The Effects of Brand Equity, External Environment, and Internal Environment on Customer Satisfaction, Credibility, and Revisit Intention : Focusing on Optometric Clinics

Abstract

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of brand equity, external and internal environment of the optometric clinics on customer satisfaction, credibility and revisit intention by using the structural equation modelling.Method:A total of 420 adults, who have ever had to visit any optometric clinics located in Seoul, Gyeonggi-do or Chungnam-do, participated in a questionnaire. Nine questionnaires were excluded due to being incomplete, and a total of 411 questionnaires were finally included for data analysis using reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis.Result:Brand equity had a significant effect on both external and internal environmental variables. The exogenous variables such as brand equity and internal environment considerably had some indirect effects on the customer satisfaction as a parameter. Additionally, the customer satisfaction and credibility significantly contributed to the revisitation. While the external environment, in particular, did not significantly affect on both customer satisfaction and credibility, the brand equity and internal environment significantly directly influenced the revisitation with indirect effects of the customer satisfaction and credibility.Conclusions:In comparison to other service industries, the optometric clinics had a distinct characteristic that the characteristic of optometrists take a large part in the internal environment. This study found that the brand equity had an important role in both internal and external environment, and the internal environments such as products, costs and the characteristic of optometrists especially have leaded to the revisitation with the customer satisfaction. It is concluded that the optometric clinics take further necessary actions and seek efforts to recognize the importance of the internal environment and credibility as well as high brand equity.