Service Quality and Customer Loyalty in Ghana’s Hotel Industry: The Mediation Effects of Satisfaction and Delight

Abstract

ABSTRACT Current research has questioned the wisdom in over-reliance on customer satisfaction (CS) as the basis for achieving customer loyalty (CL) but rather emphasized the need for firms to go beyond merely satisfying customers to delivering delightful services to increase CL. This study investigates the relationship between Service quality (SQ) and CL, and the mediation role of CS and customer delight (CD) between them. A sample of 313 customers of luxury hotels in Ghana was selected using a convenience sampling technique. The results indicate that SQ had a significant positive effect on both CS and CD. Furthermore, both CS and CD effectively mediate the relationship between SQ and CL. However, CD had a more significant effect on CL compared to CS. This implies that while the quest for CL through SQ and CS is germane, hotels in Ghana need to go beyond just CS and emphasize CD since it has a relatively stronger effect on CL as the foundation for long-term performance. The results have strategic implications for the management of hotels in Ghana in their quest to increase CL as a pathway to lasting competitive advantage.