




































    

 American Journal of Medical and Physical Education 
Vol.6, Issue 6; November-December 2021; 

1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States 

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A STUDY OF THE FACTORS THAT AFFECT SEASON TICKET HOLDERS' 

SATISFACTION WITH INTERACTION QUALITY 

 

Cindy Elizabeth Lee 
Sports center Hong Kong 

 

Abstract: Customer satisfaction is essential for organizations to retain customers. In the sport industry, where 

the quality of the game is not always controllable, customer service becomes an important factor in influencing 

customer satisfaction. This study examines the importance of various dimensions of service quality (reliability, 

assurance, empathy, and responsiveness) on season ticket holders' overall satisfaction with the customer service 

provided by ticket account representatives. 

Keywords: Customer satisfaction, Service quality, Season ticket holders, Ticket account representatives, 

Reliability, Assurance, Empathy, Responsiveness. 

 

 

Introduction  

Making customers happy and satisfied is important for organizations since it is directly related to customer 
retention. Saleh (2015) argued that it costs five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing 
customer. Retaining current customers is even more important for major league sport teams, since their ever-
increasing ticket prices limit the scope of their potential consumers to relatively high income classes.   

Customer satisfaction is directly related to customer retention. This close relationship between the two concepts 
indicates that to retain customers, companies need to satisfy their customers (Cronin, Brady, &Hult, 2000).Some 
studies (e.g., Liu, Guo, & Lee, 2011) attest that high quality of service or goods is one of the important factors in 
consumer satisfaction. However, “quality” is not an easy concept to be defined in the sport context. For an 
examples, quality of game fluctuates and winnings cannot be guaranteed due to the characteristics of “service”. 
Sometimes, spectators are offered a great game, but other times spectators end up watching rather dull games for 
the same amount of money.   

Due to this inconsistent nature of games, other factors that influence consumer satisfaction become more relevant 
and meaningful in the sport context. One of those factors is customer service. Bad season could get people upset; 
but bad customer service could permanently turn people away from an organization. As the competition for 
consumers‟ money in the sport and entertainment industry gets intense, providing quality customer service, a 
controllable aspect unlike game quality, becomes more important. For professional sport teams, season ticket 
holders are the most important customers due to the size of revenue generated from them.    

Not only are season ticket holders most important from a financial standpoint, but also they are the ones who are 
most loyal to a team (Gladden & Funk, 2001) giving emotional support. Bauer, Stokburger-Sauer, and Exler 
(2008) also mentioned the importance of “fans” compared to casual “spectators”. Season ticket holders can be 
regarded as dedicated fans who are willing to invest their time and money. At the same time, season ticket holders‟ 
level of expectation could be high since they are invested. Making them satisfied and feel appreciated is almost a 
must for the success of professional sport teams considering the importance of season ticket holders, and when it 
comes to the customer satisfaction, the concept of “service quality” becomes relevant. Researchers such as Brady 
and Cronin (2001) argued that interaction quality between a customer and an employee is an influencing factor 
on customer satisfaction. Therefore, this study will examine the importance of various dimensions of service 

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quality (i.e., reliability, assurance, empathy and responsiveness) on season ticket holders‟ overall satisfaction with 
the customer service provided by ticket account representative.   

2. Literature Review   

2.1 Season Ticket Holders   

Loyal fans serve as an important base for professional sport teams by providing monetary and emotional support. 
Loyal fans are the ones who fill a stadium, purchase licensed merchandise, and follow team-related news on the 
media (Greenwell, Fink, &Pastore, 2002; Gwinner & Swanson, 2003).Season ticket holders invest significant 
amount of time and money to see the actions of their team in person, and often times they pay a premium price to 
see them. Season ticket holders are also the most loyal and dedicated fans. Having a loyal fan base can add value 
to potential sponsors since loyal fans are likely to pay more attention to sponsors‟ messages and tend to purchase 
sponsors‟ products than less-identified fans (Kwon & Armstrong, 2002; Pope &Voges, 2000). Having high 
number of season ticket-holders means high portion of guaranteed revenue even when a team does not perform 
well (Gladden & Funk, 2001), which provides financial stability for teams. Due to these various reasons, season 
ticket holders are one of the most important fan segments. Therefore, teams have every reason to please and 
satisfy their season ticket holders, to create and maintain strong and lasting relationships with them. This becomes 
even more important since only small segment of population can afford season tickets as the prices for season 
tickets become more and more expensive (“Average Ticket Prices”, 2016).    

2.2 Ticket Representative      

The basic daily responsibility of ticket representatives is to perform various customer service functions related to 
ticket sales and management. More specifically, ticket representatives communicate with current and potential 
customers including season-ticket holders on various ticket options, problems, and concerns.    

One of the difficulties and challenges for ticket representative (service provider) in the service industry is that 
customers‟ requests cannot be always fulfilled. This is partially because what is requested does not always fall 
under ticket representatives‟ discretion and they are rather limited in what they can do and cannot do. This means 
that some issues or complaints raised by season ticket holders (e.g., benefits, price, or seat location) are not under 
ticket representatives‟ control. However, since ticket representatives are on the front line and often the first 
contact points when these issues were occurred, their ability and demeanor to handle customers‟ problems and 
concerns are likely to influence customers‟ experience in the process.   

For the Major Baseball League team in this study, specific ticket representatives were assigned to season ticket 
holders. By having a designated ticket representative, season ticket holders can have a consistent communication 
channel, which meant to facilitate efficient and effective communication as well as to build personal relationships.    

2.3 Service Quality and Dimensions  

Defined as “the consumers‟ judgment about an entity‟s overall excellence or superiority (Parasuraman,  

Zeithaml, &Berry, 1988, p. 15), service quality theory lies in the concepts of product quality and customer 
satisfaction (Brady & Cronin, 2001). Various studies have shown that service quality is connected with customer 
satisfaction (Ko & Pastore, 2004; Liu, Guo, & Lee, 2009) and repurchase intention (Fornell, 1992). However, 
what it is and how to measure it is a much more complicated issue due to its intangible, heterogeneous, and 
inseparable nature (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, &Berry, 1988). Thus, quite a few measurements have been developed 
based on the conceptualization of “service quality.”   

For example, Parasuraman et al. (1985) viewed service quality as the difference between customer expectation 
and the perception of service quality, measuring it with ten dimensions of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, 
communication, credibility, security, competence, courtesy, understanding/knowing the customer, and access in 

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their SERVQUAL model. Later, Parasuraman et al. (1988) refined these ten dimensions to five dimensions of 
reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles.  

Brady and Cronin (2001) conceptualized service quality as three dimensions of interaction quality, physical 
environment, and outcome quality. Interaction quality has sub-dimensions of attitude, expertise, and behavior. 
Physical environment encompasses ambient conditions, design, and social factors. Lastly, outcome quality 
includes valence, waiting time, and tangibles. Many studies (e.g., Ko, Zhang, Catani, & Pastore, 2011; Moon, 
Kim, Ko, Cannaughton, & Hak, 2011) have examined the service quality in the context of sport.    

This study focuses to address the “interaction” aspect of service quality. Parasuraman et al‟s (1988) refined five 
dimensions (i.e., reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles) of service quality were used as 
the base. Specifically, reliability refers to “the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately”. 
Responsiveness refers to “willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.”Assurance means 
“knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence.”Empathy refers to 
“caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers”. Lastly, tangibles indicate “physical facilities, 
equipment, and appearance of personnel”. The last dimension, “tangibles”, was not included because the 
interactions between ticket representatives and season ticket holders occur via phone and emails most of the time, 
rather than face-to-face interactions. Therefore, four dimensions of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and 
empathy were selected to be used in this study. 

2.4. Interaction quality   

Interaction quality refers to the quality of interactions between the organization‟s employees and the customers. 
Interpersonal interactions occur during the service delivery. Brady and Cronin (2001) suggested that the quality 
of interactions is influenced by the employee‟s attitude, behavior, and expertise related to the job performance. 
From an organizational standpoint, providing proper training would be important, so employees are equipped 
with necessary expertise and information in their dealing with customers. Researchers have found that the 
relationship between customers and a company isdepending on many factors such as shared objectives, complaint 
management, satisfaction, communication (Brashear, Bolles, Bellenger, & Brooks, 2003).  

Pleasant interactions with ticket representative can positively influence consumers‟ perceived interaction quality. 
On the other hand, unpleasant interactions are likely to negatively impact consumers‟ perceived quality of 
interaction. Considering this, management should strive to offer congenial customer and employee interactions 
as much as possible. This would be rather simple when there is no confronting issue. However, making pleasant 
interaction can be challenging when consumers face some issues which make them unhappy. If a cause of concern 
is not resolved in a satisfactory manner, this is likely to result in potential damage in the relationship between the 
consumer and the respective employee, and further with the organization. Thus, the issue of managing customer 
problems or complaints becomes relevant in interactions between customers and employees.   

2. 4.1ComplaintManagement  

The term “complaint management” explains the way organizations deal with the problems expressed by customers 
with their service that generates a certain degree of dissatisfaction (Álvarez, Casielles, & Martin, 2011). Whether 
consumers‟ complaints are properly heard and dealt with or not could influence consumers‟ perceived interaction 
quality, because oftentimes complaints are handled by personnel rather than by automated system. Therefore, 
managing customer complaints is an influencing factor on interaction quality. This means that managing raised 
complaints is a critical part of interaction with customers, which influences whether a company can maintain a 
good relationship with customers. According to Tax, Brown and Chandrashekara (1998), when customers face a 
problem, they may respond by exiting, loyalty, or voicing (complaining). However, when a customer received 
adequate response when they raised issues, they are more likely to stay (Conlon & Murray, 1996). This means 

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that if a raised issues are well-managed by an organization, the customer is likely to stay with the organization 
rather than terminate the relationship. Conlon and Murray (1996) similarly noted that one of the two major reasons 
for customers switching services are unfavorable service encounters with the company‟s personnel, and core 
service failures. 

2.5 Satisfaction  

Fornell (1992) defined customer satisfaction as an overall attitude formed based on the experience after 
purchasing and using products and services. Zeithaml and Bitner (2000) mentioned that satisfaction can be 
affected by an array of factors such as service quality, product quality, price, and contextual and personal factors. 
Satisfaction is regarded as one of the antecedents of loyalty, and many studies (e.g., de Ruyter & Wetzels, 2000; 
Deng, Lu, Wei, & Zhang, 2009) showed the positive relationship between satisfaction and customer loyalty.  

Similarly, Blanchard and Galloway (1994) argued that satisfaction can be derived from a consumer‟s perception 
of the overall value received in a relationship with an organization. In the sport contexts, researchers looked into 
two types of customer satisfaction: game satisfaction (Kwon et al., 2005; Trail, Anderson, & Fink, 2005) and 
service satisfaction (Wakefield & Blodgett, 1996).   

3. Methods  

For this study, a Major League Baseball (MLB) team‟s annual survey with season ticket holders was used. The 
team collects two to three surveys per season and each version varies a little by different subsets of questions. 
This study used the 2013-2014 season survey which included questions regarding season ticket holders‟ 
satisfaction with theassigned ticket account representative.    

3.1. Participants  

The survey link was sent to the season ticket holders of a MLB team located in Northeast region of the United 
States. Their season tickets include eight different types ranging from full season tickets to ten games per season. 
As an incentive for completing the survey, the participants were given an opportunity to enter lottery to win a 
team jersey.  

The total number of respondents was 1,149. The followings are the results of descriptive statistics for the 
respondents. The majority of the respondents were male (n=795, 69.2%) and Caucasian (n=1,001, 87.1%). In 
terms of marital status, 750 respondents (65.3%) were married or with partners, 216 respondents (18.8%) were 
single/never married, and 96 people (8.4%) were either divorced, separated, or widowed. In terms of age, all age 
groups were represented while some age groups are more prominent: under 18 (n=2), 18-21(n=11), 22-25 (n=34), 
26-35 (n=170), 36-45 (n=167), 46-55 (n=304), 56-65 (n=281) and 66 and older (n=104).About half of the 
respondents (n=585, 50.91%) were either in„46-55‟ or ‟56-65‟ age bracket. In regard to the education level, more 
than 60% of the respondents have either graduate/professional degree (n= 358, 31.2%) or bachelor‟s degree (n= 
339, 29.5%).In terms of income, the biggest bracket (n=178, 15.5%) was $100k~$149k. However, about one third 
of the respondents (29.9%, n=344) chose not to answer this question.   

3.2. Questionnaire  

The survey contained other questions including preference of season ticket holders‟ benefits, usual companions 
to games, perceived image of the team in addition to the questions of season ticket holders‟ satisfaction with 
customer services. This study, however, will only focus on the dimensions of service quality provided by ticket 
representative to season ticket holders. To measure season ticket holders‟ satisfaction with the service quality 
with their assigned ticket representatives, the respondents were asked to select their ticket account representative 
from a drop-down box. Then, season ticket holders‟ overall satisfaction level (3 items) with a particular ticket 
representative was measured, followed by four service quality dimensions of reliability (2 items), responsiveness 
(1item), assurance (3 items), and empathy (2 items) using 5-point likert scale ranging from 1(poor) to 5(excellent). 

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Some constructs only have one or two items due to the length of the survey. Other demographic questions were 
asked including age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, household income and education.  

3.3. Data Analysis.   

A multiple regression analysis was conducted with a dependent variable of satisfaction and independent variables 
of four dimensions of interaction quality  (i.e., reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) to see the 
contribution of each factor in predicting consumers‟ satisfaction level with their assigned ticket representative. 

4. Results  

Out of the 1,149 respondents, only 739 (64.3%) answered the portion of customer satisfaction with their assigned 
ticket representative. Others opted not to answer with various reasons like “cannot remember the name of the 
assigned ticket representative”, “do not have much to evaluate”, or “ticket representative was changed over time”.  

To test the reliability of the constructs, Cronbach‟s alpha tests were conducted for three service quality 
dimensions except responsiveness (1 item). The results showed that all alpha values were above the recommended 
minimum level of .70 (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994): Reliability α=.91; assurance α=.88; empathy α=.85; 
satisfaction α=.89. The mean scores for each dimension of service quality and overall satisfaction with their 
assigned service representative marked relatively high with highest possible point of 5: overall satisfaction with 
a ticket account representative(M= 4.30, SD= .98), reliability (M= 4.48, SD= .90), assurance (M= 4.33, SD= .87), 
empathy (M=4.48, SD= .79), and responsiveness (M= 4.51, SD=.86).    

Table 1. Descriptive statistics for each construct (5-point likert scale)  

  

Variable   Mean   SD   Cronbach’s α   

Reliability   4.48   .90   .91   

Assurance   4.33   .87   .88   

Empathy   4.48   .79   .85   

Responsiveness (one-item)   4.51   .86     

Satisfaction   4.30   .98   .89   

  

A multiple regression was used to measure the contribution level of the four dimensions (i.e., reliability, 
assurance, empathy, and responsiveness) of service quality for season ticket holders‟ satisfaction level. The 
results showed that all four dimensions were significant predictors in explaining customer satisfaction with their 
ticket representative (F(4, 734)=532.27, p<.001, R2=.74). The four predictors explained about 74% of the 
respondents‟ satisfaction level. Specifically, empathy (β= .35, p< .001) was the most contributing factor on 
satisfaction followed by reliability (β= .30, p< .001), assurance (β=. 17, p< .001,), and responsiveness (β= .09, p< 
.005). Table 1 provides a summary of the multiple regression analysis with the four dimensions of service quality 
which predict the respondents‟ satisfaction level with the ticket account representative. 

Table 2. Multiple Regression Analysis for Service Quality Dimensions Predicting STH’s Satisfaction with 

Ticket Representative  

Variable   Standardized β   SE   t-value   p   

Reliability   .30   .04   6.71   .000   

Assurance   .17   .04   4.17   .000   

Empathy   .35   .06   7.19   .000   

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Responsiveness   .09   .03   2.93   .003   

 

5. Discussion 

The results of this study provide an insight on different dimensions of service quality, particularly on interaction 
quality, and furthermore, these different dimensions‟ importance on season ticket holders‟ satisfaction with their 
ticket service representative. The result of the multiple regression showed that empathy is the biggest factor (β= 
.35, p< .001) in explaining season ticket holders‟ satisfaction level with their ticket representatives while 
responsiveness is the least contributing factor (β= .09,p< .05). The fact that empathy is the most important factor 
on consumers‟ satisfaction might have to do with season ticket holders‟ expectation with the ticket representative. 
A ticket account representative is a team‟s first contact when issues and problems arise. When a customer is upset 
due to some issues, consumers would expect and appreciate empathy from a person in that organization. Season 
ticket holders might acknowledge that the amount of discretion given to the assigned ticket representative may 
not enough to solve their issues. Nonetheless, they would appreciate service respondents‟ empathy, and their 
willingness to resolve the issue. The manner or the way these service representatives (e.g., ticket account 
representative) respond to raised concerns and dissatisfaction can influence how these customers feel after the 
interaction. For example, some of the season ticket holders commented that the team has increased ticket price, 
so she/he is not happy about it, or the seat location for the price is not good enough, which illustrate some common 
complaints. It should be noted that some of the concerns (e.g., too high ticket price) cannot be resolved at the 
ticket representative level.   

It is also possible that ticket holders do not expect the problem would get resolved, but rather want to hear agreeing 
and sympathetic responses when they vented their anger or dissatisfaction. Collier (2015) argued that empathy is 
the most important skill for all customer service representatives. Similarly, in the service quality in the hotel 
industry, Yilmas (2009) also found that empathy is the most important dimension in predicting hotel customer‟s 
overall service quality evaluation. However, the importance of these dimensions is likely to vary depending on 
the context. For example, Lau et al.‟s (2013) study with the banking industry shows that empathy was the least 
significant factor while reliability and assurance are more important for customers‟ satisfaction. It is possible that 
customers value dimensions differently by various characteristics and contexts of the service industry.  

The second contributing factor for satisfaction was reliability indicating the customer representative‟s ability to 
perform the promised service in a dependable and accurate manner. This shows that season ticket holders value 
the agreed service will be delivered. Lastly, it was interesting that responsiveness is the least contributing factor 
to customers‟ satisfaction. We speculate that it is not because responsiveness is not important in interaction 
quality, but probably because this aspect is already given (M= 4.51). The team in this study ensures each 
representative‟s accountability systematically: The ticket representatives are specifically responsible for dealing 
with assigned season ticket holders and the ticket account representatives are evaluated their service quality 
through the annual season ticket holders‟ surveys where the season ticket holders pin-point who are their assigned 
ticket representatives. Since each ticket account representative only deals with assigned customers, and their 
evaluation is directly coming from the assigned season ticket holders, the system holds each ticket representative 
responsible for their actions.  

Overall, the team scored a high level of customer satisfaction (M= 4.30) in terms of their interaction dimension 
of service quality. However, the results are only based on the season ticket holders who completed this survey. 
Approximately one third of the respondents (n=410, 35.7%) did not answer to the section of the customer service. 
It is possible that some season ticket holders did not interact with ticket representative enough to evaluate them 
or the interactions were insignificant to be remembered.  

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As the majority of sport industry is centered on customers‟ experience, further studies should be conducted to 
help better understand the relative importance of different dimensions in interaction quality in different contexts 
and levels of sports. Future studies should also look into different groups of customers (e.g., customers whose 
issue was favorably resolved, customers whose issue was not resolved, customers who had no problem at all) to 
see if satisfaction level changes after an issue is addressed and whether this changed satisfaction level lasts in the 
long term.   

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