Evaluating customer relationship dynamics in healthcare sector through indoor patients' judgement

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the three dynamics of customer relationship management (CRM), namely, service quality (SQ), customer satisfaction (CS) and customer loyalty (CL) (long‐term relationship) in the healthcare sector. It specifically investigates the effects of physical environment quality (PEQ) and interaction quality (IQ) and significant components of SQ on outcome SQ dimensions, namely, CS and CL.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 400 indoor patients from departments such as, general medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, gynecology, ENT and orthopedics were selected using proportionate stratified random sampling from May‐August 2007. Personal contact approach was used for contacting the respondents. Data validity and reliability were duly assessed using exploratory factor analysis. The data were then analyzed using structural equation modeling through AMOS.Findings – Based on data analysis, the direct effect of CRM dynamics, i.e. PEQ and IQ on SQ and their ultimate effect on CS an...