IngentaConnect A failure of UK travel agencies to strengthen zones of tolerance

Authors: Gilbert, David; Gao, YingFei

Source: Tourism and Hospitality Research, Volume 5, Number 4, August 2005 , pp. 306-321(16)

Abstract:

Companies in all industries face problems pertaining to the issue of retaining customers and securing satisfaction through service quality management. The repeat purchasing behaviour at an individual level is affected by the level of a customer's ‘zone of tolerance’; a term not always fully understood. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships that customer tolerance has with customer experience, brand trust and customer emotions for travel agency businesses. Customers who have had recent experience with the travel agencies were sampled from two UK travel agencies situated in London and Guildford. One hundred and twenty customers were surveyed face to face through means of a questionnaire. The results utilising Spearman Ranked Order correlation showed that there is a relationship between customer tolerance and customer experience. However, it was found there is no relationship between customer tolerance and customer emotion. In addition, the tests revealed that there is no relationship between customer tolerance and brand trust. The conclusion is that travel agencies are failing to keep in mind the importance of carefully handling customer tolerance and understanding the level of customer tolerance and its influence.

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