Impact of Customer Relationship Management on Customer Loyalty among Patients Visiting a Woman's Hospital

여성전문병원의 고객관계관리(CRM)가 고객충성도에 미치는 영향

Although a variety of customer relationship management (CRM) activities have been provided by many hospitals in Korea, there lacks empirical evidence on the effect of CRM. The present study was conducted to examine the effect of CRM in terms of the customer response to CRM in a woman's hospital setting. A total of 380 patients receiving inpatient or outpatient care from woman's hospital between October 25 and November 4, 2005 were surveyed for the degree of their experience of and preference for CRM activities of the hospital by 5-point Likert-type scale. Patients were also asked about the level of customer loyalty to the hospital. Eighteen CRM activities offered by the hospital was classified into 4 types of CRM strategies according to Berry and Parasuranman: price, social, structural, and relationship recovery strategy. There's a significant positive correlation between the degree of experience of CRM and preference for CRM(r=0.49, p<0.001). Regression analysis results showed the significant positive relationship between the degree of experience of CRM and customer loyalty(${\beta}$=0.448, p<0.05). Among the 4 CRM strategies, only social(${\beta}$=0.127, p<0.05) and structural strategy(${\beta}$=0.266, p<0.05) showed signifiant positive relationship with customer loyalty. Overall, the favorable customer response to CRM in terms of preference for CRM and customer loyalty indicates that there's a positive effect of CRM on the continuity of the relationship between patients and health care providers.