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We investigated how the relationships among service experience, perceived quality, and user satisfaction affect user loyalty in a public library context. The study framework was based on the Hotel Customer Satisfaction Index, with service experience assessed in place of the customer expectation construct. Participants were 339 library users who completed measures of service quality, service experience, satisfaction, and loyalty. Survey data were analyzed and we used regression analysis and mediation analysis to assess the reliability and validity of the newly developed measurement instrument. Results showed that service experience directly and positively influenced both user satisfaction and loyalty; however, the effect of service quality on satisfaction of library users was nonsignificant. The results can be applied to examine customer satisfaction with, and loyalty toward, nonprofit organizations, such as public libraries.
Keywords: service experience, service quality, user satisfaction, user loyalty, public libraries.
Public libraries are not only quiet places of learning and discovery, but also an integral part of social communities and neutral places for education and leisure that encourage and enable social interaction (Chandrasekar & Murugathas, 2013). However, libraries are currently facing a unique challenge created by the global digital revolution, whereby a user can access the library via the Internet from any location, without having to physically visit the library building. Owing to this trend, libraries are increasingly losing patrons because other library resources are easily accessed online as well (e.g., online catalogs and unrestricted databases; Chandrasekar & Murugathas, 2013). Matthews (2008) indicated that, on average, public libraries are losing from 25 to 30% of their users every 3 years. The Taiwan Ministry of Education (2014) continues to encourage public reading behaviors and is committed to increasing budgets for the improvement of public library facilities and services, including space design, equipment upgrades, and creating comfortable venues for reading and learning. The Ministry's attempts to incentivize public reading behaviors had led to an increase in public library usage of 9% by 2014. However, annual library usage in Taiwan was 5.5%, which was lower than Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea (Taiwan Ministry of Education, 2014).
Many libraries measure user satisfaction through surveys and this method has yielded positive results (Chandrasekar & Murugathas, 2013). In a 2014 survey by the National Public Information Library of Taiwan,...