Determining Attribute Importance in a Service Satisfaction Model

Determining the importance that customers place on the product and service attributes that drive their satisfaction with, and loyalty to, service providers is an essential part of a firm’s resource allocation process. An unsettled issue is whether importance measures should come directly from customers or be derived statistically and, if so, how. The authors compare direct importance ratings with a variety of methods for statistically deriving attribute importance in a customer satisfaction model. Using three data sets, the methods are compared on criteria that include their ability to explain variation in satisfaction, to identify customers’more important attributes, and to be interpretable. The findings suggest that because each of the tested methods has its strengths and weaknesses, it is essential to choose a method that is compatible with the research goals and context.

[1]  M. Bohanec,et al.  The Analytic Hierarchy Process , 2004 .

[2]  Michael D. Johnson,et al.  Service Equity, Satisfaction, and Loyalty: From Transaction-Specific to Cumulative Evaluations , 2003 .

[3]  Piyush Kumar.  The Impact of Performance, Cost, and Competitive Considerations on the Relationship between Satisfaction and Repurchase Intent in Business Markets , 2002 .

[4]  Terry H. Grapentine,et al.  A Practitioner’s Comment on Aimee L. Drolet and Donald G. Morrison’s “Do We Really Need Multiple-Item Measures in Service Research?” , 2001 .

[5]  A. Gustafsson,et al.  The Evolution and Future of National Customer Satisfaction Index Models , 2001 .

[6]  V. Mittal,et al.  Satisfaction, Repurchase Intent, and Repurchase Behavior: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Customer Characteristics , 2001 .

[7]  D. G. Morrison,et al.  Do We Really Need Multiple-Item Measures in Service Research? , 2001 .

[8]  Rodney H. Green,et al.  Testing the Reliability of Weight Elicitation Methods: Direct Rating versus Point Allocation , 2000 .

[9]  E. Anderson,et al.  Strengthening the Satisfaction-Profit Chain , 2000 .

[10]  A. Gustafsson,et al.  Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit : An Integrated Measurement and Management System , 2000 .

[11]  Janice Kim Winch,et al.  Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Survey Design, Use, and Statistical Analysis Methods, 2nd ed. , 1999 .

[12]  R. Downey,et al.  Missing data in Likert ratings: A comparison of replacement methods. , 1998, The Journal of general psychology.

[13]  Eric R. Ziegel,et al.  Measuring customer satisfaction , 1995 .

[14]  Anders Gustafsson,et al.  Bridging the Quality-Satisfaction Gap , 1997 .

[15]  R. Green,et al.  Judging Relative Importance: Direct Rating and Point Allocation Are Not Equivalent , 1997, Organizational behavior and human decision processes.

[16]  Seigyoung Auh,et al.  The Complex Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty for Automobiles , 1997 .

[17]  C. Fornell,et al.  The American Customer Satisfaction Index: Nature, Purpose, and Findings , 1996 .

[18]  R. Oliver.  Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective On The Consumer , 1996 .

[19]  Jan-Benedict E. M. Steenkamp,et al.  Quality guidance: a consumer based approach to food quality improvement using Partial Least Squares. , 1996 .

[20]  J. Friedman,et al.  [A Statistical View of Some Chemometrics Regression Tools]: Response , 1993 .

[21]  J. Friedman,et al.  A Statistical View of Some Chemometrics Regression Tools , 1993 .

[22]  V. Zeithaml,et al.  A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality: From Expectations to Behavioral Intentions , 1993 .

[23]  R. Bagozzi.  The self-regulation of attitudes, intentions, and behavior , 1992 .

[24]  C. Fornell.  A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience: , 1992 .

[25]  Paul E. Green,et al.  Conjoint Analysis in Marketing: New Developments with Implications for Research and Practice , 1990 .

[26]  J. Carman.  Consumer perceptions of service quality: an assessment of the SERVQUAL dimensions , 1990 .

[27]  J. Dyer.  Remarks on the analytic hierarchy process , 1990 .

[28]  A. Parasuraman,et al.  SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. , 1988 .

[29]  D. Brinberg,et al.  Assessing attribute importance: a comparison of six methods , 1986 .

[30]  M. GuadagniPeter,et al.  A Logit Model of Brand Choice Calibrated on Scanner Data , 1983 .

[31]  F. Bookstein,et al.  Two Structural Equation Models: LISREL and PLS Applied to Consumer Exit-Voice Theory: , 1982 .

[32]  F. Bookstein,et al.  Two Structural Equation Models: LISREL and PLS Applied to Consumer Exit-Voice Theory , 1982 .

[33]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .

[34]  John A. Martilla,et al.  Importance-Performance Analysis , 1977 .

[35]  Peter Wright,et al.  Modeling an Organizational Buyer's Product Evaluation Strategy: Validity and Procedural Considerations , 1976 .

[36]  K. Jöreskog.  A general method for analysis of covariance structures , 1970 .

[37]  W. Massy.  Principal Components Regression in Exploratory Statistical Research , 1965 .