PurposeConsequent upon the intense competitive nature of today's business environment, service businesses are seeking for the most creative but effective means of attracting and retaining customers. One of the ways is to build quality relationship via interpersonal relationship with customers. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two ways of building interpersonal relationship with customers – respect and rapport, and their impact on overall customer perceived relationship quality, as well as the role of context/environment.Design/methodology/approachThis preliminary study reports on empirical results from a survey of customers of dental clinics in Malaysia. Data from a questionnaire survey of 563 respondents were analysed using factor analysis, Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The authors estimated the direct effect of respect and rapport on relationship quality as well as the moderating effect of context (cosmopolitan vs traditional milieu).FindingsThe results show that both rapport and respect are important in building quality relationship with customers. Environment/context has a direct effect on relationship quality. Context moderates the relationship between rapport and relationship quality but does not moderate the relationship between respect and relationship quality.Practical implicationsThis research is of practical use to service companies (especially healthcare service providers) interested in developing effective strategies for building quality relationship with customers. Building good rapport and respecting customers are useful relational strategies to pursue.Originality/valueThe effect of rapport and respect on relationship quality in the Asian context has not been studied before. The paper sheds light on the overlooked dimensions of respect and service sector (small healthcare businesses) and also highlights the contextual implications of the findings.

In business retailing, the exploration of studies on consumer demographics, behaviour, attitude and attribute are useful as a framework for profiling consumer's ultimate choice in retail purchasing. Using data that we cross-sectionally investigated, this paper seeks to analyse customer perception towards business retailing activities of the Bumiputeras. Focusing in the state of Terengganu, 359 samples were selected among the public. Out of seven districts in the state of Terengganu, three are being chosen, representing developed, developing and less developing districts. The independent variables understudied include quality of service, attitude, interest, and risk of spending at Bumiputera retail stores. All of those are tested against customers' perception towards Bumiputera retail store, which will serve as a dependent variable. The results demonstrate that there are significant relationship between service quality, attitude, risk and attitude towards the perception of local customers towards the perception of local customers towards business retailing of the Bumiputeras. If Bumiputeras retailers were to competitively enjoying being as the market players they should therefore acquire more initiatives and adopting strategies of continuous improvement of the above constructs for strongly positioning them in the expanding market.

The exploration and discussion of this paper are expected to provide

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Organizations, especially those in Asia, are increasingly appreciating the value of establishing closer and lasting relationship with customers. With greater access to information from research findings, industry practitioners are implementing different strategies for achieving this goal. This chapter evaluates dual strategies firms in Asia have been using in trying to build lasting relationship with customers, namely respect and rapport. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the concepts of respect and rapport and the effects on the quality of firm-customer relationship and customer loyalty. The chapter draws from existing literature and surveys customers of two service sectors in Asia. The research propositions connecting the two dimensions of interpersonal relationship (i.e. respect and rapport) with relationship quality and customer loyalty are tested and confirmed using standard data analysis procedure. The findings lead to research and managerial implications that conclude the chapter.