A study of customer satisfaction with Slovakian spa companies: an importance-performance analysis

Purpose The aim of the contribution is to present the results of research that dealt with customers’ perception of the quality and range of services provided by spa companies in Slovakia. Design/methodology/approach The primary data were obtained using a questionnaire which evaluated customer satisfaction with the services provided by spa companies in Slovakia at the beginning of 2020, before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research sample consisted of 863 customers of spa companies. Importance-performance analysis and other methods of inductive statistics were used to process the results. Findings Customer satisfaction with the quality of services provided is generally at a high level. Spa companies should pay more attention to the quality of catering services for patient groups A (the patient is reimbursed by the health insurance company for medical care, accommodation and meals at the spa) and B (the patient is only reimbursed by the health insurance company for healthcare) and to better planning of procedure dates for self-payers. When deciding on the choice of a spa company, the focus of the spa on the treatment of a specific diagnosis, and after this, the accessibility of transport, turned out to be the most common reasons. Research limitations/implications Limits of IPA analysis related to the measurement of performance and also the importance of individual attributes based on respondent preferences. The length of the survey increases. Low discriminatory power of respondents who may consider all attributes important. Originality/value The authors designed a novel questionnaire to identify the impact of individual factors on the level of services provided. Through IPA analysis, companies can precisely determine the services on which they should focus their attention in the future.