Identifying and ranking of factors affecting customer satisfaction of the household wood furniture industry by Multi-Attribute Decision making method (Case Study: home furniture)

Abstract

To compete in value creating and attempt to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and a strategic advantage over competitors have resulted in an increased attention to the importance of customer and his/her satisfaction. This is particularly important in extensive furniture and wood industry that deals with a wide range of customers with different tastes and attitudes. As a result, this study using library research and customer survey, attempts to identify factors influencing customer satisfaction and determine their relative impact using TOPSIS as one of the most important multi-criteria decision-making methods. The results indicate that the developed conceptual model consists of six major indexes—beauty and appearance, quality, competitive pricing, distribution and delivery systems, after-sale and support services and 35 sub-indexes. Ranking the sub-indexes reveal that the sub-indexes: fitting to indoor space; fabric, foam, and wood parts quality; product durability according to purchase price; on-time delivery; sales person’s honesty and responsiveness to provide technical knowledge; and the superiority of the household wood furniture in comparison to other similar products are the most important factors that affect customer satisfaction. On the other hand, Sub-indexes of size and volume, maintainability, purchase facilities provided by the company, method of installation, availability of product specification manual, and the environmental factors are found to have the least impact on customer satisfaction.

Keywords

• Household furniture
• customer satisfaction
• MADM
• index
• TOPSIS method