Hierarchical representation of satisfactory consumer service experience

What conceptual organization underlies evaluative judgments in the mind of consumers? Drawing from the theory of cognitive schemata and from means-end theory, here we show that customer evaluations can be represented as a set of self-relevant, interconnected and hierarchically organized elements. Elements of the hierarchy are components of a satisfactory service experience that range from concrete service attributes (such as staff kindness), to higher level benefits (such as the feeling of being looked after), to more abstract values (such as happiness). To construct a hierarchical map of components and explain overall satisfaction the laddering technique was applied to a sample of hotel customers. Results suggest that the links between concrete attributes, high-level benefits, and values provide a better explanation of overall satisfaction than service attributes alone.