Service Experience and Student Loyalty in Private Higher Education: The Roles of Service Quality, Perceived Value, Trust, and Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

Service organizations operate in increasingly competitive environments where maintaining customer loyalty requires more than delivering satisfactory services. Service quality, customer satisfaction, trust, and relationship quality are important factors that may influence customers’ long-term behavioral intentions, yet their interrelationships require further examination within an integrated framework. This study aims to examine the causal relationships among service quality, customer satisfaction, trust, relationship quality, and customer loyalty, and to determine the effects of service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction and the subsequent effects on customer loyalty. A quantitative research approach was employed using a structured questionnaire developed from established measures of service quality, customer satisfaction, trust, relationship quality, and customer loyalty. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling to examine the proposed causal relationships and direct and indirect effects among the constructs. The findings indicate that service quality, particularly reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles, has positive effects on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction positively influences customer loyalty, while trust strengthens customer relationships and contributes to loyalty. The results further indicate that relationship quality provides an important link between customers’ perceptions of service performance and their behavioral outcomes. The findings provide practical guidance for service managers to improve service delivery by strengthening reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangible service elements. Managers should also develop strategies that enhance customer satisfaction and trust to establish stronger relationship quality and encourage customer loyalty. The study contributes to service marketing literature by integrating service quality, satisfaction, trust, and relationship quality into a comprehensive framework for explaining customer loyalty in service organizations.