Do Happier Customers Generate More Profits? An Analysis of Customer Contribution in a Bank

Abstract

Despite the debate over whether customer satisfaction enhances business benefits, due to difficulties in data collection, little research has investigated the direct impact of customer satisfaction on customer contribution. With special permission from a bank, this study examined 373 valid bank customer samples of individual customer product/service satisfaction and their related contributions to the bank. Major findings are that the customer satisfaction, be it with the product or services, has no significant influence on customer contribution. Individual attributes, such as customer assets, however, are significantly related to customer contribution. This finding has implications for the general understanding that the higher the customer satisfaction, the greater the business benefits. Customer satisfaction has become a fundamental target of business practice. Banks that desire to increase and sustain customer contribution should pay specific attention to different customer attributes and provide satisfying products and services to fulfill customer needs. Keywords: Product quality, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer assets, customer contribution.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]