Shopping with furry companions : implementation of pet-friendly practices on customer satisfaction in shopping centres in Hong Kong

Abstract

Pet animals are one of the most important human companions nowadays and become part of human life. Research has shown that shopping centres in the world, including Hong Kong, have contributed more efforts in promoting pet-friendly practices. This study seeks to explore the impact of implementing pet-friendly practices on customer satisfaction in shopping centres and to provide valuable insights for shopping centre management to adapt to the increasing number of pet owners shopping with their furry companions and changing customer needs. With a reference to a review of the literature on pet-friendly practices internationally and theories of customer satisfaction, this research employs an analysis that combines Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) and Kano's model to identify pet-friendly attributes that may contribute more than proportionally to customer satisfaction and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of three shopping centres in implementing these attributes, based on customer perceptions of their importance and performance. The data was collected through face-to-face questionnaires administered in The Arcade, K11 MUSEA, and New Town Plaza, with respondents divided into two groups (pet owners and non-pet owners) and asked to answer one of two sets of survey questions. Analysis of the responses demonstrated that there was a positive correlation between varied pet-friendly practices and customer satisfaction. Among the attributes, quality customer satisfaction and professional management related to pets were the most important features that influence the satisfaction of the customers for both pet owners and non-pet owners in the shopping centres. On this basis, it is recommended that the shopping centres focus on training their personnel to provide empathetic and reliable customer service, such as knowing how to deal with emergency situations about pet-related issues timely and familiarizing with pet-friendly attributes inside the malls. Moreover, resources are also required in the professionalism of management, sufficient pet-related policy, signage, and system can be advanced to meet the expectations of the needs of both customers with pets and without pets in order to enhance customer satisfaction. Further research is needed to identify the impact of the implementation of pet-friendly practices on different types of shopping centres, such as some neighbourhood shopping centres like D2 Place, The Mills and Stanley Plaza that have good pet-friendly practices from the point of view of the respondents.