Magnus Söderlund

The main finding in this paper is that customer familiarity (i.e. the number of product-related experiences accumulated by the customer) affects customer satisfaction in an asymmetric way. Data from customers in the airline industry suggest that it is more difficult to obtain a high level of satisfaction among high familiarity customers compared to low familiarity customers, given a high performance level. On the other hand, given a low performance level, high familiarity and low familiarity customers do not seem to be subject to different levels of dissatisfaction.

This paper examines the effects of customer familiarity (i.e. the number of previous consumption-related experiences) on a) expectations prior to the consumption of a service, b) performance perceptions after the consumption, and c) satisfaction after the consumption. Data collected in a longitudinal study of a tour operator's customers who took part in a trip to the same destination shows that familiarity is unrelated to expectations, but negatively and significantly associated with performance perceptions and satisfaction.

This paper explores links between customer satisfaction, repurchase intentions, purchase behavior, and customer profitability with empirical data on attitudes, behavior, and profitability at the customer level of analysis. Purchase behavior and profitability data, derived from the accounting system of a firm, are matched with the responses of the firm's customers to survey questions distributed prior to the behavior and profitability outcomes. The analysis reveals a strong link between customer behavior and customer profitability, while modest links exist between repurchase intentions and subsequent behavior. Only a weak and non-significant direct link can be observed between customer satisfaction and customer profitability. This paper, then, questions customer satisfaction's commonly assumed role as a proxy for profitability.