Why and How to Use Customer Opinions: A Quality-of-Life and Customer Satisfaction-Oriented Foundation for Performance-Based Decision-Making

Abstract

The concepts of 'customer satisfaction' (CS) and 'quality of life' (QOL) have both been used, on a limited basis, in strategic planning and performance measurement at state departments of transportation. However, the meanings and usefulness of these concepts are still unclear or evolving to many practitioners. Based on a review of the literature and customer opinion data collected for various transportation studies in the USA and Europe, this paper offers two important contributions to the transportation literature. The paper clarifies the relationship between the CS and QOL concepts, placing CS in the broader context of customer opinions and subjective well-being. The paper then identifies six categories of survey tools for collecting customer opinions, describing how each can be used within a performance management framework to reveal the QOL impacts of transportation decisions. Agencies can use the definitions, conceptual relationships, performance measures, and decision-making processes discussed in this paper to refine their performance management programs, to better understand customer and public perceptions, and to make systematic progress toward their QOL oriented goals.

Mindfulness and banking customers’ quality of life

“…In this study, no support was found for the hypothesis that satisfaction influences quality of life. Following Fischer et al (2014), a possible explanation is that customers perceive that satisfaction with banking services is not an important component of their life domains. This could be because the average interest rate for saving accounts is below the inflation rate (Jiao and Sihombing, 2022), which makes customers perceive that satisfaction with the banking service does not contribute to the achievement of their standard of living (Fischer et al , 2014).…”

“…Following Fischer et al (2014), a possible explanation is that customers perceive that satisfaction with banking services is not an important component of their life domains. This could be because the average interest rate for saving accounts is below the inflation rate (Jiao and Sihombing, 2022), which makes customers perceive that satisfaction with the banking service does not contribute to the achievement of their standard of living (Fischer et al , 2014). In this study, no support for service value, satisfaction and loyalty to the company mediating the influence of mindfulness on quality of life was found.…”