The impact of outcome quality, interaction quality, and peer‐to‐peer quality on customer satisfaction with a hospital service

Creating superior customer satisfaction has been considered one of the keys to the firm's success and hence, the antecedents of customer satisfaction have been examined numerous times. However, the link between customer satisfaction and peer‐to‐peer quality, which is deemed a critical component of customer experience quality, has not been spotlighted despite its importance. The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a theoretical model of the relationship among outcome quality, interaction quality, peer‐to‐peer quality, and customer satisfaction as well as these variables’ impacts on customer loyalty.

To test the model, the authors conducted a survey and collected self‐administered data for data analysis. The proposed relationships were then tested using structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that outcome quality, interaction quality, and peer‐to‐peer quality perceptions significantly influence customer satisfaction, which, in turn, greatly influences customer loyalty. This study shows that outcome quality, interaction quality, and peer‐to‐peer quality should be considered pivotal elements in creating customer satisfaction and that customer satisfaction should be treated as a strategic variable to enhance customer loyalty.

The present study examines the role of familiarity as a moderating variable, finding that outcome quality has a significant influence on customer satisfaction only when patients are familiar with services provided by a hospital. That is, the influence of outcome quality on customer satisfaction becomes greater as customers become more familiar with hospital services, which are characterized as credence services. The finding is noteworthy in that it expands our understanding of the relationship between outcome quality and customer satisfaction.