Tammy Neal Crutchfield

Consumer Comfort in Service Relationships Measurement and Importance

The importance of building relationships with customers is well documented, yet the role of consumer comfort in service relationships has not been fully explored. The authors report their efforts to measure and ascertain the importance of this construct in service relationships. Their findings provide evidence that consumer comfort has a significant and incremental impact on satisfaction, trust, commitment, and active voice with service providers. Furthermore, this variable appears to provide incremental understanding of the traditional satisfaction-trust-commitment paradigm. A scale of consumer comfort is developed that exhibits validity and reliability across two provider types.

Advertising Agency Compensation: An Agency Theory Explanation

Abstract Advertising agency compensation may change dramatically in coming years as advertisers put pressure on agencies to reduce commissions and tie compensation to performance resulting from advertising campaigns. Drawing on agency theory from the economics discipline, the authors develop and test several hypotheses to address the advertising agency compensation decision. Their study provides the first comprehensive look at the prevalence of outcome-based compensation tied to performance and other compensation systems currently used among U.S. advertisers.

Patronage and Loyalty Strategies: Understanding the Behavioral and Attitudinal Outcomes of Customer Retention Programs

In marketing practice, most so-called “customer retention programs” only focus on behavioral outcomes, such as repeated patronage. These programs target immediate benefits and are rather short-term in nature. This contrasts with the long-term character of the relationship marketing concept. In this chapter, the authors examine the effectiveness of “customer retention programs” by drawing on the literature dealing with relationship marketing, consumer behavior and marketing strategy theory. They develop an alternative, relationship-oriented conceptualization of retention programs using the relationship content approach. The metrics of “customer retention programs” are discussed and related to the fundamental economic, strategic, and social content elements of relationships.

The Effect of Trust and Commitment on Retention of High-Risk Professional Service Customers

Abstract This article addresses the interpersonal in fluences of trust and commitment on retention for high risk, high Relational customers of professional Services. Drawing on the Service and channels literatures, support is provided for studying these keyvari ables in Relationship development and maintenance. Based on survey data from a sample of obstetric patients, the findings indicate that trust has a positive and significant effecton retention with commitment exerting in fluence on the out come variable only in instances of question able trust. Implications for managers of professional Services are implementation of trust-based retention strategy and commit ment-based defensive strategy.

Building Long-Term Patient–Physician Relationships

We provide a framework for physician-controlled preconditions that impact patient trust and commitment and uncover the influence that trust and commitment have on three central patient outcomes: retention, referral behavior, and ease of voice. Based on survey data from a sample of obstetric patients, we find that though the proposed preconditions have a significant effect on both patient trust and commitment, the predominance of trust on desirable outcomes such as retention, referral behavior, and ease of voice has profound implications for physicians and other health care providers in the development of patient relationship strategy.

‘Birds of a Feather Flock Together’: Strategic Implications for Advertising Agencies

ABSTRACT Advertisers who perceived high similarity between themselves and those within their advertising agency rated their agency as superior to those who felt they had less in common with agency contacts. Outcome measures examined included communication, performance, intention to remain with the agency, and defection following the departure of agency personnel. Differences based on the organizational level of the respondent emerged. Lifestyle factors of similarity were found to play an important role in perceived agency performance, lending support for deeper exploration of client traits and personality prior to the agency9s assignment of personnel to a client account.

Assessing Medicaid Patients' Perceptions of the OB/GYN-Patient Relationship

Abstract Objectives: The objective of this study was to understand how the dynamics of the health care provider-patient relationship differ between Medicaid patients and private pay patients in the context of obstetric care. Various aspects of the patient-physician relationship were examined including trust, commitment, dependence, social content, service quality, and behavioral outcomes such as satisfaction, referral behavior, ease of voice, and retention. Methods: Questionnaires were mailed to a sample of mothers who had recently given birth. MANOVA was used to compare the means of Medicaid patients with private pay patients for the variables of interest in the study. Results: Medicaid patients had lower commitment to their primary physician. They trusted the practice, the primary physician, and the other physicians in the practice less. They perceived themselves as less similar to both the overall practice and their primary physician and also rated their health care service experience lower. They were less satisfied and less likely to use the same practice for future pregnancies or make referrals. They also felt less comfortable voicing complaints. Conclusions: The evidence clearly indicates that Medicaid obstetric patients perceived their service experience more negatively than private pay patients. Health care providers know they must provide clinical quality for their patients, however, in treating Medicaid patients they need to focus on patient driven-quality as well. The results indicate that health care providers, particularly OB/GYNs, need to do a better job of determining and delivering the key performance criteria that Medicaid patients use to make trust judgements.

Individual Service Providers versus the Firm

Abstract This study addresses the strategic relationship marketing question: Where do customer attachments lie, with the individual service provider or with the firm? Multiple Constituency theory is drawn upon to explain the relationships. It is proposed that individual relationships impact the customers relationship with the firm, which as a result impacts relationship marketing strategy behavioral outcomes. Tested in the context of professional services, results of structural equations modeling indicate that multiple relationships occur at the individual level. However, firm level perceptions of trust and commitment are distinct and are impacted by multiple individual relationships. Desirable strategic outcomes such as return intention, positive word-of-mouth, and ease of voice are found to be primarily influenced by firm trust; whereas, firm commitment exerts minimal effect, suggesting that trust may be the underlying impetus for successful relationship marketing cultures.

Assessing the Dimensions and Outcomes of an Effective Teammate.

Though teamwork is a mainstay of corporate America and business academia, individual assessment and compensation are problematic in disciplining and removing teammates who are free-riders and rewarding high performing team members who bear a disproportionate burden of the project. Therefore, the authors set out to develop and test an assessment instrument for peer assessment of teammate performance that measures both the critical dimensions and outcomes of teamwork. The findings in this research can be used to guide teachers, students, employees, and employers in forming, monitoring, and appropriately evaluating team members’ performance. It can also help a member of a team to be a more effective teammate.

Critical service learning across two required marketing classes

ABSTRACT Business service learning projects have the potential to be a state-of-the-art instructional laboratory to teach and apply theory and make a substantial impact on the community. In this article, the author presents a service learning project that is embedded in two consecutive required courses of the marketing major and has been conducted and expanded by consecutive marketing teams over the last four years. The project follows a critical service learning pedagogy in that it redistributes power among stakeholders, promotes the development of authentic relationships, and works for social change. Insight is provided for other business faculty engaging in service learning projects.