Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

The Spiritual Environment
. Unlike all of the other clusters, the topic of spirituality was only discussed by 
two of the four focus groups. Interestingly, those two groups represented the two not-for-profit retirement 
communities. 
Religious aspect. Two focus groups brought up religious aspects in relation to their customer satisfaction. 
One respondent noted that “The main thing is it’s almost totally Christian here so…you couldn’t get a more 
Christian society…I am very satisfied with it.” Another mentioned the interdenominational weekly church service: 
“The chapel service is very important. Even though we’re not all of the same religion, it’s certainly important to us. 
The fact is we’re all going to the same place.” 
DISCUSSION 
The primary purpose of this study was to inductively determine via qualitative methods the major types or 
facets of consumer satisfaction with retirement community living. The focus groups revealed up to 23 distinct 
satisfiers/dissatisfiers that make up consumer satisfaction with retirement community living. These variables cover 
a wide array of factors ranging from satisfaction with the residence itself to the effectiveness of the residents’ 
committee. While a number of the variables are straightforward and intuitively appealing (e.g. financial satisfaction, 
satisfaction with the overall design), other variables clearly add new insight to the leisure/retirement community 
literature (e.g. the subtle relatedness of two seemingly disparate satisfiers such as companionship and privacy). The 
fact that a number of these facets of consumer satisfaction were found to be in the top three categories investigated 
by Stimson et al. (2002a) (i.e. unit size/design, management, and social atmosphere), as well as those described by 
Graham and Tuffin in 2004 (i.e. companionship, privacy, and security) adds credibility and generalizability to these 
findings. Furthermore, with the delineation of 23 separate and distinct satisfiers, this study substantially extends this 
portion of the retirement community literature. 
While discussion of four of the five clusters was consistent across all four focus groups, the absence of a mention of 
the spiritual/religious aspect of customer satisfaction in two of the focus groups is intriguing. Further investigation is 
warranted. It is possible that this aspect is not generalizable across a range of retirement communities. Alternatively, 
the spiritual aspect of customer satisfaction may be an important element that is currently being overlooked by some 
retirement communities.
The clustering of the 23 variables resulted in 5 meaningful categories of variables: the Built Environment, the 
Financial Environment, the Service Delivery Environment, the Social Environment, and the Spiritual Environment.
The clustering technique illustrates the complex inter-relatedness of these separate factors; that is, while the factors 
are unique, there are subtle relationships within clusters, as well as some overlap between clusters.
One of the most important findings of this research is the multi-dimensional nature of the satisfiers/dissatisfiers. It is 
not surprising that built amenities such as sports facilities or a dining room are important considerations in customer 
satisfaction. But it is interesting to note that what is salient to one individual or group (e.g. the gymnasium) is not 
material to another individual or group; that is, built amenities can mean different things to different people (
inter-
subject variation)
. Moreover, the use of follow-up probe questions revealed that the same word (e.g. “security”) 

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