The influence of customers' personal characteristics on their satisfaction with the food industry

Abstract

The subject of this research is the influence of numerous factors and variables on customer satisfaction, which is one of the main factors of the company's competitiveness. The objective of the study, therefore, is to ascertain which factors and variables influence customer satisfaction and, as a result, the competitiveness of the enterprise from within the food industry. The research has been conceived in two successive steps. The first of these is to discover the influence of selected factors on customer satisfaction. Amongst these were factors which not only sometimes clearly influenced customer satisfaction (factors of customer satisfaction), but also factors which clearly influenced other types of satisfaction which were then associated with customer satisfaction (personal characteristics). In the second step, mutual relationships between the two groups of factors is described. The research was carried out on a sample of firms in the food industry along with their end customers. Multiple regression and a hierarchical mixed-effect model with the appropriate statistical tests were used for modelling. From the results it emerges that only the factors of customer satisfaction (customer expectation, perceived quality and perceived value) have an effect on overall customer satisfaction. The influence of personal characteristics was not proven. However, a (weak) relationship was shown between some of the factors of customer satisfaction (perceived value, perceived quality, competitiveness and customer expectation) and a number of factors from the group of personal characteristics (financial capacity, level of optimism and level of planning).