CUSTOMER DELIGHT - FOUNDATIONS, FINDINGS, AND MANAGERIAL INSIGHT

Many business practitioners have addressed the importance of delightin g delighting the customer as an extension of providing basic satisfact ion. Yet the concept of customer delight has not been given a clear be havioral foundation, and the antecedents and consequences of customer delight, when manifest in specific service contexts, have not been emp irically explored. This paper attempts to provide a first step toward establishing a behavioral basis for customer delight, empirically test ing its hypothesized antecedents and consequences, and exploring the r esulting implications. Based on data from two service fields, structur al equation results support the proposition that unexpected high level s of satisfaction or performance initiate an arousal double right arro w pleasure (positive affect) double right arrow delight sequence. Mixe d support is found for the hypothesis that delight is a combined resul t of pleasure and arousal. Satisfaction, acting in parallel with delig ht, was strongly related to pleasure and disconfirmation and had a cle ar effect on behavioral intention; the effect of delight on intention, however, appears to be moderated by the service context. Managerial i mplications include the consideration of whether delight is a reasonab le and meaningful consumer expression in particular service contexts, the necessity of focusing an surprising levels of satisfaction or perf ormance when attempting to produce delighting consumption experiences, and potentially separate strategies for inducing satisfaction and del ight.