An empirical study of the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty

Based on literature review, and findings from in-depth interviews with service managers, employees and customers, the authors proposed a causal model of the relationship between customer satisfaction and four components of customer loyalty, surveyed more than 5000 customers in several service companies in China, and tested the model in a series of empirical studies. The results of data analysis indicate that cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, conative loyalty and behavioral loyalty are all sub-factors of the second-order factor of customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction is an important antecedent of customer loyalty, and service fairness, customer perceived service quality, commercial friendship, trust, commitment all have direct or indirect impact on customer loyalty.