How to develop a customer satisfaction scale with optimal construct validity

Maarten Terpstra (), Ton Kuijlen () and Klaas Sijtsma ()

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 2014, vol. 48, issue 5, 2719-2737

Abstract: In this article, we investigate how to construct a customer satisfaction (CS) scale which yields optimally valid measurements of the construct of interest. For this purpose we compare three alternative methodologies for scale development and construct validation. Furthermore, we discuss a satisfaction measurement application which is consistent with Messick’s (in: Linn (ed.) Educational measurement, 1989 ) construct validity theory. Following the deductive design for test development and construct validation, a multi-item measure for CS with a retail bank was developed. The measure was applied in survey research ( $$N$$ N = 1,689) within a Dutch retail bank. The items constituted a unidimensional scale, allowing the computation of scale scores. The tests of 11 hypotheses about scale-score characteristics demonstrated that the scale score represented the construct of CS well. Furthermore, the one-factor theory (e.g. Yi, in: Zeithaml (ed.) Review of marketing, 1990 ) of satisfaction/dissatisfaction was confirmed. An implication of this result is that satisfaction/dissatisfaction can be measured on one scale instead of two scales, one for satisfaction and one for dissatisfaction. The results demonstrate that the deductive design is an appropriate methodology for measure development and construct validation in applied psychological research. The article concludes that the multi-item measure is well-suited for CS measurement in retail banking and that customized satisfaction scales have advantages but also disadvantages compared to standardized scales. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Keywords: Construct validity; Psychological tests; Scale development; Customer satisfaction; Survey research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11135-013-9920-7 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:48:y:2014:i:5:p:2719-2737

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11135-013-9920-7

Access Statistics for this article

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology is currently edited by Vittorio Capecchi

More articles in Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().