Customer satisfaction, customer delight, customer retention and customer loyalty: Borderlines and insights

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of customer satisfaction and customer delight on customer loyalty through customer retention. Data were collected using a questionnaire developed based on the literature and administered to a sample of restaurant customers consisting of 376 customers. Using IBM SPSS and AMOS software for data analyses, the results indicate that customer retention had a perfect mediating role in the effect of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty and a partial mediating role in the effect of customer delight on customer loyalty. The study provided several contributions. A key contribution to researchers is that the effect of customer satisfaction on other variables, particularly customer loyalty should be assessed in terms of its direct and indirect effects. A basic contribution to managers is that both satisfied and delighted customers have potential intentions to defect, hence, retaining customers is a crucial step to ensure loyalty. Delighted customers are more likely to be retained and retained customers are ready to be loyal customers.