Offline and Online Customer Satisfaction in B2C Markets

Abstract

The chapter by Aquilani, Serpico, Silvestri, and Ruggieri explores online and offline customer satisfaction in B2C markets. The authors emphasize that building strong relationships with customers is of even higher strategic relevance in dynamic and competitive environments implying that firms must continuously work towards ever higher levels of experienced customer satisfaction. The objectives of this conceptual work are threefold: (1) to review customer satisfaction studies in both offline and online environments and their relationships with customer relationship management both offline and online, (2) to analyze tools and methods already used to measure it, and (3) to propose a new and comprehensive theoretical framework that helps evaluate overall customer satisfaction. The framework considers both offline and online customer satisfaction antecedents, being aware of the different weight and effects they have on e-customer satisfaction. This depends on the context in which they have been created and previously applied to, as well as considering the website as a moderator in the relationship between offline antecedents of customer satisfaction (prior experience, brand, quality, price, etc.) and overall customer satisfaction. Thus, the latter would come from both offline antecedents of customers' satisfaction and website quality dimensions, namely information, services, and system quality.