Perceived Quality: Does Performance Matter?

Abstract

How have customer perceptions of the quality of products and services developed over the years? Core to this discussion are two perspectives on what constitutes “quality”—reliability and customizability—and why the latter dominates the former as a predictor of customer satisfaction in today’s economy. The chapter tackles the prospects for continuing gains in satisfaction in the absence of improved quality. Contrary to the perceptions of many businesspeople, quality trumps price and value as an influencing factor on customer satisfaction across almost all industries and sectors of the economy. Plus, the modern economy is a “mass customization” economy, and thus customer satisfaction is more sensitive to the “personalizability” of goods and services than to their reliability.