Customer satisfaction in the food sector

Abstract

Customer satisfaction research has evolved into an established marketing instrument in scientific literature for considerable time, and is also applied in business practice. Particularly in markets which are characterized by a high competitive pressure, satisfied customers are a precondition for the long-term success or failure of a firm. In the food industry, the high importance of customer satisfaction was recognized; however, the majority of studies focus on large market segments such as the conventional food retail market or well-known brand products. Currently, the professional use of customer satisfaction research is limited to the global players in food retailing. Until now, small and medium-sized companies as well as public institutions with service character have been analysed rather sparsely. This dissertation deals with the measurement and analysis of customer satisfaction in two different segments of the food industry: the specialised organic food retail and the nutrition in schools. Both market segments are characterized by a low service and customer orientation and concurrently by a high competitive pressure. In addition, both market segments are confronted with a limited target group. In the aforementioned areas barely systematic customer satisfaction research has been done. This cumulative thesis takes up problem fields and further questions from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Altogether, this dissertation contains eleven articles which are either published or submitted in different scientific journals. The aim of this dissertation is the identification and analysis of customer satisfaction as well as the examination of the impact on indirect performance indicators. The focus of this dissertation is the application of causal analyses by using multivariate analysing techniques of first and second generation. This allows the empirical verification of complex structures of several dependent variables and complex multi-causal relationships. The results show that customer satisfaction research in markets, which are subject to development processes, is of high importance for market providers. The different service dimensions and their effects could be identified by applying causal analyses. In general, three service dimensions which are of high importance for customer satisfaction in the food industry could be identified: quality of the products, atmosphere and customer service. The strength of the determinants influence on customer satisfaction and the outcomes of customer satisfaction vary depending on the different market segments.