of service occurs over time, customer satisfaction may vary vastly depending on what point in experience or cycle of usage it is utilized.
Customer satisfaction can be influenced by an individual service or product. Customer satisfaction can also be affected by emotional customer responses, their perceptions of equity and their features (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003, pp. 87–89). Increased satisfaction of customers can result to company benefits such as improved customer’s positive word-of-mouth communication, customer loyalty, an extension of the customer's lifecycle, expansion of merchandise’s life and increased customer’s buying ability. When the client is satisfied with service received or good purchased, he or she can buy as frequent as possible as well as recommending the service or product to other potential clients. It is not possible for a corporation or company to grow up when it disregards or ignores customer needs. According to the customer satisfaction analysis model in Tao’s work (Tao, 2014), when customer experience levels with customer expectation, then customer satisfaction becomes higher.
Conversely, when compared to expectations, worse customer’s experience results in lower satisfaction. Two ways exist meant to boost customer satisfaction for firms. Firstly is the adjustment of services, which enhances customer experience. Secondly is trying to effectively and precisely manage the expectations of customers by decreasing the level that is desired (Tao, 2014). However, the former approach is adopted mainly by organizations, and it achieves great success. Companies or business firms in the future ahead will have to make several necessary adjustments to be assured of continuous improvement.
1.3 Customer Satisfaction Antecedents
The examination of the customers happiness antecedents has been going on (Weaver and Brickman, 1974; Oliver, 1980; Anderson and Sullivan, 1993). Previous research studies repeatedly showed that a positive disconfirmation of expectation of customers boosts customer satisfaction. On the contrary, negative disconfirmation seems to lower satisfaction of customers (Oliver, 1980). Such effects are purely asymmetric since the effect of negative disconfirmation is much stronger than its positive counterpart (examples are in Knox and Oest, 2014; Gijsenberg, Heerde and Verhoef, 2015).
Disconfirmation is an independent as well as a distinct body from its two key bodies namely (performance) expectation and perceived performance. Previous studies reveal weak or mixed results of these components of customer satisfaction. For instance, Churchill and Surprenant (1982) reveal that for long-lasting products-perceived performance, disconfirmation and expectation never affects the satisfaction of customers. This is because clients often lack adequate information in forming reliable expectation geared towards purchasing the durable product. According to a post-buying survey (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993) covering a variety of product categories, disconfirmation alongside perceived performance affects customer satisfaction as opposed to expectation and disconfirmation.
Various researchers have also reiterated the significance of continued performance of service in customer satisfaction maintenance. McCollough, Berry, and Yadav (2000), for instance, carry out experiments based on scenarios to demonstrate that satisfaction of customers drop after service recovery and failure (even in the presence of high-recovery performance) than when there is consistent flaw-free service. Elsewhere, Rust et al. (1999) show that there is no necessity of exceeding customer satisfaction in order to get increased preference. Furthermore, the reception of a certain level of poor service will not reduce inclination. Other studies provide some facts that performance inconsistency circumstances may cause positive results. Sriram, Chintagunta, and Manchanda (2015) demonstrate that service variability high levels can boost retention of customers when the general performance of service is low. Another study (Bolton, Lemon and Bramlett, 2006) discover a few extremely pleasant experiences which have a significant impact on customers.
2. Customer Expectation and Experience
2.1 Introduction
Customer experience refers to all experiences which a particular client has with services and goods, throughout a relationship with that goods supplier or service provider. These experiences can entail awareness, interaction, attraction, discovery, purchase use, advocacy, as well as cultivation. Customer experience can also be used to imply an individual experience of a single transaction, and the difference is ordinarily transparent in such contexts (Sharma and Chaubey, 2014). Commentators and analysts who observe and note customer relationship management and experience have continually identified the relevance of managing the experience of customers. For example, consumers using a new generation mobile phones, increased banking service fees, the rise of online financial services and direct pay all contribute to a continued shift in the way banking organizations and SACCOs render services to their customers.
West Monroe Partners define the experience of customers in the banking sector (both individual and commercial consumers who deposit cash and own loans in a financial firm) as the sum of the interaction of customers with a firm at all angles, and the perceptions of customers that arise about the brand. Effortless (and positive) customer association can result to increase loyalty, satisfaction, and increased lifetime value of customers. The ability of a business firm to deliver a customer experience that distinguishes it in the face of its clients is necessary to raise the magnitude of client’s spending with the firm or company and hence inspiring loyalty to its service or product. “Loyalty” is driven by the interaction of the company with its clients and how best it renders on their needs (Bargal and Sharma, 2008).
2.2 Customer Expectation and Experience, and their relation with service/product provided
In Tao’s customer satisfaction analysis model (Tao, 2014), when customer experience levels with customer expectation, customer satisfaction becomes higher. Conversely, when compared to expectations, worse customer experience results in lower customer satisfaction. Cumulative customer satisfaction entails the overall attitude of the customer based on each and every experience and encounters with the firm or company. The approach of Olsen and Johnson (2003) assumes that clients rely on their wholesome experience in the time of making purchase decisions and forming intentions. Previous studies leave the evaluation period open to gather cumulative evaluations. To be specific, clients are requested to put into consideration all their individual experiences to the present when giving assessment of their satisfaction from using a particular good or service rendered (Fornell et al., 1996).
With no more sustainability of price differentiation, products becoming commoditized as well as customers demanding more, business organizations- specifically providers of communications services (cable satellite, landline, and broadband)- are eyeing the delivery of superb customer experiences. A 2009 research study on 860 executives in the corporate world showed that business firms that have boosted their investment in management of customer experience over the last three years reported increased customer satisfaction and customer referral rates (Hossain and Leo, 2009). Client experience is becoming the most significant aspect of attaining business success for firms across all economic sectors (Peppers and Rogers, 2005). Starbucks, for example, spent at least 10 million dollars on advertising from 1987 to 98, yet added more than 2000 new stores to accommodate increasing sales (Sharma and Chaubey, 2014).
The management of customer experience is a strategy that pays attention to the processes as well as operations of business around individual customer wants and needs. Companies today are more focused on the significance of customer experience. Japanese Rae notes that business firms are getting to realize that constructing extensive customer experiences is an abstract enterprise that involves strategy, the orchestration of various business models. Integration of technology, the commitment of the company’s CEO and brand management (Liang and Wang, 2006). A Harvard Business School’s reviewer, Allen James, noted that 80 percent of businesses report offering a great customer experience. In a bleak contrast to the aforementioned figure, eight percent of customers have the same feeling. James Allen cites that firms should have the ability to implement what he terms as the “Three D’s." In this case, the first D concerns with designing the right incentive/input for the rightly identified client, rendered in any environment that is enticing. The second D concerns the ability of a company to focus on the whole team to deliver
a specific suggested experience. The third D fundamentally determines
the success of a company eyeing the development of consistent execution (Allen, Reichheld and Hamilton, 2005). A company or business firm should regularly train, teach and develop to match the constant requirements of offering a remarkable customer experience.
Regarding Allen Richardson, a blogger in the Harvard Business Review, a firm ought to define and comprehend all customer experience dimensions to register success for a much longer time. Some firms divide the experience of customers into interactions with the consumer technically such as tablet use, smartphone use or web use. Other firms define interactions such as retail service offered face to face, or over-the-phone customer service as customer experience. In a global economy that is continually growing, where bricks-and-mortar business and technology interact from time to time or even wrestle for the customer base, it is necessary to acknowledge the adverse effects on clients. Every company or business firm offers some association and service, and the more an entity is aware of what kind of service it would like to provide, the more it will develop a positive experience.
All the attributes and variable of the client’s expectations cannot be adequately controlled. Such are the individual emotions, behaviours, and perceptions, which can change the experience of customers (Richardson, 2010). For instance, equipment that fails to function over and over again or that does not last for long as expected can generate complaints that can spread via online platforms or word of mouth. In this case, no amount of customer experience management can substitute proper product engineering and functional product design. No lengths of management of customer experience can replace a cell phone network that is inconsistent, a computer that fails to meet certain expectations, an airplane that seems unsafe to fly in, a car that fails to start and requiring numerous repairs despite being new and software that runs slowly. One way to adjust or change customer perception is via utilization of diversity. Hiring from different diversities will render distinct perspectives or insights from distinct ethnicities, distinct genders or distinct cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, diversity in the way a company staffs also helps in attracting and retaining a customer base that is diverse. Whether race, life experiences, gender or age, clients become loyal if the firm gives them a person who understands their antecedent and can lead them keenly through the expected experience (Sharma and Chaubey, 2014).
Tamas Jonas and Janos Kovesi (2010, pp 69) reported that understanding the voice of customers an essential contributor to any organization’s success in providing services or products. Customer sovereignty is a process of reviewing satisfaction of customers towards service quality, the critical factor in marketing and it is often assumed that satisfaction of customers is the critical element in the determination of long-run booming of any business. Tu Rungting asserts that perceived quality of service and expectations strongly influence the emotions of customers, and these emotions substantially impact customer satisfaction and perception of service experience. Service experience acts as a mediator between service quality effects, emotions, and expectations on customer satisfaction (Tu, 2004).
3. Conclusion
In conclusion, product/ service quality is a function of customer expectation before purchase, expected output quality and expected process quality. While service/ product quality is the extent to which the product/ service itself, product/ service organization and product/ service process can satisfy the customer’s expectation, defined service/ product quality becomes the vacuum between the expected service/ product and client’s perceptions of the actual product/ service provided. Customers judge service/ product quality as “low” if the performance falls below their expectations, and the converse is true. Therefore, to close this gap, it calls for adjustments in the actual product/ service provided or expectation; for instance, it might demand heightening of the actual performance or toning down the expectations. This is because customers tend to compare between expected products/ services and the actual products/ services provided. While product/ service quality depends on expected product/ service and perceived product/ service, quality spells excellent or superiority. Hence, customer satisfaction can be considered as a comparative behaviour between expectation of customers and the levels of service/ product quality performance such as customer’s experience with the product/ service provided.
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