Are drivers of customer satisfaction different for buyers/users from different functional areas?

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study is to identify the drivers that influence customer satisfaction in a business‐to‐business context.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey‐based field study was conducted in which 1,068 business customers of a manufacturer of hydraulic and pneumatic equipment participated. Buyers/users reported their perceptions about and satisfaction with a supplier's product‐related services.

Findings

Three drivers of customer satisfaction, reliability, product‐related information, and commercial aspects, were identified. The importance of the last two drivers differed depending on the buyer's/user's primary functional area. For respondents from purchasing and management, commercial aspects were found to be more important than product‐related information. For participants from engineering, maintenance, and production, product‐related information was found to be more important than commercial aspects. The reliability driver emerged as the most important regardless of the functional association of respondents.

Originality/value

The study results elucidate the differences between drivers of customer satisfaction for the buyers/users from different functional areas of an organization.

Citation

Chakraborty, G., Srivastava, P. and Marshall, F. (2007), "Are drivers of customer satisfaction different for buyers/users from different functional areas?", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 20-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/08858620710722798