On customer satisfaction and financial results in the Swedish real estate market

Abstract

The paper provides empirical results on potential impacts from customer perceived quality and customer satisfaction on various financial indicators for the Swedish real estate market. Quality data are taken from the Swedish Real Estate Barometer, and financial data from the SFI/IPD Swedish Property Index. Results provide some support for the hypothesis that investments to improve customer satisfaction are first cost driving, but will, towards the latter part of the time period examined (1997–2002), significantly and positively impact profitability. The main driver for this seems to be reputation and positive word-of-mouth due to improved customer satisfaction.