The Effect of Relational Benefits on Perceived Value in Relation to Customer Loyalty

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The Effect of Relational Benefits on Perceived Value in Relation to Customer Loyalty

Literature review

Relational benefits

Relationship marketing, which emphases on approaches to Building, evolving and keeping a successful relational Exchange (Gro¨ nroos, et al., 1994), is changing marketing orientation from attracting short-term, discrete transactions to retaining long-lasting, close customer relationships. (Czepiel 1990) has pointed that customer relationship exchanges are particularly important because customers expect to receive extra benefits as a result of attractive in interpersonal attention. These benefits that are interpersonal in nature have been termed ‘‘relational benefits’’ in the literature, and increase to those customers who are involved in ongoing relationships with the service provider and its personnel (Gwinner et al., (1998)( Hennig- Thurau et al., 2002). Gwinner et al. (1998) conducted in-depth interviews and quantitative studies to examine the benefits customers receive from relational exchanges. Their findings from the qualitative study first shown four relational benefits in terms of the psychological (Bitner, 1995; Morgan and Hunt, 1994), social (Berry, 1995; Price and Arnould, 1999), economic (Peterson, 1995) and customization benefits (Barlow, 1992; Crosby, 1991). Consequently they empirically identified a typology of three relational benefits: confidence benefits (psychological), social benefits, and special treatment benefits (economic and customization). Confidence benefits in link with psychological benefits refer to perceptions of reduced nervousness and ease in knowing what to expect in the service encounter. Social benefits, which relate to the emotional part of the relationships and...

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...titudinal measures have an gain over behavioral measures (e.g. repeat patronage) in that they can deliver greater understanding of the factors associated with the development of loyalty ( Riley et al., 2001). (Rundle-Thiele and Bennett 2001) also argued that attitudinal loyalty measures would be valuable in service markets, since attitudinal measures can identify a customer’s favorable attitude towards a company in the service context. (Dick and Basu 1994) proposed that customer preference is essential to a loyalty conceptualization. Their view is supported by Butcher et al. (2001) indicating that loyalty conceptualization is customer first choice for the service ahead of competition. Therefore, the present study defined loyalty as a customer’s favorable attitude of stable psychological attachment, resulting in preference, towards the provider based on experience.

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