identifying and prioritizing the factors effective in customer satisfaction using the topsis method

introduction: customer satisfaction has been suggested as one of the interesting and challenging issues of management in the new millennium. in addition, oral and dental health and the quality of the services the health centers delivered to the patients directly affect the customer satisfaction. therefore, the present study aimed to identify, investigate, and rank the factors affecting the customer satisfaction in the department of dentistry of shiraz farhangiyan health center. method: the present descriptive study was conducted on the specialists and patients of the department of dentistry of shiraz farhangiyan health center. the validity of the questionnaire utilized in the study was confirmed by expert professors and its reliability was approved using the cronbach’s alpha formula. finally, the study data were analyzed in spss statistical software (v. 16), using inferential statistics.results: all the hypotheses were confirmed by the results of the statistical analyses and quality, services, and expenditures revealed to affect the customer satisfaction in the department of dentistry of shiraz farhangiyan health center. moreover, these factors were ranked using the topsis method and the results showed quality and expenditures as the most and the least effective factors in customer satisfaction, respectively. conclusion: since restoring and arranging the organization based on the customer needs is among the main priorities of designing an organization, managers are suggested to take measures for organizational reformation based on the customers’ priorities. of course, conducting such programs is of utmost importance in health and treatment environments, leading to provision of better services and facilitation of learning, education, and research. thus, identifying the effective factors in customer satisfaction and ranking them are highly important.