Can Positive Emotions Predict Consumer Satisfaction in Adverse Services?

Abstract

Managing emotions during hospital visits is important to enhance patient satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between patients' happiness and satisfaction through patients' mood and perceived service quality at a healthcare setup. This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital located in coastal Karnataka during the period from November to December 2021. Primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire from 227 respondents. "Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 27.0" and "SmartPLS 3.0" software was used for data analysis. Hypotheses proposed in this study were examined by comparing the direct effect of patients' happiness level on perceived service quality and the indirect effect of the level of patients' happiness on patient satisfaction. The influence of all the exogenous latent variables namely, happiness, mood, perceived service quality, on the endogenous latent variable of patient satisfaction is estimated to be moderate (R 2=62.5%). This study empowers hospital managers to recognize how patient satisfaction is dependent on patients' happiness. In order to enhance patient satisfaction, the quality of care provided by health services, human resources, and infrastructure must be improved. As a result, the entire service encounter can be made enjoyable to the customers by reducing the distress caused by adverse services. Managers can utilize the outcomes of the study to develop marketing strategies to influence patients' emotions in the healthcare setup by modifying the servicescape elements.