Besides, customer delight is another related area that got attention from past researchers. It is expressed to be more than customer satisfaction. Customer delight is different from satisfaction, specifically in terms of its impact on customer loyalty. Additionally, customer delight is more related to emotional evaluation, while customer satisfaction is related to cognitive evaluation (Lee, & Park, 2019). According to (Kim et al. 2015), in the tourism and hospitality sector, it is important to understand customer’s emotional factors, including customer delight. Moreover, it is directly to consumption experiences and repeat business opportunities. Furthermore, customer delight is also based on its interaction with the service or product providers. Based on past empirical studies, analyzing the relationship between satisfaction, delight, and repurchase has found inconsistent results between the three factors. However, some studies have found a significant relationship between customer delight and repurchase intention (Kim et al. 2015). Based on the literature review, there is a lack of qualitative studies or innovative ways to measure customer delight, based on their emotions which shows a gap in the existing research.
Overall, to strike a balance between service quality and customer perception and expectations, Mihaela, (2014) has suggested the following framework, which can help marketers and businesses in this sector to enhance their competitiveness and market share:
(Source: Mihaela, 2014)
This is an interesting and comprehensive model, but almost no or few studies are using such a model to guide future researchers and marketers. This again shows a gap in the existing literature in this domain.
Measuring methods and tools used for satisfaction and service quality
From the tourism perspective, a destination remains competitive if the customer has a positive perception of it. This is possible only if the destination provides quality products and services to enhance customer experience and satisfaction (Mihaela, 2014). According to (Pijls et al. 2017), when it comes to measuring satisfaction in the field of hospitality, it refers to the process of assessing how well a business has provided a service or experience to the visitors, that meets or exceeds the expectations of the customers. This connects service quality to concepts of customer experience and customer satisfaction (Pijls et al. 2017).
Additionally, other researchers analyzed the quality of services, via customer satisfaction, customer perceptions, and attitudes towards different hospitality businesses and services, which is subjective criteria (Pizam, et al. 2016). Therefore, most papers have used qualitative and participatory techniques to understand the perception and expectations of the users. Not only this, researchers have suggested that qualitative methods can provide rich and complete information to tourist companies and destinations clarifying the reasons for satisfaction and dissatisfaction in visitors (Mihaela, 2014).
Similarly, Ali et al. (2021) highlighted that customer satisfaction is influenced by the gap between customer expectations and their experience. This gap analysis provides an opportunity for researchers and business managers to design suitable methods to meet the needs and expectations of the customers. Furthermore, to understand this gap, different researchers have used surveys, interviews, and questionnaires to determine customer attitudes and perceptions about the quality of goods and services related to the tourism industry (Pizam, et al. 2016).
According to (PJ et al. 2023), a lot of studies have used different methods and explanations to analyze the quality and customer satisfaction theme, still, the extensive review of past literature suggests that there is a lack of bibliometric studies analyzing this relationship, using new and technological methods. Although, many papers have used a tool named ‘SERVQUAL’, which is a multi-item scale with several questions. The key idea is to measure respondents' perception of service quality, based on five main aspects: physical, reliability, responsiveness, empathy, and assurance (See Appendix for explanation). All five dimensions are analyzed using a 7-score Likert scale and for the servqual score, the formula of ‘Perception score-hope scope’ is used (Bungatang, & Reynel, 2021). This links service quality and customer satisfaction, as satisfaction is also based on the perception of the services received and expectations before experience (Bungatang, & Reynel, 2021).
Conclusion
This literature review has critically reviewed the key emerging topic of service quality and customer satisfaction, which highlights the importance of accurately measuring customer satisfaction, in the field of hospitality and tourism. This topic is quite vast, having many related themes like customer retention, loyalty, and delight, etc. The topic is relevant and significant not only for the researchers, but marketers, destinations, market players, and the overall tourism and hospitality sector.
Different researchers used different methods to measure service quality and customer satisfaction. However, traditional methods like: SERVQUAL model are still valuable to measure service quality and customer perceptions and expectations. However, there is a need to adopt new techniques to remain data-driven and competitive. Conversely, there are lack of studies analyzing this relationship with new technological solutions. Therefore, there is still a lot of scope for research and untapped areas in this field. So, continued research and innovation are necessary to address these unresolved issues and enhance the effectiveness of satisfaction measurement methods and practices.
