Determinants of consumer satisfaction among chiropractic consumers in Macao

In Macao, where the health care industry is not strictly regulated, health care consumers have a lot of options when deciding where to seek treatment. Therefore, to any private health service provider, including chiropractors, knowing what keeps customers satisfied is vital for business success. The primary objective of this study is to examine the relative significance of a set of chosen variables in determining the satisfaction among chiropractic consumers. Although common sense suggests that satisfied consumers are loyal consumers, this study is intended to test this proposition as rigorously as possible. Therefore, the secondary objective of this study is to determine the strength and nature of the relationship between consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty. To accomplish the above objectives, an anonymous online survey was conducted on 354 chiropractic consumers recruited from chiropractic clinics in Macao. The findings revealed that the 11 chosen constructs could explain 74.6% of the variance in consumer satisfaction, and the relative importance of the constructs could be ranked in descending order: “Communication”, “Responsiveness”, “Perceived Value”, “Reputation”, “Perceived technical competence”, “Recoverability”, “Assurance”, “Tangibles”, “Waiting time”, “Reliability”, “Accessibility”. In addition, correlation analysis revealed that “Consumer satisfaction” and “consumer loyalty” were highly correlated with each other. It is recommended that chiropractors consult the findings of the survey in order to enhance the satisfaction of their consumers by improving certain aspects of their operation, as well as applying marketing strategies to influence consumers’ perspective of their service quality. In regard to future research, it would be of interest to see studies that provided comparisons of the different perspectives between chiropractors and their patients.