Empirical evidence for the relationship between customer satisfaction and business performance

Abstract

Focuses on the analysis of empirical data on customer satisfaction and the relationship with hard organisational performance data. The organisation is a Flexcompany with its headquarters in The Netherlands, but also operating in other countries in Europe. The empirical data on customer satisfaction and business performance stem from 1998 and 1999, from which it can be concluded that it is possible to find evidence for the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and organisational performance indicators, although the relationship is not very strong. Various factors might influence the time‐lag between a change in customer satisfaction and an expected effect on sales margin, or other output indicators. However, the analyses provide answers to questions related to the quality dimensions as underlying factors behind the items in the customer satisfaction questionnaire. Also, there are some indications for the relation between customer satisfaction and changing behaviour of customers.