EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ON CUSTOMER REPATRONAGE AT AN OPTICAL DISPENSING PRACTICE IN SOUTH AFRICA

摘要

Optical health-care providers, such as Aum Optics, aim to create an exceptional customer experience for its clients. This paper provides an overview of the existing literature on two inter-related concepts, Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction, and expands on it to examine their influence on Repatronage intentions. Contemporary business organisations have therefore recognised that customers are important stakeholders. There is consensus among researches that the delivery of high levels of service quality and customer satisfaction holds many benefits: it is a significant predictor of customer loyalty-related intentions (Fullerton, 2005:101); and it increases customers’ purchase intentions, store loyalty, favourable word-of-mouth recommendations (Mc Alexander, Kalenburg, and Koening, 2004:34). The aim of the study is to assess the influence that Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction has on a customer’s intention to make repeat purchases from the same optometry service provider.