Relationship Marketing, Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in Heal Thrace Services Evidence from St Gabriel General Hospital
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Date
2010-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main objective of this research is to examine the impact of relationship
marketing underpinnings namely trust, commitment, communication, conflict
handling, reliability and concem on patient-hospital relationship quality and
overall patient satisfaction. Additionally, an attempt was made to examine the
role of firm-customer relationship quality and overall satisfaction in
determining patient loyalty.
A structured questionnaire addressing the issues of relationship marketing,
customer satisfaction, and loyally was developed while adopting some of the
statements from previous researches, and modified to best fit with heallhcare
sector.
A sample of 300 respondents (patients) was drawn by using systematic
random sampling technique. Factor analysis, correlation and multiple
regression analyses together with descriptive statistics were used to analyze
the data. A model showing the effects of relationship marketing constructs on
both firm-customer relationship quality and overall patient satisfaction was
developed. Furthermore, influence of relationship quality and overall
satisfaction was observed, empirically, in estimating patient loyalty at St.
Gabriel General Hospital.
The findings of the study indicate that conflict handling and commitment have
significant positive effects on both relationship quality and overall
satisfaction. Communication was found to be significantly contributing to
relationship quality and trust to overall patient satisfaction. Also, firm customer
relationship quality and overall patient satisfaction were reported to
influence, significantly, patient loyally. The findings of the study are helpful to
the hospital in developing effective strategies for enhancing patient's loyalty
based on the hospital-patient relationship quality and satisfaction delivered.
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Keywords
Marketing, Customer Satisfaction