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The Behavioral Consequences of Service Quality

Valarie A. Zeithaml¹; Leonard L. Berry²; A. Parasuraman³

¹ Partners for Service Excellence, a consulting firm specializing in strategy, measurement, and implementation of service quality. · ² JCPenney Chair of Retailing Studies and Professor of Marketing, Texas A&M University. · ³ Holder of the James W. McLamore Chair in Marketing, University of Miami.

If service quality relates to retention of customers at the aggregate level, as other research has indicated, then evidence of its impact on customers’ behavioral responses should be detectable. The authors offer a conceptual model of the impact of service quality on particular behaviors that signal whether customers remain with or defect from a company. Results from a multicompany empirical study examining relationships from the model concerning customers’ behavioral intentions show strong evidence of their being influenced by service quality. The findings also reveal differences in the nature of the quality-intentions link across different dimensions of behavioral intentions. The authors’ discussion centers on ways the results and research approach of their study can be helpful to researchers and managers.

DOI

10.1177/002224299606000203

Volume

60 (2)

Pages

31-46

Language

en

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Sources

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