ABSTRACT
This chapter goes beyond just attempting to ensure customer satisfaction, and sets a higher mark of achieving a more complete state of customer loyalty. Customers are not intrinsically loyal, but need to be won over in today’s saturated competitive landscape. Consequently, we focus on exceeding customer expectations and achieving customer delight. The chapter explains that customer delight entails leaving customers with a positive surprise. Related topics, such as return-on-quality theory, add depth to the discussion. Returnon-quality theory contends that firms must gauge the projected financial returns from investing in a service quality improvement so that they can weigh the potentials of various quality initiatives against each other. In other words, firms must possess an understanding of which service-related amenities customers value the most and what truly drives their loyalty.
