Research on the relationship between perceived service and customer satisfaction

Perceived service is regarded as an antecedent of customer satisfaction, and most of studies use linear model to estimate the effect of perceived service on customer satisfaction. However, nonlinear relationship between perceived service and customer satisfaction may exist according to previous theories. In this study, we use a bank customer sample of 2500 people and a refrigerator customer sample of 2407 people to investigate the service distribution and use a cubic model to estimate the relationship between perceived service and customer satisfaction. Results show that customers are inclined to rank the service in medium or high level. Different kinds of service affect customer satisfaction differently. Perceived service is nonlinearly correlative with customer satisfaction in bank industry, while the curve is linear in refrigerator industry. Then we further analyze the curve of service under different customer satisfaction levels. The results indicate that perceived service curve changes slowly with the change of satisfaction level. It is inferred that with the existence of perceived service frontier, the efforts to improve the satisfaction level may be repaid little. Companies should keep customer satisfaction at a certain level, rather than attempt to promote it all the time.