The development of loyalty among novice and experienced customers of sport and fitness centres

Highlights

•	We examined the effect of service quality and satisfaction on customer loyalty across different consumption stages.
•	Data was collected in the context of sports and fitness centres.
•	Our results indicated that service quality was a major driver of loyalty only for novice customers.
•	Satisfaction was found to be a major driver of customers’ future behaviours for both groups; however, its impact was significantly greater among experienced customers.

Abstract

Researchers suggest that as consumption progresses, consumers’ needs change. However, previous studies have shown few insights into the effect of service quality and satisfaction on customer loyalty across different consumption stages. This study examines the impact of service quality and satisfaction on customer loyalty among novice and experienced customers in the context of sports and fitness centres. Altogether, 426 customers of a public sports and fitness centre in Greece participated in the study. The results indicate that service quality consistently affects overall satisfaction across both customer groups; service quality is a major driver of loyalty only for novice customers, while overall satisfaction is a major driver of customers’ future behaviours; however, its impact is significantly greater among experienced customers. These findings contribute positively to our understanding of how service quality and satisfaction are developed and influence customer retention in different consumption stages. The practical implications and limitations of this study are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Service quality
• Satisfaction
• Behavioural intentions
• Loyalty
• Sport

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the three anonymous SMR reviewers and Dr. Jose A. Martinez for their constructive comments which helped improve the quality of this paper.

Notes

1 For a detailed discussion about the differences between reflective and formative service quality models, see Martinez and Martinez (2010a).

2 The free-ware program SBDIFF.EXE was used to calculate the difference between two examined models. This program was written to accompany the work of Crawford and Henry (2003).