Effects of personal values on customer satisfaction

Abstract

PurposeDifferent authors suggest that personal values (as opposed to economic values of objects) are important antecedents of service satisfaction. This paper seeks to investigate empirically two specific processes that relate personal values to satisfaction with (financial) services (the value percept disparity model and the (value) disconfirmation model).Design/methodology/approachThe paper generalizes both models into a new value disparity‐disconfirmation model, providing testable conditions to evaluate and compare the validity of the original models. The paper specifies the model in terms of hierarchical linear models and assesses their empirical fit with data on 18 bank branches.FindingsThe results of the study best support the value disconfirmation model. Furthermore, the paper shows that in the research's setting of a financial service provider the external dimension of values is more instrumental in predicting satisfaction than the internal dimension.Research limitations/implicationsSince only a single service setting has been studied and a limited number of values have been focused on at one particular moment in time, the authors are hesitant to generalize the results beyond the scope of this study.Practical implicationsEmployee values are clearly associated with customer satisfaction. In fact, irrespective of their own values, customers do not seem to appreciate it when employees have values that differ from their own. Moreover, external values are more important than internal values in explaining satisfaction.Originality/valueThe paper is an empirical test of which model (the value percept disparity model or the value disconfirmation model) is better in explaining customer satisfaction, thereby providing conceptual clarity, theoretical parsimony and practical implications of the impact of personal values on satisfaction.