It is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare setting to treat patients as consumers and measure their satisfaction with medical services rendered. As such, patient satisfaction should be considered an important output of a country's healthcare system, basically reflecting the stage of its development. The conducted study tested students’ satisfaction with the quality of service provided by student polyclinics. In particular, the study has analysed the impacts of personal relationships, promptness and tangibility on student satisfaction. The findings imply that all three factors significantly affect patient satisfaction, with personal relationships having the strongest impact. Such results suggest that healthcare providers should encourage their doctors to devote more time to their patients and show genuine concern for patients’ problems if they wish to improve overall satisfaction of their patients with the delivered services.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedents of satisfaction and revisit intentions for full-service restaurants. The economic crisis is known to have had a deep impact on consumer behavior with regards to restaurants and this study is primarily focussed on exploring the effects on the traditional antecedents of satisfaction and revisit intentions as full-time restaurants attempt to reposition their offer. Design/methodology/approach – The study involved 218 respondents who were guests of full-service restaurants. In terms of statistical analyses, confirmative factor analysis was used to test the suitability of the proposed model for measuring satisfaction and revisit intentions, while structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the relationship among variables of the conceptualized model. Findings – The results confirmed the significant impact of atmosphere and quality of interaction on guest satisfaction. It was interesting to notice that perceived price has no statistically significant impact on guest satisfaction. In addition, satisfaction, along with atmosphere and perceived price emerged as a significant trigger of revisit intentions. While measuring impact of atmosphere and perceived price on revisit intentions, both direct and indirect effects were measured. Originality/value – This study emphasizes in particular, the significance of revisit intention as an important behavioral reaction and reveals its antecedents. In a limited number of studies, models for understanding triggers of revisit intention were developed as separate variables, rather than as components of behavioral reactions. In that context, the tested model identifies causal relationships between latent variables. Restaurants involved in the survey are full-service restaurants dealing with the changing behavior of guests who are heavily impacted by the economic crisis. Guests show a tendency to reduce their visits to restaurants in these circumstances, forcing restaurants to reformulate their service offering in order to align with changing customers’ needs.

Purpose – With the expansion of dining out, visiting ethnic restaurants is becoming one of dominant trends worldwide. Given the fact that ethnic restaurants involve a number of peculiar elements that are not present when visiting regular “local” restaurants, the purpose of this paper is to identify the key determinants of choosing a particular ethnic-themed restaurant, as well as factors that have an impact on an ethnic restaurant’s perceived image. Design/methodology/approach – Research was done by conducting two separate studies. The first study identified factors that were generally the most significant to respondents when making a choice of an ethnic restaurant in which to dine. For the second study, a new sample of respondents – consisting of those who had just visited such an establishment – was used in order to determine which factors have the most significant impact on creating an image of ethnic restaurants. The research was therefore directed toward those restaurants where the customers can experience a unique atmosphere and ambiance that are synonymous within a given culture. Findings – The results obtained from the first study show that quality of food and price are the two most significant factors that determine which restaurant will be visited. On the other hand, the interior and exterior ranked as the two least important factors. In addition, the second study revealed that following the visit, the strongest impact on the restaurant’s image was its interior. Following interior, service quality surfaced as the most important antecedent of perceived image, while the impacts of price and exterior were weaker, but still statistically significant. Research limitations/implications – The study itself was done in two stages. In the first stage the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) model was used for ranking factors significant for choosing an ethnic restaurant, while in the second stage, structural equation modeling (SEM) model was used to identify triggers of perceived image after a visit to an ethnic restaurant. Future research should utilize both models to determine antecedents of the variables used. Apart from this, it is recommended to employ new variables that further explore the uniqueness of the ethnic restaurants. Originality/value – One of the main contributions of this work is related to combining of the AHP and SEM models, with the objective of completing a comparative results analysis, identifying in the process the positive aspects of both models and building a foundation for their coordination in terms of future use. This is significant, given that only a few prior studies have used such synergy.

Despite the rise of online travel booking services, it seems that traditional travel agencies remain an intractable part in the process of making travel arrangements for most travelers. Nevertheless, the question remains as to what triggers travelers' satisfaction with travel agencies. In order to explore this, we focused on Serbian travel agencies and researched the impact of the five individual SERVQUAL dimensions on travelers' satisfaction. Results revealed that four SERVQUAL dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, empathy and tangibility) had a significant influence on customer satisfaction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose – The aim of the research is to determine the effects of the four dimensions of customer values that the study identifies, namely, emotional value, social value, functional value and monetary value, on attitudinal loyalty and behavioral intentions. The concept of perceived value is increasingly becoming a subject of interest for authors and researchers in the field of services marketing. Perceived value is considered to be a significant predictor of behavioral intentions. The manner in which consumers perceive the value of a product or service that is offered affects the level of their loyalty. In this context, an analysis of perceived value represents a very important activity in terms of customer-orientated management. Quite frequently, customer value is seen as a multidimensional construct that includes several components. Design/methodology/approach – The survey was conducted via a sample of 246 respondents – users of mobile telecommunication operators. Each construct of the suggested model was measured with three to five statements. The respondents expressed their level of agreement with statements on a 7-point Likert scale. The fit of the model was tested by using confirmative factor analysis, while the relationships hypothesized in the study were tested by using structural equation modeling. Findings – By applying structural equation modeling, the significance of the influence of emotional and social values on attitudinal loyalty, as well as the significant effects of functional and monetary value on behavioral intentions, was confirmed. Furthermore, the strong influence of attitudinal loyalty on behavioral intentions was also identified. The results clearly reveal that in terms of the intensity of the effect, emotional value stands out as the strongest antecedent of attitudinal loyalty. Emotional value has a significant indirect effect on behavioral intentions through attitudinal loyalty. Originality/value – The originality of the study is invoked through identifying four key components of perceived value. The concept of perceived value has only been analyzed by means of its emotional, social, functional and monetary dimension in a small number of prior studies. This paper identifies theoretical, as well as managerial, implications. From a theoretical aspect, causal relationships among viewed variables of the conceptualized model were determined. From the managerial perspective, the results obtained indicate that it is important that mobile operators primarily build a strong emotional connection with their customers because the emotional component of the perceived value has the greatest potential for generating long-term relationships. The findings of this research assist managers employed within mobile network operators to understand the role of various components of customer value in the process of creating customer loyalty.