Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Christian HomburgUniversity of Mannheim

Budapest, May 11th 2007

Dynamic Perspectives on Customer Satisfaction

2

Dynamic Perspectives on Customer Satisfaction

Study 1:

The Interplay of Cognition and Affect in the Formation

of Customer Satisfaction - A Dynamic Perspective

Christian HomburgNicole Koschate

Wayne Hoyer

Study 2:

Customer Satisfaction and Time as Drivers of Price

Knowledge after the Purchase

Christian HomburgNicole Koschate

Christian Wiegner

3

• cognition and affect as predictors of satisfaction judgments (Oliver 1993; Kempf 1999; Smith/Bolton 2002; Szymanski/Henard 2001)

• importance of a longitudinal perspective of customer satisfaction (Bolton 1998; Bolton/Lemon 1999; Oliver 1980)

• focus of prior dynamic studies on

– cognitive predictors of satisfaction (Mittal/Kumar/Tsiros 1999; Mittal/Katrichis/Kumar 2001; Slotegraaf/Inman 2004)

– carryover effects of satisfaction judgments (Bolton 1998; Bolton/Drew 1991; Boulding et al. 1998; Mittal/Kumar/Tsiros 1999)

Study 1: Motivation

4

Study 1: Hypotheses (1)

• newly formed attitudes have more random variation and are harder to predict (Eagly/Chaiken 1993)

• certainty increases as the quantity of information about the product increases (Chandrashekaran et al. 2000; Farley/Katz/Lehmann 1978; Smith/Swinyard 1983)

H1: The variance in customer satisfaction jointly explained by cognition and affect increases as experience accumulates.

5

Study 1: Hypotheses (2)

• Affect Infusion Model (AIM) (Forgas 1995)

• constructive, generative nature of most judgments is critical for affect infusion to occur

• relevant processing strategies in our study (Forgas 1995):

– substantive processing high affect infusion

– direct access strategy resistant to affect infusion

H2a: As experience accumulates, the impact of cognition on customer satisfaction increases.

H2b: As experience accumulates, the impact of affect on customer satisfaction decreases.

6

Study 1: Hypotheses (3)

• consistency of the performance experience

• as consistency of information increases, attitude certainty increases (Heslin/Blake/Rotton 1972)

H3: The suggested pattern (i.e. the impact of cognition increases while the impact of affect decreases) is more pronounced in the case of consistent experiences

versus inconsistent experiences.

7

• real usage experience of a CD-ROM tutorial for a pricing class

• participants were given three sample chapters (trials)

• solving of a pricing task and performance feedback

• 8 (levels of performance) x 3 (trial) between- and within-subjects-design

• consistent performance experience: (+++) or (- - -)

• inconsistent performance experience: (+ - +) or (- + -)

• sample: 157 participants

Trial

Experimental Condition

1 2 3

1 + + + 2 + + - 3 + - + 4 + - - 5 - + + 6 - + - 7 - - + 8 - - -

Study 1: Experimental Design and Procedure

8

H1:The variance in customer satisfaction jointly explained by cognition and affect increases as experience accumulates.

• regression model:

• R2 increases substantially across trials H1

CS TRIAL 1 CS TRIAL 2 CS TRIAL 3

R2 0.645 0.706 0.731

Parameter Effect Estimate t-value p Estimate t-value p Estimate t-value p

b0 Intercept 6.318 58.940 0.000 6.074 58.950 0.000 5.823 61.400 0.000

b1 CO 0.682 10.510 0.000 0.787 12.890 0.000 0.849 15.870 0.000

b2 AF 0.353 6.060 0.000 0.303 5.160 0.000 0.171 3.340 0.001

2 (variance of r) 1.804 8.800 0.000 1.667 8.860 0.000 1.412 8.860 0.000

Study 1: Results (1)

rAFbCObbCS 210

9

H2a (b): As experience accumulates, the impact of cognition (affect) on customer satisfaction increases (decreases).

regression model with interaction effects:

• b4 significant and positive H2a ; b5 significant and negative H2b

rTRIALAFbTRIALCObTRIALbAFbCObbCS 543210

Parameter Effect Estimate t-value p

b0 Intercept 6.072 103.200 0.00

b1 Cognition 0.773 22.380 0.00

b2 Affect 0.275 8.490 0.00

b3 TRIAL -0.248 -3.440 0.00

b4 Cognition*TRIAL 0.083 1.960 0.05

b5 Affect*TRIAL -0.091 -2.330 0.02

2 (variance of r) 1.630 15.350 0.00

Study 1: Results (2)

10

rTRIALAFbTRIALCObTRIALbAFbCObbCS 543210

Study 1: Results (3)

H3: The suggested pattern (i.e. the impact of cognition increases while the impact

of affect decreases) is more pronounced in the case of consistent experiences versus inconsistent experiences.

• regression model with interaction effects for consistent vs. inconsistent performance experiences:

consistent performance experiences (+++ or - - -):

• impact of affect decreases (b5 = -0.156, p < 0.05)

• impact of cognition increases slightly (b4 = 0.119, p < 0.06)

inconsistent performance experiences (+ - + or - + -):

• no significant effects (b5 = 1.200, p = 0.23; b4 = -0.750, p = 0.62)

H3

11

Study 1: Conclusion

Research Issues

• importance of examining customer satisfaction from a dynamic perspective

• insights regarding how the inconsistency versus consistency of performance experiences impacts on the customer satisfaction process

Managerial implications

• insights for managing customer satisfaction

• especially for new products and in the case of inconsistent experiences, managing affective aspects is important in addition to product/service quality considerations

12

Dynamic Perspectives on Customer Satisfaction

Study 1:

The Interplay of Cognition and Affect in the Formation

of Customer Satisfaction - A Dynamic Perspective

Christian HomburgNicole Koschate

Wayne Hoyer

Study 2:

Customer Satisfaction and Time as Drivers of Price

Knowledge after the Purchase

Christian HomburgNicole Koschate

Christian Wiegner

13

Le prix s‘oublie, la qualité reste! (Price is forgotten, quality remains, from the French Movie „Les Tontons Flingeur“)

Focus of previous studies on a limited set of drivers of price knowledge:

Impact of customer satisfaction not investigated so far

Demographic, socioeconomic, and psychographic variables (e.g., McGoldrick and Marks 1987; Krishna, Currim, and Shoemaker 1991; Wakefield and Inman 1993)

Product category characteristics (Dickson and Sawyer 1990; Vanhuele and Drèze 2002)

Study 2: Motivation

14

Two types of studies

The Influence of Time on Post-Purchase Price Knowledge

Price knowledge measured immediately after the purchase (e. g., Dickson and Sawyer 1990; Le Boutillier, Le Boutillier, and Neslin 1994; Lichtenstein, Ridgway, and Netemeyer 1993; Mazumdar and Monroe 1990, 1992; Wakefield and Inman 1993)

Price knowledge measuredsome time after the purchase (Conover 1986; Helgeson and Beatty 1987; Vanhuele and Drèze 2002)

Design does not allow for the analysis of the effect of time on price

knowledge

Limited ability to study the effect of time (focus on a very short time

interval of 2 days after the purchase or subjective judgment about the

length of time)

Long-term effects of time on price knowledge not researched so far

15

Do customer satisfaction and time (since purchase) influence the customer‘s explicit and/or implicit price knowledge after a

purchase?

Study 2: Research Question

Price Knowledge

Explicit Price Knowledge

Price information which can be consciously remembered by the customer

Implicit Price Knowledge

Price information which is unconsciously known by the customer

16

Theory of Mood-Congruent-Effects

Study 2: Overview of Theoretical Background

Effect of Customer Satisfaction on Price Knowledge

InferenceTheory

Effect of Time on Price Knowledge

17

Study 2: Hypotheses (I)

Theory of Mood-Congruent-Effects

- individuals strive for cognitive congruency

- affect congruent information is more easily retrieved than affect incongruent information (Bagozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer 1999)

- Affect congruent effects- occur in the context of the explicit memory (e.g., Gardner 1985; Isen et al. 1978; Teasdale

and Russel 1983)

- do not occur in the context of the implicit memory (e.g., Danion et al. 1995; Denny and Hunt 1992; Russo, Fox, and Bowles 1999)

- Price as negative information about a product (e.g., Lichtenstein, Ridgway, and Netemeyer 1993)

H1: Customer Satisfaction has a) a negative effect on the explicit price knowledge. b) no effect on the implicit price knowledge.

18

Study 2: Hypotheses (II)

Inference Theory

- Competition from other memories blocks retrieval of target memory (Burke and Srull 1988)

- Original stimuli can be interfered by previously and/or later learned stimuli (Eysenck and Keane 2002)

- The more stimuli interfere with the original stimulus, the more difficult it is to remember the original stimulus

- Explicit memory is very fragile and higly influenced by time (e.g., Allen and Reber 1980; Goshen-Gottstein and Kempinsky 2001)

- Implicit memory is not strongly affected by time (e.g., Allen and Reber 1980; Mitchell and Brown 1988)

H2: The length of time since purchase has a) a negative effect on the explicit price knowledge. b) no effect on the implicit price knowledge.

19

Study 2: Hypotheses (III)

H3: As customer satisfaction increases, the negative impact of time on the explicit price knowledge is strengthened.

Time since purchase

Explicit Price Knowledge

Customer satisfaction low

Customer satisfaction high

20

- Data from a leading national department store chain

- Random selection of 1200 customers (bonus card owners) who had purchased a product in one of four predefined categories (consumer appliances, leather goods, consumer electronics & personal computing, sporting goods)

- during the last 12 months

- bought the product by themselves

- bought the product for themselves

- Data collection from these persons via telephone interviews response rate 26.6 % (319 interviews)

Study 2: Data Collection (1)

21

- Dyadic nature of the data

Study 2: Data Collection (2)

timePurchase within a time intervall of 12 months

Interview period of one month

Data from company records:

- product category- actual price- date of purchase

Data from customer interviews:

- customer satisfaction with the product

- price knowledge with respect to the product

- other control variables

- date of interviewTime since purchase

22

Study 2: Measurement of Explicit Price Knowledge

|stated price – actual price|

Percentage deviation = ------------------------------------- x 100

actual price

Please try to remember without checking the price you have paid as exactly as possible. How much was the price of the [product]?

Price Recall Task:

23

Study 2: Measurement of Implicit Price Knowledge

1 2 3 4 5 6

1

BADGOOD

2

3

4

5

INTERMEDIATE6

Question 1: Please write down the following number: [actual price + 20 %].If this was the price for the [product], how attractive would this price be for you?

Note: 6-point Likert-type scale with anchors 1 = very attractive, 6 = very unattractive

Question 2: Please write down the following number: [actual price - 5 %].

If this was the price for the [product], how attractive would this price be for you?

Deal-Spotting Questions (adopted from Vanhuele and Drèze (2002), JM)

24

Study 2: Descriptive Results Regarding Price Knowledge

Explicit Price Knowledge Implicit Price Knowledge

13,8

29,834,5

65,5

0,00

20,00

40,00

60,00

80,00

Exact (nodeviation)

Up to 2.5 %deviation

Up to 5.0%deviation

More than 5.0% deviation

%

36%

45%

19%

good

intermediate

bad

25

Study 2: Results of Logistic Regression

Variable

Explicit Price Knowledge Implicit Price Knowledge

Recall-Ability Deal Spotting-Ability

b* p** b* p**

Satisfaction - .367 .006 - .353 .095Time - .004 .018 - .003 .208

Time x Satisfaction - .003 .045 .001 .594

Price Level [in 100 Dollar] .172 .004 .209 .030

Store Satisfaction .044 .822 - .163 .510In-Store Price Search .003 .962 - .222 .023Inter-Store Price Search .141 .143 .030 .814

Product Category Involvement .108 .282 - .019 .881

Price Consciousness .018 .876 .130 .345Age - .014 .177 .019 .180Gender .212 .495 - .199 .638Household Net Income - .140 .287 - .083 .651Consumer Appliances a) .544 .206 .911 .098

Consumer Electronics &Personal Computing a) .088 .845 .902 .150

Sporting Goods a) .466 .266 .620 .229Intercept - 1.999 .201 .417 .830

Significance of ²-Value(Likelihood-Ratio-Test)

p = .001 p = .045 Notes: * regression coefficient; ** level of significance; a) Leather Goods is the reference category

26

Study 2: Concluding Remarks

- Broadened understanding of drivers of price knowledge

- Importance of distinguishing explicit and implicit price knowledge after the purchase

Future research

- In which situations do customers tend to use their explicit vs. their implicit price knowledge?

- Analysis of multi company samples

Managerial Implications

- Customers‘ post purchase price knowledge is partly under managerial control

- A high level of customer satisfaction simplifies the implementation of price increases

27

Backup

28

Further Statistical Tests Regarding the Relevance of Satisfaction and Time

Comparison of two models

Baseline model (including only the control variables as predictors)

Advanced model (including additionally the main effects of customer satisfaction and time)

Explicit price knowledge: ² = 12.31 (df = 2), p < 0.01

Implicit price knowledge: ² = 4.23 (df = 2), p < 0.20

29

Additional Statistical Test Regarding the Relevance of the Interaction Term

Comparison of two models

Baseline model (all the main effects of the predictors)

Advanced model (including additionally the interaction term between satisfaction and time since purchase)

² = 4.15 (df = 1), p < 0.05