The Impact of Interpersonal Satisfaction on Repurchase Decisions

Abstract

SUMMARY Having once made a purchase from a supplier, customer satisfaction has been found to drive buyers’decisions about the firms from which they will repurchase goods or services. Interpersonal satisfaction, the gratification that buyers receive from relationships with salespeople, is an important component of overall customer satisfaction. Even with the growing role of technology in procurement and supply chain management, interpersonal relationships between individual buyers and sellers are an important factor in supplier selection. Other components of overall satisfaction are satisfaction with the product or service and satisfaction with the performance of the supplier. In order to measure the role of these several aspects of overall satisfaction, a survey of Institute for Supply Management™ (ISM) members responsible for making repurchase decisions was conducted. The results demonstrate that satisfaction with the product, satisfaction with the supplier's performance, and satisfaction with the salesperson are correlated with intention to repurchase. Managerial implications of the results are discussed.