Customer-based antecedents of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in business-to-business services.

摘要

The motivation for this research is the identification, from the customers' viewpoint, of the antecedents of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in a business-to-business (B2B) service environment at the service encounter. The research spans both services marketing and services operations.;The primary research methodology employed was the Critical Incident technique (CIT), a qualitative methodology. The second methodology, developed solely for this study and exploratory in nature, was a quantitative technique with its foundation in the expectations disconfirmation approach. The intent was to provide a comparison of two very different methodologies.;Previous work in the area of services quality, satisfaction and dissatisfaction has not adequately identified what drives satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the B2B environment. This study seeks to fill that gap.;The findings demonstrated that the antecedents of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the B2B environment were quite different from what anecdotal evidence might suggest. Indeed, the results differed significantly from an earlier study undertaken in the business-to-consumer (B2C) environment.;Customers base their perceptions of service organizations on interactions, or encounters, with the service provider that lead to satisfaction, dissatisfaction, or a neutral state. These customer-based assessments of service quality and satisfaction, dissatisfaction, or neutrality will lead to a loyal customer and retention, or defection of that customer, particularly in situations with low switching costs.;The objective of this study is to identify the role and magnitude of ten dimensions of service quality as antecedents of satisfaction (satisfiers) and dissatisfaction (dissatisfiers) in a B2B service environment, from the perspective of the customer. By identifying the dimensions' relationships with satisfaction and dissatisfaction, organizations can better design and implement more effective service operations. Organizations can focus their efforts on increasing and continuously improving those interactions with their customers that lead to satisfaction, while removing, reducing or improving those interactions that lead to dissatisfaction.;The results of this study indicated that some dimensions of service quality are associated with satisfaction; some are more aligned with dissatisfaction; and some are associated to varying degrees with both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The results of the qualitative methodology agreed closely with the results of the quantitative methodology. The most important dimensions are responsiveness and understanding the customer.;The study was conducted with commercial (B2B) customers of a major Canadian bank and is only concerned with high contact service situations, typically with one-on-one delivery, but not Internet or equipment-based delivery. It is anticipated that the results of this study may be generalizable to other high contact, people-based, B2B service providers.