Social Benefits Of Customer Relationship

Relational benefits

Building strong customer relationships is a method for competitive advantage (McKenya 1991; Reichheld 1993). In services marketing, relationship marketing between business and customers are especially important since the nature of interpersonal interactions, and the relative less objective in measuring service quality. Relationship benefits are usually discussed from both firm and customer perspectives. From services providers’ perspective, strong relationships with customers offer a loyal customer base for the firm, thus leads to predictable sales (Maker 1992) and low customers’ turnover (Reichheld and Sasser 1990). From customers’ perspective, relationship benefits to customers refer to the benefits customer can receive

As the interaction between customers and employees is central to the customer’s quality perception in many services (Reynolds and Beatty 1999), and social benefits are desired by the customer in addition to functional benefits, we would expect a positive relationship between social benefits and customer satisfaction. In services marketing context, as the special treatment, such as customization occur between service provider and customer, the customers’ perception of the business quality and value will increase (Reynolds and Beatty 1999). Thus, customers’ emotional and cognitive switching barriers are increased (Fornell 1992; Guiltinan 1989) and this can lead to higher commitment and thus increase customers’ loyalty.

Researchers have also contended there is a strong relationship between social benefits and customer loyalty. Berry (1995) suggests that social benefits between customers and employees can be used to foster customer loyalty.

Similarly, Oliver (1999) suggests that customers who are involved in the social relationship are more motivated to maintain loyalty with the firm. They are more likely to tolerate and respect the business, and have been found to be influential in the development of service commitment and thus loyalty (Goodwin and

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