The Impact of COVID-19 on the Value Relevance of Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on customer satisfaction and the value relevance of customer satisfaction. COVID-19 is an unprecedented pandemic that has changed all areas of business. Customer relations are one of the biggest paradigm shifts of this period. Companies have placed more attention on customer relations than on any other areas, and customer relations are an essential element in corporate sustainability. The value relevance directly represents the sustainability of corporations. It is very important for firms to retain their customers in the market, create a potential demand, and, thus, increase the firm value. We investigate whether companies financially benefit from customer relations. Employing the value relevance model, we regress firm value on the customer satisfaction scores with other control variables. We find that the customer satisfaction score has increased throughout the sample period, and that the value relevance of customer satisfaction has declined after the COVID-19 outbreak. Together, we interpret the results as indicating the impact of COVID-19 on the value relevance of customer satisfaction, especially the decreasing trends in value relevance. The results are robust even after controlling endogeneity and outliers. This study has several implications for practitioners and academia regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the value relevance of customer satisfaction.