Alternative measures of satisfaction and word of mouth

Purpose Scholars have conceptualized and measured customer satisfaction in several different ways such as overall satisfaction and relative satisfaction. This paper aims to study if how one conceptualizes customer satisfaction matters. The authors study if key attributes of customer satisfaction differ in their impact based on how satisfaction is conceptualized. Furthermore, they examine the effects of these alternative measures of satisfaction on word of mouth (WOM). Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct three survey studies: at a single independently owned restaurant ( n = 248); across restaurants using a national sample of respondents ( n = 208); and across apparel retailers using a local sample of respondents ( n = 214). The authors analyzed data using iterative seemingly unrelated regression and recursive system of equations with correlated errors. Findings The core offering (food quality or merchandise quality) and service influence overall satisfaction about equally; however, influence of the core offering on relative satisfaction is more than that of service. Furthermore, while overall satisfaction influences WOM, relative satisfaction does not. Thus, focusing solely on the core offering to improve relative satisfaction may not be enough. Positive WOM is generated when customers are overall satisfied with the brand which demands both a superior core offering as well as high service. Firms should aim for overall best performance rather than merely better relative performance. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to simultaneously study these two alternative measures of customer satisfaction along with their antecedents and influence on WOM.