A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION FROM AN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to continue to fill a gap in the literature by investigating the impact of website-supported customer relationships on customer satisfaction.The study used content analysis to analyze the interview data obtained from a sample of 22 executives and webmasters of eight ( 8) IT companies in Quebec, Canada to test the hypotheses.The results show that three of the four website-supported customer relationships (partnerships, empowerment, and understanding customer expectations) have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.However, the impact of the website-supported trust on customer satisfaction is negative because the use of website-supported trust does not affect the level of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction.That means, customers may be satisfied with the electronic relationships but they do not necessarily trust the company which used website support to build trust with its customers..