Customer Satisfaction

2.0 Customer Satisfaction

A perspective to customer satisfaction is to identify the biggest "benefit" to the customer. (Barsky and Labagh, 1992, 33). It is referred as the "response" to the quality of service that the customer receives (Gilbert and Horsnell, 1998, 450) and defined as a consumer's post purchase evaluation of the overall service experience. (Lovelock et al, 2007). Customer satisfaction is frequently regarded as a determining factor of repeat customers (Hong 2010, 200), where comparison between the higher the level of customer satisfaction, the higher the number of "repeat" (Birgit, 2009, 42) and "loyal" customers (Barsky and Nash, 2003,173) will be seen. Therefore, service providers will need to excel in service marketing by understanding the customers and manage expectations through communications.

3.0 Types of Expectations

The concept of expectation has been emphasized as a key variable in the evaluation of service quality (Yoon & Ekinci, 2008) and according to Miller (1977), expectations can be classified into the following four categories: ideal, expected (predictive), minimum tolerable, and deserved'. Miller (1977) further explained that the ideal type of expectations is the wished-for level and reflects what the respondent feels the performance of the product or service can be (Miller, 1977); the deserved level type of expectations can be determined by a consumer's evaluation of the rewards and costs involved in the relationship which customers will be delighted if it matches (Yoon & Ekinci, 2008). The predictive expectation is based on the respondent's objective calculation of what the performance will be and based on past experiences; and when the service performance is better than initially expected, there will be a positive disconfirmation between expected and performance that results in satisfaction (Yuksel, 2001). Lastly, the minimum tolerable is the least acceptable performance level which normally customer will show the "better than nothing" attitude that reflects what the minimum level of perceived performance must be.

4.0 The importance of Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction leads to benefits like cost reduction in attracting new customers, enhances company image, insulates customers from competitors, creating sustainable advantages and reduces failure costs. Identifying customer satisfaction will lead to loyalty; however, it is non linear as certain service quality attributes play a more significant role than others (Oliver et al. 1997, cited in Lovelock et al. 2007, 72).

5.0 Target Market Customers of Carlton Hotel Singapore

The Carlton Hotel Singapore, located conveniently in the middle of City Hall, Bras Basah MRT station, Suntec