SUMMARY
Table 2 shows the full inventory of research questions
that this article suggests are needed to understand the relationships
among service quality, profitability, and the economic
worth of customers. Each of these questions was
discussed in the text of the article after reviewing what we
know about the six topics most relevant in understanding
the relationship. In a general sense, each section can be
summarized as follows:
1. In terms of the direct relationship between service
quality and profits, what we know is that
both positive and negative relationships have
been confirmed. What we need to learn is what
marketing and managerial variables moderate
the relationship.
2. The offensive effects of service quality require
considerable research for most of what is currently
known comes from the PIMS database
with its inherent limitation of no direct measure
of perceived service quality