Differentiating Primary and Secondary Customers by Expectations

Improving customer service quality offers the small business an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage over larger businesses; in effect, the business can retain customers by meeting or exceeding expectations. In the current study eight customer expectations differentiated primary and secondary...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business & entrepreneurship 1995-10, Vol.7 (2), p.61
Main Authors: Scherer, Robert F, Saunders, Paula M, Brown, Herbert E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comparative studies
Competition
Competitive advantage
Consumer behavior
Customer satisfaction
Customer services
Discriminant analysis
Employees
Expectations
Hypotheses
Marketing
Quality management
Quality of service
Questionnaires
Sales
Salespeople
Small business
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Summary:Improving customer service quality offers the small business an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage over larger businesses; in effect, the business can retain customers by meeting or exceeding expectations. In the current study eight customer expectations differentiated primary and secondary customers of a focal organization: primary customers being those who give the majority of their business to the supplier, and secondary customers being those who do not. The results of the study demonstrate that primary and secondary customers can be differentiated by analyzing the degree to which their expectations have been met, and that specific expectation variables contributing to the discrimination between the two groups can be identified. Recommendations on how to approach the management of expectations are provided in addition to directions for future research. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1042-6337