Purpose This study aims to examine and compare the key factors influencing customer satisfaction in conventional insurance and Takaful. Design/methodology/approach The inferencing factors are collected from experts, then, using fuzzy logic, a fuzzy expert system is designed and developed to assess and compare these factors in conventional insurance and Takaful. Findings The results of this study reveal that among four categories of factors impacting satisfaction – “compliance with Shariah, ethical behavior, transparency” as key factors in Takaful; “trust, transparency, organizational image” as key factors in insurance; “service quality, price competitiveness, claims settlement, empathy” as common factors; and “subjective norms, awareness, product suitability” as industry-specific factors – the primary drivers of customer satisfaction in Takaful are compliance with Shariah, ethical behavior and transparency, while in insurance, satisfaction is determined by the interaction of the other three categories. Practical implications As the findings of this study suggest that adherence to ethical principles and Shariah-based transparency can enhance customer satisfaction for those who prioritize moral values and integrity, insurance companies can adopt this innovative approach to attract more customers. Originality/value Previous studies rarely conduct a precise quantitative comparison of customer satisfaction between conventional insurance and Takaful, whereas this study addresses this gap comprehensively. In this context, most prior studies rely on qualitative or linear models to analyze this subject, which are inadequate for accurately evaluating qualitative factors such as customer satisfaction. In contrast, this study uses fuzzy expert systems through fuzzy logic to model qualitative and linguistic variables quantitatively.
Farsangi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.