Understanding customer satisfaction in opera: first steps toward a model

Abstract

Despite the frequent call for a strengthened customer orientation in performing arts organizations, no efforts have been made to investigate customer satisfaction in opera so far. The paper aims at filling this gap by suggesting a first integrative model of customer satisfaction in opera. This model integrates insights from both services marketing literature (i.e., general services marketing and performing arts marketing) and performing arts literature (i.e., music perception and theater studies). The model is tested in a field study interviewing 116 visitors of a public German opera house. Results reveal visitors' level of appraisal to be the main antecedent of their satisfaction, followed by their perception of the artistic quality, empathy/identification with the actors on stage, and recall from memory. Furthermore, differences within the audience regarding the relative importance of the antecedents of customer satisfaction in opera are investigated. Using gender and attendance frequency as segmentation variables, only minor differences are found, though. Managerial implications for opera marketing are discussed in conclusion. First, efforts in opera marketing should rather concentrate on the core service quality instead of the peripheral service quality. Second, professional opera companies may attract broader audiences if they focus on the emotional satisfaction of their customers. Third, since only minor and mostly insignificant differences between men and women, and occasional compared to frequent visitors are found, a need for further research to explore alternative segmentation variables in the opera context is identified.

Enjoying theater: The role of visitor’s response to the performance.

“…Whereas Jobst and Boemer (2011) exclusively focus on opera, Boemer et al (2011) refer to theater. The latter study investigated visitor's satisfaction with their subjective experience in theater.…”

The impact of primary service and servicescape on customer satisfaction in a leisure service setting: an empirical investigation among theatregoers

“…The disparate results on visitors' satisfaction in theatre cited in the preceding texts may be because of certain shortcomings of this stream of research. First, with the only exception of Voss and Cova (), the existing studies rely on relatively homogenous samples, including audiences from only one theatre (Garbarino & Johnson, , ; Johnson, Garbarino, & Sivadas, ), one production (Song & Cheung, ; Boerner et al ., ), or one performance (Jobst & Boerner, ). In addition, samples in all studies are small, ranging from n = 116 (Jobst & Boerner, ) to n = 401 theatergoers (Garbarino & Johnson, ).…”

“…Garbarino & Johnson, ; Song & Cheung, ), others fail to do so (e.g. Boerner, Moser, & Jobst, ; Jobst & Boerner, ). The same is true for aspects of the primary service that turned out to be significant in some studies (Garbarino & Johnson, ), while insignificant in others (Voss & Cova, ).…”

The contribution of marketing innovations on art organization performance: cases from the biggest art organizations in Greece

“…Frey and Urrutiaguer (2002) Key success on theater productions: theater's reputation, sold tickets, highly paid actors Parasuraman et al (1985Parasuraman et al ( , 2005) Focuses on quality of services Radbourne et al (2009) Quality criteria: when the performance meets visitors' expectations and make them loyal. Quantity criteria: subscribers, attendance, earned funds, and new production Slater (2007) Reasons to visit a gallery: educational, social, and entertaining Jobst and Boerner (2011) Reason to attend an opera: (i) artistic and content quality; (ii) popular actors; and (iii) recall of memory Kaplan (2001) Focuses on the results, costumer's satisfaction, internal process, and learning to growth Gainer and Padanyi (2002) Art organizations with marketing-oriented strategy are more likely to achieve a market-oriented organizational culture which leads to audience satisfaction, good reputation, and holding recourses. Worth (2009) Financial ratio measures fundraising efficiency, programming, and administrational expenses.…”