Satisfaction Composition Research Articles

Drivers of customer satisfaction with public transport services

This paper aims to improve the understanding of the drivers of customer satisfaction with public transport (PT). The methodology provides a relevant contribution to the previous studies since it highlights the complex interaction between the level and composition of satisfaction, negative social safety experiences (NSSEs), urban settings, and the PT mode used.Overall, PT users see the service attributes on-time performance, travel speed, and service frequency as the most important, followed by personnel/driver behaviour and vehicle tidiness. A generic policy aimed at achieving these attributes may yield favourable results with respect to satisfaction.Further, we demonstrate the influence of differences in customer characteristics on satisfaction. A policy aimed at increasing the service frequency and putting new vehicles into operation will probably lead specifically to more satisfied older people (>65), passengers travelling by regional train, and people living in dense urban areas.These findings may be of help to PTAs intending to exert an influence on the actions of PT operators, for instance by using them as a measuring rod in incentive contracts.

Well-Being in Middle Childhood: An Assets-Based Population-Level Research-to-Action Project

This paper presents findings from a population-level, research-to-action partnership project on children’s well-being during the middle childhood years. Relations between 4th graders’ (N = 3,026) well-being (composite of satisfaction with life, optimism, self-concept, overall health, and depressive symptoms) and their social and contextual assets (adult connectedness, peer connectedness, school experiences, health habits, after-school program participation) were examined via a school district-wide administration of the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI)—a self-report, population-based survey administered by teachers to children in their classrooms. Findings corroborated the premise that children’s well-being is associated with their social and contextual assets. Specifically, after controlling for socioeconomic status and language background, significant and positive relationships were found between children’s well-being and the number of social and contextual assets reported, with each additional asset associated with a significantly higher level of well-being. In order to disseminate our findings to school and community stakeholder groups and to facilitate the translation of research into action, we developed geographical maps that illustrate the relationship between the children’s well-being composite and their social and contextual assets at the neighborhood-level. We conclude by addressing theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges of our research-to-action partnership, and by discussing the importance of collecting and disseminating population-level data on children’s well-being in combination with data on developmentally-relevant social and contextual factors that are amenable to change by school and community programs and initiatives.

Incorporating Perceived Importance of Service Elements Into Client Satisfaction Measures

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the need for incorporating perceived importance of service elements into client satisfaction measures. Method: A secondary analysis of client satisfaction data from 112 clients of an elderly case management setting was conducted. Results: This study found that the relationship between global client satisfaction and the composite of satisfaction with service elements differed significantly, depending on perceived importance of service elements. Conclusions: These results call into question the practice of simply adding or averaging scores from satisfaction items to produce global satisfaction scores without considering perceived importance of the service elements.

HOMBSAT—An Instrument for Measuring Home-Buyer Satisfaction

Improving customer satisfaction has been identified as one of the most important challenges facing businesses, Keeping customers satisfied is rapidly becoming the way companies differentiate themselves from competitors. This article describes the development of a 51-item instrument, called HOMBSAT, for assessing home-buyer satisfaction. A model was proposed describing home-buyer satisfaction as a three-dimensional composite of satisfaction with design, house, and service. The instrument was found to be both valid and reliable. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential applications of the instrument.