Customer satisfaction: Cost driver or value driver? Empirical evidence from the financial services industry

Maarten Terpstra, Frank H M Verbeeten*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We investigate the relation between customer satisfaction, customer servicing costs, and customer value in a financial services firm. We find that customer satisfaction is positively associated with future customer servicing costs, as well as with customer value. The relation between customer satisfaction and customer value appears non-linear; higher customer satisfaction appears to have a higher return for the most profitable customer segments. Our findings indicate that customer satisfaction is a value driver; however, customer satisfaction is not cost-free and managers have to consider the costs, as well as the benefits, of increasing customer satisfaction.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)499-508
Number of pages10
JournalEuropean Management Journal
Volume32
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • Customer profitability
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Customer servicing costs
  • Customer value
  • Financial services firm

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