A study of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and quality attributes in Taiwan's medical service industry

Measurement of customer satisfaction in behavioral health services has received increasing emphasis due to clinicians' and researchers' desire to measure outcomes that reflect the patient's unique perspective. This study examined how overall customer satisfaction and customer loyalty associate with the medical service quality attributes offered in Taiwan using Kano's integrated model and the Customer Satisfaction Index Model. The results show that customer satisfaction was influenced by the one-dimensional and attractive attributes, and negatively affected by customer complaints. Surprisingly, the must-be attributes could not predict customer satisfaction, which suggests that competitive convergence played a role within the Taiwan context. As well, customer loyalty proved to be independent of customer satisfaction and customer complaints, which may have been due to the barriers erected to dissuade patients from changing to a new provider. The major finding suggests that hospital managers should identify and emphasize the relevant one-dimensional and attractive attributes so as to increase patient satisfaction levels. Other findings reveal new insights for researchers concerned with the quality of medical services offered in Taiwan, as well as for hospital managers who must distribute their limited resources in order to achieve the highest possible patient satisfaction.