Thorsten Hennig-Thurau

The impact of customer satisfaction and relationship quality on customer retention: A critical reassessment and model development

Customer satisfaction with a company’s products or services is often seen as the key to a company’s success and long-term competitiveness. In the context of relationship marketing, customer satisfaction is often viewed as a central determinant of customer retention. However, the few empirical investigations in this area indicate that a direct relationship between these constructs is weak or even nonexistent. The overall purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual foundation for investigating the customer retention process, with the use of the concepts of customer satisfaction and relationship quality. The article involves a critical examination of the satisfaction ‐ retention relationship, and the development of a more comprehensive view of the customer’s quality perception. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Modeling and Managing Student Loyalty An Approach Based on the Concept of Relationship Quality

The loyalty of customers is widely accepted as a critical factor in the long-term success of a service firm. In this article, the authors develop a model of student loyalty by combining the growing body of knowledge on relationship marketing in the context of services with insights from more traditional educational research. Their relationship quality-based student loyalty (RQSL) model proposes that student loyalty is mainly determined by the dimensions of relationship quality. The model also includes students’ integration into the university system and external commitment as second-order factors. The authors test the RQSL model using the structural equation modeling approach and empirical data from a survey of several German universities. Among other things, the results indicate that the quality of teaching and the students’ emotional commitment to their institution are crucial for student loyalty. However, there are clear differences between the results obtained from different courses of study.

Relationship Marketing — Some Reflections on the State-of-the-Art of the Relational Concept

With the concept of relationship marketing approaching a stage of maturity, the authors give a comprehensive overview of the main research findings in the field of relationship marketing theory. They use this review to draw out some proposals for future resource allocation in relationship marketing research.

Customer Orientation of Service Employees – Toward a Conceptual Framework of a Key Relationship Marketing Construct

Abstract Although customer orientation is a core element of the marketing concept and is especially crucial to the concept of relationship marketing, no widely accepted conceptualization of the construct exists. In the context of service organizations, the fulfillment of customer needs and wishes by customer-contact employeescan be seen as crucial for gaining a high degree of customer orientation. This paper develops a conceptualization of service employee customer orientation which is presented as a three-dimensional construct, the interrelated dimensions being the employees motivation to serve customers, his or her customer-oriented skills, and his or her self-perceived decision-making authority. Implications are drawn out for relationship marketing of services organizations and relationship marketing theory.

Why Customers Build Relationships with Companies - and Why not

Although relationship marketing has received much attention in recent years, most of the literature focuses on benefits the firm receives from developing relationships with customers. A comprehensive model explicitly considering both the benefits and barriers of such relationships from the customer’s perspective has not been proposed. To address this gap in the literature, this chapter develops an integrative theory of customers’ motivations to participate in relationships with companies. In particular, the authors review the existing literature on customers’ relational motivations for participating in business exchanges and subsequently present an integrative model of both benefits and barriers to such relationships from a customer perspective. They then report the results of a study examining a portion of the relational benefit side of the model. Finally, implications for the management of relationships with customers are discussed.

National Customer Satisfaction Indices: A Critical Investigation from an Application Perspective

The development of National Customer Satisfaction Indices (NCSIs) has recently become a central area of research in service management and marketing. Despite an considerable amount on scientific and societal discussion, a massive lack of meta-theoretical research in the area of NCSI development and usage exists. Based on the identification of several levels of NCSI based satisfaction compahsons the authors formulate a catalogue of general criteria which function as a frame of reference for the critical analysis and evaluation of NCSIs. With the American Customer Satisfaction Index and the German Customer Satisfaction Barometer, two wellknown indices are than evaluated with regard to the criteria previously worked out. Several proposals are generated corresponding to the results of the analysis, which can be used as a guideline for future improvements of NCSI methodology and usage.

Vertrauen in Kundenartikulationen auf virtuellen Meinungsplattformen

Zu den originaren Dienstleistungen, die uber das Internet zuganglich sind, zahlen Internetseiten, die es Kunden ermoglichen, andere Konsumenten uber ihre Erfahrungen mit Produkten und Dienstleistungen zu informieren. Mittels solcher Informationsangebote, die aufgrund ihrer konzeptionellen Nahe zum Konzept der Mundwerbung („Word-of-Mouth“) von Konsumenten (Arndt 1967; Westbrook 1987; Gremler et al. 2001) auch als „Global Word-of-Mouth“ (Stauss 1997), „Electronic Word-of-Mouth“ (Bussiere 2000), oder „Word-of-Mouse“ (Krum 2000) bezeichnet werden, konnen positive wie negative Erlebnisse von Konsumenten mit einem Produkt oder einer Dienstleistung in kurzester Zeit einer fast unbegrenzten Anzahl an Konsumenten zuganglich gemacht werden. Da solche Kundenartikulationen im Internet im Unterschied zu traditioneller Face-to-Face-Mundwerbung zudem uber einen langen Zeitraum von Konsumenten abgerufen werden konnen, weisen sie ein erhebliches Chancen- und Bedrohungspotenzial fur Unternehmen auf, deren Leistungen Gegenstand derartiger Kundenartikulationen sind (Stauss 2000).

Nationale Kundenzufriedenheitsindizes als Informationsgrundlage des Dienstleistungsmanagements — Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme

In den letzten Jahren sind intensive Forschungsanstrengungen zu beobachten, die sich mit der unternehmensubergreifenden Messung der Zufriedenheit von Kunden im Rahmen sogenannter Zufriedenheitsbarometer beziehungsweise Kundenzufriedenheitsindizes (KuZI’s) auseinandersetzen. Hier ist insbesondere das Deutsche Kundenbarometer (DKB) zu nennen (Meyer/Dornach 1995a; 1996) sowie der masgeblich von der Forschergruppe um Fornell konzipierte American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) (Fornell et al. 1996). Neben diesen bereits realisierten und z.T. mehrfach eingesetzten Ansatzen sind zahlreiche weitere Vorhaben in Planung oder stehen knapp vor der Fertigstellung. Konkrete Einsatze von KuZI’s sind etwa in Osterreich (Hackl et al. 1996, S. 86ff.), der Schweiz (Bruhn 1996a; 1996b) sowie in Taiwan und Israel angedacht (Uberblick bei NQRC 1997 und bei Bruhn 1996c).

Das Relationship Quality-Modell zur Erklärung von Kundenbindung: Einordnung und empirische Überprüfung

Die dauerhafte Bindung von Kunden wird sowohl in der Marketingwissenschaft als auch der Unternehmenspraxis als wichtige Einflusgrose fur den okonomischen Erfolg von Unternehmen erkannt. Das Forschungsfeld des Beziehungsmarketing hat in den vergangenen Jahren ein hohes Mas an Wissen zum Charakter von Geschaftsbeziehungen generiert. Allerdings mangelt es bisher jedoch an Wissen uber die zentralen kundenbindungsgerichteten Steuerungsgrosen von Kundenbeziehungen. Das Relationship Quality-Modell stellt einen konzeptionellen Ansatz dar, diese Lucke zu schliesen. Es integriert verschiedene Konstrukte (Kundenzufriedenheit, Qualitatswahrnehmung, Vertrauen, Commitment) und zeigt deren Beziehungen untereinander und zur Zielgrose Kundenbindung auf. Die verschiedenen Elemente des Modells werden vorgestellt, in Hypothesengestalt uberfuhrt und empirisch uberpruft. Die Ergebnisse belegen die Aussagekraft des Relationship Quality-Modells fur das Beziehungsmarketing und bestatigen durchgangig die aufgestellten Hypothesen. Hinsichtlich der Struktur des Konstruktes Beziehungsqualitat weisen die Ergebnisse allerdings auf die Notwendigkeit einer Modifikation der Konzeptualisierung hin.