Modelling Customer Satisfaction with Food

Abstract

Purpose: The subject of the article is the relationship between customer satisfaction, loyalty and personality characteristics. It aims to analyse factors that influence customer satisfaction and loyalty, including their mutual relationships.  For this purpose, a comprehensive model of customer satisfaction was created. Methodology/Approach: The research was carried out using a questionnaire survey on a sample of 1,530 customers of food producers (and 103 food business products that were non-durable) corresponding to the Czech population in terms of gender, age and region. The questionnaires were statistically evaluated using Structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings: The results show that a strong link between standard customer satisfaction factors (perceived quality, perceived value, customer expectation) overshadows the influence of weaker factors (personality). However, this effect is fully demonstrated when these strong factors are filtered out. Research Limitation/Implication: The paper focuses on foods that are sold through retail intermediaries, which also affect customer satisfaction. It may be different for other types of products and services and for products sold otherwise. It can also be limited to CR, resp. transition economics, ie. that in developed countries it could be different. Originality/Value of paper: The contribution of the paper is the finding that customer satisfaction is influenced by a personality factors, whose effect is at first glance weaker. It also shows that the factor image can be constructed taking into account the competitive ability of the company as a hybrid and the functionality of the customer loyalty factor influences the way of its construction.