Abstract:

Despite numerous studies attesting the importance of satisfaction in health care services, there has been limited investigation of satisfaction and its consequences in this context but it is acknowledged that the most valuable consequence of satisfaction is WOM.

Service consumers take into consideration the opinions and experiences of other individuals before making purchase decisions, WOM reducing the risk associated with buying decisions.

It has been acknowledged that there is a relationship between satisfaction and the desire to make recommendations for the service provider.

The concept of “consumption emotion” refers to the set of emotional responses elicited specifically during consumption experiences. As such, today’s consumers value more the knowledge and opinions of other consumers rather than traditional forms of marketing.

WOM communication usually takes the shape of face-to-face or by phone methods of communication and, respectively, is classified according to the means the consumers use to send the information, namely impersonal sources and personal sources.

The aim of this study was to find a link between consumers’ emotional satisfaction and WOM in health care services from a theoretical perspective.