Faktory spokojenosti zákazníků v cestovním ruchu

The concept of customer satisfaction has been discussed in the literature a lot. It is considered to be an important factor in attracting and retaining customers. The main reason leading to this statement is the fact that satisfaction has a significant impact on the financial results of a company. Satisfied customers realize repeated purchase, they are more loyal, less sensitive to price increase and furthermore they spread the positive experience through word-of-mouth. This paper presents findings of the research focused on customer satisfaction in tourism, particularly satisfaction with the services provided by travel agencies. Customer satisfaction was measured both as a unidimensional (i.e. total satisfaction) and multidimensional concept (i.e. satisfaction with individual satisfaction attributes). Focus-groups were used in an exploratory research to generate variables of customer satisfaction. In total, 39 variables were generated and were grouped into following dimensions: travel agencies’ offer, knowledge and information of travel agencies, transportation, personnel, communication and marketing activities. The data was collected by the method of personnel interview with a standardized questionnaire. The analysis of customer satisfaction indicated relatively good total satisfaction and showed that all given dimensions contributed to customer satisfaction with approximately same power. Therefore it was essential to apply the factor analysis to identify the main factors of customer satisfaction because these are as well the indicators of what a customer expects. Five main factors – personnel, transportation, price, information and communication were identified as the main factors influencing customer satisfaction in tourism. At the same time the analysis discovered somewhat different content and meaning of some factors than they are traditionally considered to have. Key Words: tourism, customer satisfaction, factors, research, travel agency.