Beyond Customer Satisfaction: How to Measure Service Excellence

Abstract

Customer satisfaction has long been among the most prominent topics in consumer behavior and in marketing in general. Satisfaction concept is typically examined in regards to consumer (B2C) markets, much less paying attention to the more multi-faceted nature of industrial (B2B) settings. The study presented here seeks to address the development of service excellence measures, which would enable providers of industrial services to achieve superior levels of customer satisfaction. The research is based on a systemic literature meta-analysis and on a qualitative study among 15 informants – representatives of leading industrial solutions providers in Upper Austria and arrives at proposing 12 dimensions of industrial service excellence.