Customer Satisfaction Dynamics in Service Systems
Summary
Customer satisfaction in service systems emerges from the continuous interaction between customer expectations, perceived performance and feedback mechanisms. Service systems encompass the people, technologies and processes through which services are co-created and delivered, spanning sectors as diverse as hospitality, healthcare, finance and digital platforms. Central to understanding satisfaction dynamics is the expectancy-disconfirmation framework, which posits that satisfaction results from the gap between what customers expect and what they perceive they receive. Positive disconfirmation, where performance exceeds expectations, tends to reinforce satisfaction and loyalty, while negative disconfirmation undermines future engagement. Beyond simple linear relationships, recent work highlights non-linear effects, feedback loops and the moderating influence of customer emotions, cultural context and service design features. Advances in real-time data capture and machine learning enable service providers to forecast satisfaction trajectories and customise interactions, enhancing recovery after service failures and strengthening long-term relationships. Globally, as economies shift towards service-dominant logic, firms and policymakers alike seek to harness these insights to optimise customer journeys, allocate resources effectively and sustain competitive advantage. Practical applications include adaptive expectation management, personalised recovery strategies and predictive modelling of satisfaction under varying service scenarios.
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Customer Satisfaction Dynamics in Service Systems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in customer satisfaction dynamics in service systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Service system: An integrated network of resources, actors and processes through which service value is co-created and delivered.
Customer satisfaction: A customer’s evaluative judgement of a service based on the perceived gap between expectations and actual performance.
Expectation-disconfirmation: A theoretical model describing how satisfaction arises from the comparison between expected and perceived service outcomes.
Disconfirmation: The degree to which perceived performance deviates positively or negatively from initial expectations.
Service quality: The overall assessment of a service’s excellence, often conceptualised through dimensions such as reliability, responsiveness and assurance.
References
- Expectancy-disconfirmation and consumer satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (2025).
- Pricey therefore good? Price affects expectations, but not quality perceptions and liking. Psychology and Marketing (2023).
- The antecedents of customer satisfaction in the live-streaming commerce of green agricultural products. PLOS ONE (2024).
- How the response to service incidents change customer–firm relationships. European Journal of Management and Business Economics (2022).
- Forecasting care seekers satisfaction with telemedicine using machine learning and structural equation modeling. PLOS ONE (2021).
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