| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 行銷學系 === 92 === Abstract
This study intends to examine the relationships among satisfaction, complaint, and retailer switching behavior of consumers’ fresh food product purchases and the factors influencing location switching behavior. Considering consumers at different retail formats having various purchasing patterns, this study surveyed respondents at traditional markets and at the hypermarkets in Taiwan. Respondents at traditional markets valued the freshness, free of contamination, and overall quality of fresh food products more heavily. Respondents at hypermarkets paid more attention to freshness, free of contamination, and refrigerate equipment and conditions of the retail stores.
This study used the evaluated importance and satisfaction of fresh food products to group respondents into clusters. The results indicated that respondents had various post-purchase behaviors under the situations of expectancy disconfirmation. The respondents in the cluster of “partially satisfied customers” of traditional markets tended not to complain or complained privately when experiencing dissatisfaction with the sanitary conditions or the environment of the markets. Respondents of traditional markets when experiencing satisfaction were more likely to spread the information privately using word-of-mouth or further increased the levels of loyalty. Respondents in the cluster of “satisfied customers” of traditional markets believed that complaint could be a way to get responses from retailers and to direct improvement whenever dissatisfaction occurred. This group of respondents realized that channels of submitting complaints existed and was willing to battle for consumer rights. Analyzed results of hypermarket respondents indicated that most of them did not complain or only complained privately. However, they delivered word-of-mouth positively and increased the levels of loyalty when experiencing satisfaction. The respondents in the cluster of “satisfied customers” were more willing to file complaints than the respondents of “partially satisfied customers”. “Satisfied customers” of hypermarkets would complain to gain consumer rights while “partially satisfied customers” would complain due to responsibilities and the belief that retailers would react and enhance product or service qualities. In general, consumers could not stand with the retailers’ ignorance or unresponsiveness to complaints.
Respondents of traditional markets indicated high switching intentions. “Partially satisfied customers” had relatively high possibilities to switch to different retailers within the same traditional markets. “Dissatisfied customers” had relatively high intentions to switch to other traditional markets where they had not been to previously. Respondents of hypermarkets had relatively high possibilities to switch to other retail locations besides the traditional markets where they had not been to.
The relationships of complaint behavior and location switching indicated that less “satisfied customers” of traditional markets would complain privately and switch retailers. More “partially satisfied customers” had tendencies to complain privately and switch to different retailers within the same traditional markets. “Dissatisfied customers” were more likely to complain privately and switch to other traditional markets or hypermarkets for fresh food products. Privately complained respondents of hypermarkets within the cluster of “partially satisfied customers” were more likely to switch locations than those of “satisfied customers”.
This study suggests retailers to ensure the qualities and freshness of fresh food products. Retailers need to encourage customers to raise complaints of dissatisfaction with products, services, or the environment so the retailers can have chances to recover the errors or failure. The levels of satisfaction could be increased and the possibilities of location switching could be reduced if retailers properly handled the complaints. The traditional markets lack of organized customer service centers to manage customers’ dissatisfaction or complaints. How individual retailers deal with complaints can be determinate. On the contrary, the customer services of hypermarkets are more functional and advantageous. Hypermarkets need to vigorously encourage customers to deliver complaints and dissatisfaction so the functions of customer services can be reinforced and eventually become the weapons to compete in the contemporary retailing environment.
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