Service satisfaction with premium durables: A cross-cultural investigation

Abstract

In premium durable markets post-purchase contacts between customers and dealers are typically sparse, making each after sales contact a valuable opportunity to build-up and ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customer loyalization becomes increasingly difficult due to extended service intervals and increasing price competition in basic technical support. The identification of cross-culturally mattering drivers of customer service satisfaction in after sales business is therefore an issue of increasing importance. Based on a sophisticated customer survey differences of service quality perception and underlying triggers are analyzed. The study contrasts individualistic with collectivistic cultural contexts and empirically substantiates nonlinearity of satisfaction triggers in the case of premium durables. We show that individualistic and collectivistic backgrounds may reveal significant differences regarding important triggers of service satisfaction (e.g. explanation of work done), whereas brand sympathy over-proportionally triggers service satisfaction across cultures. The knowledge of internationally counting after sales service satisfaction triggers and nonlinearity of effects allows for optimizing global process standards, focusing the training of service personnel on aspects that really count, as well as planning of effective marketing activities.