What should we do to enhance your loyalty if you are (dis)satisfied with public transit service?

Abstract

Within a highly motorized context, urban public transit (PT) agencies have been trying to find effective ways to increase PT ridership, which is important in ridership retention and attraction. This study is designed to examine how perceived service quality, perceived value, corporate image, satisfaction, and complaints interact to influence passengers’ loyalty to PT, on the basis of a passenger segmentation approach according to the extent to which passengers are satisfied and dissatisfied with PT, i.e., a cross satisfaction-and-complaints classification approach. A four-step analysis procedure consisting of exploratory factor analysis, structural equation model, latent class cluster analysis, and multigroup SEM, is proposed. Passengers are segmented into three subgroups, each profiled by distinctive feature associated with passengers’ satisfaction and complaints about PT service. The multigroup analysis reveals significant differences about the relationships between factors of interest across the three subgroups. It is expected that the results would provide useful implications for transit agencies to enhance the passengers’ loyalty, where customized marketing measures and strategies towards groups holding diverse satisfaction and complaints with PT are necessary.