satisfaction to loyalty. The two studies strongly demonstrate that the covert
satisfaction strength plays a central role in the translation of satisfaction to
loyalty. A key finding that is uncovered, and replicated, in this research is that
while satisfaction does indeed translate to loyalty when the satisfaction
judgment is strongly-held (i.e., with low uncertainty), the translation is
significantly lowered, on average, by almost 60%, when the same stated
satisfaction is more weakly-held (i.e., fraught with uncertainty). The studies
also indicate that aspects of prior relational experience (length of relationship,
volume of business, and favorability of prior experiences) serve to isolate,
rather than insulate, a firm’s customers, resulting in even greater vulnerability
Overall, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the process by
which satisfaction leads to customer loyalty
Research Framework
We build on the extant satisfaction and judgment formation literatures to
recognize that a customer’s overtly stated satisfaction is comprised of two
related but distinct dimensions – the level of satisfaction and the covert
strength with which that satisfaction judgment is held. Several lines of thought
support this two-dimensional conceptualization of revealed satisfaction. For
instance,scholars in the area of services marketing note that customer
expectations are often fuzzy (e.g., Rustet al 1999), and it is often difficult for
customers to precisely estimate the level of received service (Parasuraman,
Zeithaml and Berry 1985). Thus, it is likely that the resulting satisfaction
judgments themselves are laden with uncertainty. Consequently, customers
are likely to differ in the strength with which they hold their satisfaction. This is
also consistent with the psychological view of human judgments succinctly
expressed by Koehler (1994, p. 461): “Although we believe a great many
things, we hold some of our beliefs with greater conviction than others.”
Satisfaction model
Letting SATi denote the stated satisfaction of the its customer, we recognize
that SATi is a realization from a distribution of possible judgments, such that SLi,
