The Effect of Relationship Quality between Senior Customers and Service Providers on Word-of-Mouth in the Service Industry

Abstract

A B S T R A C TAs the number of older people increases, many companies no longer see older people as socially disempowered, but instead as new target customers. This senior market is expected to be attractive and provide new opportunities to companies. Senior consumers sometimes consider the relationship with the salesperson as more important than the quality of the product. Thus, this study aims to explore the process of how senior consumers have a relationship with service providers and how this relationship affects the output of the store. To find this relationship, this study used relationship quality with satisfaction, trust, and commitment. The commitment aspect is further classified into a difference between affective and calculative commitment in this study. Relationships between satisfaction and trust, satisfaction and the two dimensions of commitment (affective and calculative), and between trust and affective and calculative commitment are all examined. Data were collected from 303 senior people who had experienced visiting a store and getting help from service providers. Respondents were randomly intercepted and recruited to participate in the survey. After conducting a survey, these hypotheses were supported through structural equation analysis using PLS. As a result, theoretical and practical implications for the invigoration of the senior market were derived.

Inspecting the Relationship among E-service Quality, E-trust, E-customer Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions of Online Shopping Customers

“…According to Zeithaml et al, (1990), customer satisfaction is based on the balance between customers' expectations and customers' experiences with the products and services. Seolwoo Park (2018) Satisfaction was found to have a major effect on trust and commitment and was shown to have a positive effect on trust and affective commitment. From both theoretical and empirical perspectives, customer satisfaction is the key to companies' competitiveness and can be considered the essence of success in today's highly competitive world of business (Bitner and Hubbert, 1994).…”

The Effect of Sponsor’s Brand on Consumer–Brand Relationship in Sport Sponsorship

“…Perceived quality should lead consumers to trust and identify with a brand. Moreover, perceived quality is closely related to customer satisfaction, as consumers with higher quality perceptions also exhibit higher customer satisfaction (Beerli et al, 2004;Kennedy, Ferrell, & Leclair, 2001;Park, 2018;Teas & Agarwal, 2000). Perceived quality is attributed to a company's brand through beliefs (Poon & Prendergast, 2006) and depends on the performance of the sponsoring entity (Pope, Voges, & Brown, 2009).…”

The Role of Traditional Product Development in Building Relationship Quality and its Impact on Resort Hotel Brand Loyalty

“…The concept of relationship marketing is oriented towards the creation of long-term relationships with customers to gain customer's loyalty. The success of relationship marketing program in gaining customer loyalty can be determined by the relationship quality itself as the strength of the relationship between the company and the customer in maintaining customers for a long period of time through the level of loyalty within the customers themselves (Ivens, 2004;Lin and Ding, 2005;Chen et al, 2014;Park, 2018). Relationship quality is a general assessment of relationship strength that describe how far the relations can meet the needs and expectations of the parties involved (Lin and Ding, 2005).…”

“…The success of the relationship marketing program in creating customer loyalty is largely determined by relationship quality that describes the extent to which relations can meet the needs and expectations of the parties involved in the relationship (Lin and Ding, 2005). Satisfaction and trust have been seen as dimensions of relationship quality (Wray et al, 1994;Selnes, 1998;Kuhne et al, 2013;Chen et al, 2014;Park, 2018). Thus tourist loyalty is very dependent on tourist satisfaction and trust in hotel resorts.…”