Customer Experience of Value in the Service Encounter

Customer value is regarded as the fundamental basis for all marketing activity. It is also described as a source of competitive advantage for any organisation. In the critical service encounter, customer experience of value can improve business performance via customer satisfaction and/or customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are two imperative non-financial indices for measuring business success in a service-dominated organisation. Past studies suggest customer satisfaction can lead to customer loyalty. However, a satisfied customer may not be a loyal customer. Moreover, a review of literature on customer value, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty suggests the importance of exploring the role of customer value in understanding the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty for an organisation. How can the customer’s experience of value impact the transformation of customer satisfaction into customer loyalty? Furthermore, what type of customer value experience in the service encounter is effective in strengthening the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty? In other words, what type of customer value will keep satisfied customers loyal? This article aims to explore the possible answers for those questions and provide mangers and service employees with insights into making a difference to the satisfied customer’s loyalty through customer experience of value.