The drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty: Cross-industry findings from Denmark

What drives customer satisfaction and loyalty? Which drivers have the largest impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty? Are there cross-industry diVerences in the drivers’ impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty? These questions are of great importance to companies. Customer satisfaction must not be a goal in itself, but only a means for improving the company’s performance. Several empirical studies have demonstrated a link between customer satisfaction, loyalty and the economic performance, measured in several ways. For example, return on investments, stock market value and market value added (Anderson et al., 1994; Bohte, 1996; EkloÈ f et al., 1999; Fornell, 1999; Fortune, 1998; Ittner & Larcker, 1996; Kristensen, 1997; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990). A profound knowledge about each driver’s impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty can help companies to optimize the allocation of limited resources. This knowledge will thereby have consequences for the company’s priority-setting and strategy development. The above-mentioned questions are the focus of this paper. The paper reports the development of a Danish Customer Satisfaction Index and the ® rst results from a pilot study. The methodology, which is based on the recently introduced European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI), is shortly presented. By using this ECSI approach, it is possible to obtain information about the levels of satisfaction, to understand customers’ perceptions and the reasons behind these, and to calculate the impact in terms of future loyalty. The drivers’ impact on satisfaction and loyalty is crucial for a company’s future performance. The impacts will vary in strength and oVer good opportunities for exploring possibilities of improving the future competitive situation of the individual company. The paper presents impacts of the drivers on customer satisfaction and loyalty, and industry diVerences are investigated. Managerial implications are discussed brie ̄ y, and consequences of the results for future customer satisfaction research are mentioned.