Several other researchers suggest that the relationship between
customer satisfaction and financial performance may not be
positive (Tornow and Wiley, 1991; Wiley, 1991). As suggested by
Bernhardt et al. (2000) that while these findings might seem
counterintuitive, they may not be that surprising. For example,
Gursoy and Swanger (2007) argues that while customer satisfaction
is at the very core of hospitality operations, customer
satisfaction may not result in higher financial performance
because it is considered as a ‘‘given’’ factor, which is an expected
and natural part of day-to-day operations. Because consumers
expect to be satisfied when they patronize any service businesses,
hospitality and tourism businesses cannot survive without satisfied customers. In addition, a multitude of factors could mask
the true relationship between these constructs. For example, when
a business decides to increase its customer satisfaction, they may
end up spending a large sum of money to implement this. Because
of the amount of investment on several factors such as training,
upgrades of facilities, etc. a business may be able to increase
customer satisfaction, but this may result in lower profit. On the
other hand, internal cost-cutting measures such as lowering
training expenses or postponing facility upgrades may make a firm
seem more profitable in any given time period, even if customers
are not satisfied. It is true that a multitude of factors could mask the
true relationship between customer satisfaction and financial
performance if the examination was based on the data received
from one business. If the magnitude and the direction of
relationship between these two constructs is examined utilizing
data obtained from a relatively large number of businesses, the
results should reveal the true relationships between these two
constructs. Since the data for this study is obtained from 250
properties, the sheer size of the sample should minimize the
impact of variables that are beyond the control of this study and
reveal the true relationships between customer satisfaction and
financial performance. Even though many actions of a company are
beyond the scope of customer satisfaction and may have a
significant impact on profits, customer satisfaction is still likely to
play a significant role in a company’s financial success. Therefore,
this study hypothesizes a significant positive relationship between
customer satisfaction and financial returns.