Application of customer satisfaction study to derive customer knowledge

Abstract Customer knowledge has become one of the most important economic assets to a firm. Knowing what customers value most in a company's products or services helps companies optimize resource utilization in areas for continuous improvement based on their needs and wants. This study extends previous research in customer satisfaction by showing how a customer satisfaction study can help answer questions, such as why customers are satisfied or dissatisfied, whether the company's complaint handling is effective and how to improve customers' satisfaction. We surveyed 532 customers served by a commercial banking organization in Taiwan. In addition, researchers demonstrated that there are differences in satisfaction levels among different genders. To explore further the reasons for these differences, we separated our sample to compare the specific causal links between the two gender samples and we draw broader inference from the results. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to test the theoretical model. PLS not only bridges theoretical and empirical knowledge but also facilitates the construction of a strategic management map and provides latent variable scores that could be utilized to report CSI scores. Our findings provide support for the application of CSI study to derive customer knowledge, which also reveals some interesting suggestions for future research.

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