General Service Provider Satisfaction

What it measures

Four items with mixed response formats capture the overall satisfaction a customer holds toward a service provider. The scale combines a direct satisfaction statement, a performance-expectation comparison, a comparison with an ideal provider, and an assessment of how well the provider meets current needs. Items were developed and refined through a pretest and main study in long-distance telecommunications and credit card contexts.

Response format

Mixed: items 1–2 on 5-point Likert (strongly disagree/strongly agree); item 3 anchored far below ideal/equal to ideal; item 4 anchored extremely poorly/extremely well

Scale items

• I am satisfied with my service provider.
• What I get from my service provider falls short of what I expect for this type of service. (r)
• Imagine an ideal service provider—one that does everything a provider of this service should do. How does your service provider compare with this ideal service provider?
• How well does your service provider meet your needs at this time?

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alphas of .85 (long-distance) and .84 (credit cards) were reported. Satisfaction was modelled as a consequence of switching costs in the nomological network. The mixed response format across items should be noted when adapting the scale.

Citation

Burnham, T. A., Frels, J. K., & Mahajan, V. (2003). Consumer switching costs: A typology, antecedents and consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(2), 109–126.

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