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International Food and Agribusiness Management Review
Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
A Customer Service Design Case Study: Insights on Customer
Loyalty in the Brazilian Food Sector
Ione Lucia Florêncio de Almeidaa and Luciana Florêncio de Almeida bL
a
Professor, ESPM Business School, Rua Manoel Guiedes, 264 suite 121,
Itaim Bibi, Sao Paulo, SP, 04536-070, Brazil
b
Professor, ESPM Business School, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Abstract
Marketing managers of local and international food companies have realized that
what they offer to customers go well beyond the characteristics and attributes of the
products their companies manufacture and market. Service has become an integral
part of the offer (Grönroos, 1993); a high service quality improves the company
competitiveness, builds customer trust, supports the company brand and other
product attributes (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991, p. 12). This paper seeks to
investigate whether customer care service perceived quality in the food sector is
truly relevant to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Keywords: quality service evaluation, consumer service, loyalty, food industry
LCorresponding author: Tel: +55.11.3167.4218
Email: lu.florencio@terra.com.br
Other contact information: I. Almeida: almeida.ione@terra.com.br
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
Introduction
In recent research, Allen et al (2006) found out that 80 percent of the managers
interviewed believed they offer a superior experience to their customers. A
contradiction merged, since their customers thought otherwise, i.e, a mere 8% of the
companies were found to deliver what their customer expected. In a fiercely
competitive world numbers like those raise a question: how can loyalty be build
based on a weak experience of consumption? Companies today clearly recognize that
their offers to customers go well beyond the characteristics and attributes of the
product they manufacture. Service has become an integral part of the offer
(Grönroos, 1993), even in consumer goods, directly influencing customer satisfaction
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985; Heskett, Sasser & Schlesinger, 1997). A
high service quality improves company competitiveness, builds customer trust,
supports a company’s brand and other product attributes (Berry & Parasuraman,
1991, p. 12). Indeed, prior studies support that customer satisfaction is directly
linked to customer retention, repeated purchases and customer loyalty (Reichheld,
1996; Corrêa & Caon, 2002, p. 93; Bateson & Hoffman, 2001, p. 363).
One of the main concerns in the food business is to meet consumers’ expectations of
food quality. Not only do they expect a product in perfect condition for consumption,
but also with an extra something that gives them a sense that the product is safe
and healthy. In order to keep track of consumers’ satisfaction and complaints and
also to offer them detailed information and clarify doubts about products, food
companies have maintained costumer service departments, which establish a link
with customers, mainly through telephone contact.
Given that costumer care service is rarely investigated and no studies were found
establishing a connection between quality perception of this type of service and
customer satisfaction and retention especially in food sector, this research innovates
insofar as it brings some insights on customer loyalty for food marketing managers.
The investigation integrates two research methodologies: a qualitative study
through in-depth interviews with customers from diverse of food companies and a
survey on 364 customers who used the costumer service of a multinational food
company, a historical player in the Brazilian food market. Customer service
perceived quality, customer satisfaction and customer retention were measured and
a positive relationship among these constructs was established. This implies that
the customer service in the food business may have a role in establishing overall
customer satisfaction and retention of those clients who actually used the service.
The analysis also allowed identifying which aspects of customer service are more
influent in determining a better quality perception. This has significant managerial
importance since it can be used to better design new customer service centers or
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
improve existing ones, linking this activity to the overall company objective of
satisfying and retaining customers.
In order to understand the nature of the problem investigated and create a
framework to analyze it, next section presents the concept of service and its
characteristics, within the scenario of customer care service in the Brazilian food
market. Aspects of quality perception and loyalty will be reviewed next. Service
management literature was used as a theoretical foundation and, more particularly,
the script theory by Woodside et al (1989).
Literature Review
The idea of service has been gradually changing since its initial days, when it was
construed as something of a totally different nature from products. But although
early literature treats services and products dichotomously, recent authors have
tended to see a continuum between services and products (Gianesi & Corrêa, 1994;
Sasser, 2002; Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2002; Lovelock & Wright, 2001).
Berry and Parasuraman (1991, p.24) indicate that all offers have tangible and
intangible elements contributing to the main benefit perceived by the customer. The
relative weight of the tangible and intangible elements should determine a
classification into product and service.
Four aspects are generally used to characterize services: intangibility, joint
production and consumption, greater heterogeneity and perishability. Service is
intangible because it cannot be seen, smelled, tasted or touched in the same way as
a physical good. The inseparability of production and consumption relates to the
fact that services are usually first sold and only later simultaneously produced and
consumed, while goods are usually first produced, then sold and subsequently
consumed. Heterogeneity regards the potential increased variability in service
performance. Perishability concerns the fact that services cannot be stored, thereby
appending additional constraints in the attempt to match supply and demand
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985; Norman, 1993). These authors added the
characteristics of heterogeneity and perishability to the set of attributes developed
by Grönroos (1978, 1980, 1988) and highlighted the fact that the consumer does not
have ownership due to the intangibility characteristic of service.
Customer service in Brazilian food market
Customer service is a support activity to the company’s main products and includes
replies to doubts expressed by customers about a product and its utilization, taking
orders and organizing maintenance and repair. It involves interactions with
customers which can in person, by phone, by mail or by any other electronic means
(Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000; Lovelock 1983). These transactions aim to improve
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operational efficiency and customer satisfaction (Lovelock, 1983). Bowen et al.
(1989), Grönroos (1993) and Heskett et al. (1997) emphasized the role of customer
service in companies’ competitiveness. This activity can attract and help retain
customers since it has the potential to modify, positively of negatively, the perceived
value of the company offer (Bolton & Lemon, 1999). Customer service can also be a
source of valuable primary information about customers (Albrecht & Bradford,
1992).
Besides the strategic aspect of the consumer care service, in recent years it became
mandatory for food companies to invest in this type of service in order to respond
properly to consumer legislation. In Brazil, the first state agency created to defend
consumer rights, named Procon, was implemented in 1976 by the government of the
state of Sao Paulo, the most important state in Brazilian economy. Since this
initiative combined with the sanction of Federal Law 8.078, known as Consumer
Defense Code, in the 90’s, consumers’ perception of quality and their conviction in
their rights have become important issues to all companies.
Since its creation, the number of complaints and consults addressed to Procon has
increased steadily. In 1977 the number of requests was 1,542 going to around
368,000 in 2003. From this total, 12% were complaints, which were forwarded to the
companies (Fundacão Procon, 2004). In comparison to other economic sectors, in
first two quarters of 2006 food companies received 220 complaints, being 3,444 for
products and 4,910 for services (Fundacão Procon, 2006). In essence, consumers’
access to this type of institution occurs under two main circumstances: i) when the
company does not solve the problem or doubt, or ii) the company does not have a call
center to respond to the consumer’s requests. Based on the numbers, it might be
understood that consumers are accessing more effectively the food companies.
Therefore, accessing the call center is just a piece of the service quality perception
puzzle.
Quality in complaint management and consumer loyalty
Loyalty is identified as the current currency in the 21st century by Singh and
Sindershmukh (2000), once the relationships between companies and their
consumers have been more frugal each day. The key questions are: how to convert
sporadic consumers into heavy users? How to make them the announcers of the
benefits of a product to other potential consumers?
The power of loyalty has been associated to the quality of service delivered by the
companies to their consumers (Guns, 2002; Santos and Rossi, 2002; Brei and Rossi,
2005). And given that consumer care is an important service delivered by
companies, it is clear to understand the pivotal role it plays in consumer
satisfaction. Through a nationally representative survey of 22,300 customers of a
variety of products and services in Sweden, Andersen and Sullivan (1993) tested
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
important hypotheses from the satisfaction literature. Their conclusions assert that
“an important component of managing satisfaction is the ability to control the
impact of negative disconfirmation through complaint handling and effective
customer service”.
Service quality is directly related to consistency in customers’ expectations of what
is specified or promised and what is in fact delivered. It is the result of the match or
mismatch between customers’ expectations and customers’ perception of what was
delivered (Johnston & Clark, 2000, p. 126). Following this line, Zeithaml and Bitner
(2000, p. 69) identified the existence of four types of expectations: a) the desired
service, or what the customer wants; 2) the adequate service, or what the customer
is prepared to accept; 3) the expected service, or what the customer is seeing as the
most likely result of the service interaction. The difference between the expected
service and the perceived service is the gap to be minimized.
Moller (1997, p. 156) identified that the perception of a service customer is affected
by two types of quality: one objective or technical and another subjective, related to
the person providing the service. This technical or objective quality is related to the
product performance or, more precisely, to the tangible content of the service.
Consumers judge the quality of a service, however, not only by this objective
element, but also by the way the service is delivered. Zeithaml and Bitner (2000, p.
81) use the example of an architect who can have exceptional technical knowledge,
but limited relationship capability. Another professional with much lower technical
level can be regarded as providing better quality service if s/he treats the customer
with courtesy, kindness, and proves to be understanding to customer problems.
The understanding of customers’ expectations and their perception of service is the
first step to deliver a high quality service (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000). This reinforces
the importance of front line personnel to service quality. They should be chosen and
trained to have the capabilities to deal with several types of customers
(Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2002, p.223; Castelli, 2000, p. 29).
The interaction between customer and service provider determines what Normann
(1993) has defined as “the moment of truth”, which for Albrecht and Bradford (1992,
p. 28) has become the anathema of service management. Embedded in the moment
of truth, complaint management assumes a crucial role in effectively designing a
long term relationship (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991; Tax et al, 1998), which is a
key driver for loyalty.
The service management
Woodside et al (1989) created a model drawing on the work by Parasuraman et al
(1985) and the script theory by Solomon et al. (1994) aimed at relating service
quality to satisfaction and purchase intention. Solomon (1996) defined the concept
of service script, describing a coherent sequence of expected events during a service
encounter. Lovelock and Wright (2001, p. 325) assert that the theories of roles and
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
scripts are useful to service providers. They regard service as a theatrical
experience where both employees and customers act following predetermined roles.
The role is a set of standard behaviors, learned by experience and communication,
and played by the individual in a certain social interaction to achieve better
efficiency. Congruency of roles determines satisfaction to both parties. The more
experienced a consumer is with a company, the more familiar the script becomes
and so any deviation from this script has the potential to frustrate both customer
and employee. Script definition is a good way to elaborate a service flowchart and
can help to identify potential or existing problems.
Each type of service must be analyzed to identify related and expected acts and
events (Shostack, 1987). The Woodside et al (1989) model tried to establish a
relationship between the judgment of each service act/event and the final service
quality judgment by the customer. In their original work, service in hospitals was
decomposed into acts such as: a) patient admission; b) nursing service; c) meals
service; d) cleaning service. For each of these events, the authors identified acts to
be evaluated in terms of quality. In the case of nursing service, for example, the
following attributes were included in the model: quality of information provided by
nurses; convenient scheduling of services and promptness in dealing with requests.
Besides measuring each event, the authors proposed a quality evaluation and a
customer satisfaction evaluation for each act. Finally, the model integrates this into
the overall quality assessment and customer satisfaction, as well as customer
intention to use the service again.
This idea of service script was used to define a generic sequence of customer service
activities, allowing a more structured way to evaluate its quality. As this generic
sequence was not available in the literature, an exploratory research was developed
to define it.
Research Method
The research was developed in two phases. Firstly, a qualitative exploratory study
was accomplished to understand the process as a preparation for the second phase.
Secondly, a quantitative survey with consumers was done.
A convenience sample of ten interviews was selected for the first phase. Consumers
who had contacted a customer service department of a consumer food product
company during the previous month were interviewed. Interviews tried to identify
component elements of the service script. They were taped, content analysis was
used to build units of analysis (Bardin, 1977), and a matrix was produced (Denzin &
Lincon, 2000, p. 785) to better understand the subject and develop the final model.
In the second phase, the sample included consumers with different types of
enquiries and complaints who had contacted the customer service department of a
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
large Brazilian consumer food product multinational. Considering the time and
financial resources constraint of the research, it was decided to run a random
sample of 1600 cases. From this sample, 364 customers responded the interview,
providing a response rate of 22,8%. Sample characteristics are shown in Table 1.
The respondents were asked to evaluate quality service using seven variables
measured through a Likert type scale of five points. This research chose this scale
based on McDaniel and Gates (2003) studies on the applicability of scales in phone
call interviews. In their cases, the authors evaluated that five points was the
maximum that could be successfully handled by the interviewers.
Table 1: Sample characteristics – quantitative study
Origin - State % Nature of contact % Gender %
Sao Paulo 61,5 Complaint 51 Male 85
Rio de Janeiro 12,6 Information request 31 Female 15
Parana 6,5 Other requests 4
Minas Gerais 6,3 Suggestions 2
Rio Grande do Sul 4,9 Compliment 1
Pernambuco 4,4 Criticism 11
Bahia
Results and Analysis
First phase – qualitative analysis
Following the method proposed by Bardin (1977), our analysis had three different
stages: pre-analysis; material exploration; and treatment of results. Categories were
established after several readings of the material that would allow interpreting the
interviews.
To better understand the concept of service quality in this setting, the three
following questions were asked:
What first comes to your mind when I talk about quality in customer service?
What do you expect from a high quality customer service?
What are the elements that make up a high quality customer service?
Responses to these three questions were grouped into typical categories, the results
of which are shown in Table 2, illustrated by actual quotes that represent the
concepts. The “E” at the end of the sentences stands for the number of the
interviewee who made that statement. Drawing upon these results, a questionnaire
to be used in the second phase was prepared and pre-tested. After the pre-test,
minor adjustments were made to facilitate data collection.
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Table 2: Categories related to concept of service quality
Examples
Having the problem
effectively solved
“that actually finds a solution to my problem” E9
“so a quality service is the person to know what is happening ... and
solve the problem” E10
“... is that customer service where you call and have a satisfactory
reply to your request” E8
“when you call you expect a solution” E2
“I associate it to finding a solution...” E3
Kindness demonstrated
by the attendant
“ to talk to a kind person” E9
“notice that the people are concerned about helping you” E1
“people are very friendly when talking to you” E4
“to talk with a friendly and kind person” E5
“...being polite...” E1
Disposition to listen “...they listened to me, I think it is important to listen to your
customers” E7
“That the person listens to you” E7
“They have to listen to me...” E5
“Quality is having their attention… feel that the company gives
attention to the problem ...” E2
“...that the person pays attention...” E9
Being well attended to “...is being well attended to...” E2
“...that I will be well attended through this number I am calling” E7
“...is to be well attended to…” E3
Receiving a reply from the
company
“...the company is explaining to you what happened”. E3
“...mainly having a proper explanation concerning what you need to
know about the product...” E9
“...because you always want to get a reply”. E3
Receiving a follow up from
the company
“ ...shows the company cares about you...” E1
“... the company must be proactive in making follow up contact to
know whether the product was satisfactory replaced...” E5
“if it is not possible to get all information once they should call
back...” E10
Disposition to replace the
product
“...replacing the product.” E8
“quality comes with the product replacement” E6
Product improvement “...product has to be improved...” E6
“...make an adaptation in their products so that it improves and
evolves.” E5
“I think it is quite interesting to know from your own customer why
he is not happy with the product.” E7
Quickness “...good service is something quick...” E6
“is the one where you call asking for something and you are dealt
with no delay...” E8
Attendant’s knowledge “is the person to know what is going on...” E10
Consumer rights “it is important for us to know through the service what rights we
have, who is responsible and liable.” E4
Additional services “we call not only to clarify doubts, but also to get hints, recipes. We
end up creating a relationship, becoming friends...” E4
Trained attendants “trained people...”E4
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
The qualitative phase allows identifying the main criteria associated with consumer
satisfaction when a consumer service is experienced:
Effectiveness of the service in solving the consumer problem, allied with a
prompt response attitude;
The main role of the attendant in giving attention to the consumer problem,
showing commitment in solving it and establishing a connection between the
company and the consumer;
The sense of justice through the perception that the consumers’ rights were
protected.
Santos and Rossi (2002)’s research concluded that a strong relationship exists
between consumer trust, complaint management and sense of justice. The results of
their studies indicate that the basis for long relationship might be established
through a satisfactory and fair treatment of the consumers’ requests, which, mainly
in case of conflicts, seem mandatory. They add that “investments in complaint
management effectiveness will promote consumer’s reliability in the company,
improve the quality service evaluations, increase the number of transactions, and
finally, strengthen the relationship between the company and its consumers”
(Santos & Rossi, 2002, p.18).
Second phase – quantitative analysis
The results can be divided into two groups: i) quality service evaluated through the
application of the script model and ii) satisfaction and loyalty aspects analyzed
through overall consumer satisfaction evaluation.
In order to evaluate the quality, the service was decomposed in three acts, following
the model of Woodside et al (1989). The first act corresponds to initial contact and is
evaluated by the attribute easiness of contact. The second act corresponds to the
interaction with the attendant trying to understand and diagnose the problem. It is
evaluated by the attributes attendant courtesy, disposition to listen and attendant’s
knowledge. The third act is the final solution and outcome of the interaction; it is
evaluated by the attributes received reply/problem solution and time used in the
contact.
Table 3 summarizes the results for all variables investigated and shows that all had
means higher than four, except for only two variables: received reply/problem
solution and product substitution which presented means of 3.97 and 3.85,
respectively. The highest scores were obtained for disposition to listen with 4.76 and
attendant courtesy with 4.71, indicating that the front line personnel of the
company under investigation was achieving a good performance concerning these
variables.
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
Our qualitative study indicated these variables as important elements for the
composition of a high quality customer service. Front line personnel is widely
recognized as being relevant for service quality in general, thus selection and
training are crucial to provide them with capabilities to handle all types of
customers (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2002, p. 223).
Table 3: Service evaluation
Total
Number of responses (364)
Easiness of contact 4.66
Attendant courtesy 4.71
Disposition to listen 4.76
Attendant’s knowledge 4.52
Received reply/ problem solution 3.97
Time used 4.41
Product substitution 3.85
When the means above are analyzed taking in consideration the nature of contact,
some differences are observed. As shown in Table 4, these means were subjected to
a basic ANOVA analysis. Customers who contacted the service for information and
criticism rated attendant courtesy higher than customers who contacted the service
for a complaint. Customers who contacted the service for information rated the
received reply/problem solution higher than those who contacted the service for a
complaint or criticism. It is thus inferred that when the service is contacted for
information, the level of emotional involvement is probably lower than if it is
dealing with a complaint or criticism.
Table 4: Service evaluation by type of contact
Note: contacts related to other requests, suggestions and compliments were not analyzed due to a limited
number of occurrences.
Total
Complaint Information Criticism
(a) (b) (c)
Total (364) (53) (311) (164)
Easiness of contact 4.66 4.67 4.65 4.71
Attendant courtesy 4.71 4.64 4.79a 4.78
Disposition to listen 4.76 4.73 4.79 4.78
Attendant’s knowledge 4.52 4.56 4.50 4.41
Received reply/ problem solution 3.97 3.95 4.27ac 3.37
Time used 4.41 4.36 4.55 4.46
Prior studies have shown that there is a strong connection between effective
complaint management and re-purchase intentions and the real re-purchase act by
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
the complainers (Kelly, 1979; Gilly & Gelb, 1982; Martin & Smart, 1994). This
study corroborate that complaint management appears as key element underlying
the consumer-company relationship.
The results obtained for the variables relating to overall quality service assessment,
customer satisfaction, intention to re-purchase the product, and intention to
recommend the product to others are presented in Table 5. All means were above
four, and considering the top two boxes of these grades (five and four), practically all
variables had more than 75% of their evaluations within this range, thereby
indicating a good performance of the service investigated.
Table 5: Overall customer evaluation
Variables Mean Standard deviation Error
Top two box
Overall quality 4.51 0.87 0.05 88.7 %
Customer satisfaction 4.39 1.06 0.06 82.7 %
Intention to repeat the purchase 4.24 1.29 0.07 78.2 %
Intention to recommend to others
4.36 1.17 0.06 81.3 %
These results were then subjected to a correlation analysis to identify the
relationships between those variables. The variables overall quality, customer
satisfaction, intention to repeat the purchase, and intention to recommend to others
exhibited positive and statistically significant correlations at 1% level as can be
seen in Table 6. The strongest correlation is between intention to repeat the
purchase and intention to recommend to others (0.77) followed by that between
overall quality and customer satisfaction (0.71). Other correlations were also
positive, but with a lower R2, - in the range of 0.3 and 0.4.
Cronin and Taylor (1992) found in their investigation that service quality is an
antecedent of satisfaction and has a significant effect on the intention to repeat the
purchase. The results of our research support this through the strong correlation
between overall quality and customer satisfaction, though the correlation found
between overall quality and intention to repeat the purchase was much smaller
indicating a weaker relationship.
Table 6: Correlations between overall customer evaluation variables
Overall
quality
Customer
satisfaction
Intention to repeat
the purchase
Intention to
recommend to others
Overall quality 1 0.718(**) .0323(**) 0.348(**)
Customer satisfaction 0.718(**) 1 .322(**) 0.322(**)
Intention to repeat
the
p
urchase 0.323(**) 0.322(**) 1 0.771(**)
Intention to
recommend to others 0.348(**) 0.322(**) 0.771(**) 1
Note: ** correlation significant at the level of 0.01 (2-tailed).
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A summated scale, averaging the scores given to each attribute, was used to give an
evaluation of each act. Table 7 presents the correlation matrix between the quality
evaluation of each act and the overall quality perception by the customer.
Correlations are again all positive and statistically significant at 1% level. The
strongest correlation occurs between the evaluation of the third act and the overall
quality assessment, which reaches 0.702.
Table 7: Correlation matrix of overall quality and quality evaluation per act
Overall quality Act 1 Act 2 Act 3
Overall quality 1 0.286(**) 0.583(**) 0.702(**)
Act 1 0.286(**) 1 0.371(**) 0.329(**)
Act 2 0.583(**) 0.371(**) 1 0.490(**)
Act 3 0.702(**) 0.329(**) 0.490(**) 1
Note: **Correlations significant at the level of 0.01 (2-tailed).
Conclusion
The present research sheds new light on an important subject of marketing issues:
the relationship between the service experienced through the use of a costumer care
service and its impact on consumer satisfaction and loyalty. The strong relationship
between perceived quality and satisfaction supports previous studies like the one by
Woodside et al (1989) about hospitals and the work by Cronin and Taylor (1992).
In terms of managerial applications, the results reiterate the importance of the
customer care service as a competitive advantage component of food companies.
Once the study concluded that the high quality of the service is related to consumer
satisfaction and, to a lesser extent, to repurchase, firms should consider costumer
care as a strategic piece of their marketing plans. As Christopher (1999, p. 10)
states, the competitive advantage is no longer founded only on strong brands,
corporate image, advertising and price. Service also counts, even the customer
service in the consumer products business.
A positive significant relationship was verified between perceived quality and
customer satisfaction, and between repurchase intention and intention to
recommend the product to others. The strongest relationships were between
perceived quality and customer satisfaction and between intention to purchase the
product again and intention to recommend the product to others. Those results
indicate that the effectiveness of the costumer service can serve as an important
antecedent to overall satisfaction and loyalty. Although it was not possible to
establish a strong correlation between consumer satisfaction and re-purchase, the
positive and strong correlation between satisfaction and intention to recommend
lead us to infer that loyalty can be perceived through consumer satisfaction related
to customer care service and intention to recommend the product to others.
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Oliver (1999) asserts that loyalty has not only a behavioral aspect characterized by
the repurchase process, but also a psychological element. Therefore, the formation
of loyalty encompasses four phases: i) cognitive, ii) affective, iii) commitment and iv)
action. Regarding consumer service, it is feasible to state that the cognitive and
affective phases are strongly embedded in this type of service due the emotional
interaction between the attendant and the consumer, mainly in complaints request,
and also the sense of justice, as an ex-ante consumer perception.
Bateson and Hoffman (2001, p.363) also assert that service quality can contribute to
repeated purchases and that quality and satisfaction are interrelated concepts, both
influencing intention to purchase. The main contribution of this research is thus to
confirm these relationships for the case of customer service activity in consumer
products.
This study has also contributed to better understand which variables most influence
the perceived quality of a customer service activity. An exploratory qualitative
research identified the main attributes consumers consider while evaluating the
customer service activity. By dividing the service into three sequential acts, using
the model of Woodside, Frey and Daly (1989) based on the scrip concept of Solomon
(1994), it was possible to analyze the relevance of each act. The last act, or the one
related to the actual solution to the problem proved to be the one with the strongest
correlation to overall customer satisfaction. Courtesy, easiness to respond and other
usual concerns have their weight, but actually solving the problem or producing a
solution or compensation is the key element to achieve a high perceived quality by
the customer.
This work has clear limitations. Firstly, its analysis focused on only one company,
thus resulting in low external validity. Secondly, the statistical analysis presented
here is rather limited and should be expanded through multivariate techniques.
And, thirdly, additional control variables, like product characteristics, could be
explored.
Customer service, nevertheless, is shown to play a fundamental role in producing
customer loyalty. Once loyalty has antecedents in consumer satisfaction, and
considering satisfaction as a complex process combining several types of contacts
between consumers and companies, costumer service assumes a partial
responsibility for overall satisfaction. Although the present and previous studies
have shown that it is mandatory that the service experience should create
reliability and sense of justice, the process of conquering and maintaining a client is
ceaseless. As Bulton (1998) asserts, when the first experience is no longer
satisfactory, consumers will tend to breach the relationship.
© 2007 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.
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Almeida and Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 10, Issue 4, 2007
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