The Importance of Reliability and Customization from Goods to Services

Abstract

Although there is a substantial body of research on quality, disagreement remains as to the effect of reliability, or things gone wrong, as opposed to customization, or things gone right, on customer satisfaction with goods and services. Service quality researchers argue that reliability is relatively more important for services because of the nature of service production compared to goods production. In contrast, customer satisfaction researchers argue that a service firm's ability to customize its service to individuals makes customization relatively more important for services than for goods. The goal of this article is to provide insight into this debate through an analysis of firms and industries measured in the American Customer Satisfaction Index database. The authors' results provide broad-based support for the argument that reliability is relatively more important as the service component of an offering increases, while customization is relatively more important for manufactured goods. Implications for quality practice are discussed.