Efficiency or inefficiency of customer satisfaction as one of the main antecedents of customer loyalty in tourism and hospitality industry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to have an overview on customer satisfaction as one of the main antecedents of customer loyalty. This paper attempts to discuss the role of customer satisfaction so as to highlight its efficiency and inefficiency on customer loyalty. In this sense, following problem is addressed by this study. The problem is; satisfied customers may not return to the firm and spread positive word-of-mouth communications to others despite of having customer satisfaction. Efficiency and inefficiency of customer satisfaction discussed to bold inefficiency of customer satisfaction alone in order to gain customer loyalty in long-run. Customer satisfaction is discussed by offering a review on efficiency and inefficiency of customer satisfaction critically. Therefore, pros and cons of previous studies regarding customer satisfaction are discussed so as to come out with a conceptual idea to solve addressed problem. Customer satisfaction is a result of meeting customer's expectations, while informed customers are looking for beyond satisfaction. They look for new experiences from their interaction with sellers. It means what customers are looking for is more than satisfaction for having long-term relationship with firms. Much information exists about customer satisfaction and its advantages, whereas, shortage or inefficiency of customer satisfaction has not been considered enough over last years. This paper is going to take practitioners attention to this point that customer loyalty will not be gained just with satisfying their customer. Practitioners should offer something beyond customer's expectation which is a competitive advantage as well and make the firm distinct from its competitors.