Loyalty intentions as an outcome of customer delight in a services environment - a South African perspective

Abstract

The study explores the delight phenomenon by investigating customer delight, its antecedents and its postcedents in the cell phone industry of South Africa. Data was collected from 450 customers of cell phone companies who considered themselves satisfied overall with their cellular service provider. This study extends the model proposed by Roberts-Lombard and Petzer (2018) and attempts to substantiate their findings in South Africa through applying the extended model in a parallel industry context. The results indicate that perceived employee service delivery skills and perceived value are important antecedents of customer delight and that there is a meaningful relationship between customer delight and customer loyalty in a business-to-consumer (B2C) setting in South Africa. The study adds value by informing cellular service providers how the service delivery ability of employees and the value perception of customers influence their customer delight experience and ultimately their loyalty to the service provider.