A Study of the Impact of Customer Value on Relationship Quality and Customer Loyalty

고객가치가 관계품질 및 고객충성도에 미치는 영향: 치과병·의원을 중심으로

Purpose - Recent rapid environmental changes in the hospital industry are accelerating the spread of customer satisfaction management. Customers' desires have become diversified and advanced; in the past, customers tended to preferred popularized and standardized care, whereas they now prefer individualized and differentiated care, based on an increase in income. Specifically, this study tries to analyze the mediating effects of factors that affect the configuration portion of customer value and relationship quality (customer trust and relationship commitment) by investigating the impacts and configuration factor of customer value on relationship quality and determining how these factors impact customer loyalty directly or indirectly. Research design, data, and methodology - This study aims to determine the customer value factors that impact the perceptions of dental hospital customers, how these factors impact relationship quality and customer loyalty, and the causal relationship of these factors, and to verify the research model based on previous research. To increase the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, the authors of this study constructed basic questions using measurement tools already verified for reliability and validity in existing studies. In this study, customer value is defined as customers' recognizing value by exchanging goods or services and is measured using a five-point Likert scale using 19 questions about the 4-Ds, such as convenience value, quick service, response value, and trustworthiness. For each question, "very low" was set at 1 point and "very high" at 5 points. Customer trust, relationship commitment, and customer loyalty are also measured using a five-point Likert 5-point scale (1 = very low, 5 = very high) based on previous studies. Results - For customer value, trustworthiness and quick service are shown to have direct significant positive impacts on customer loyalty. For customer value and quality of the relationship (customer confidence and commitment), trustworthiness, response value, confidence value, and quick service are shown to have a significant positive impact on customer truth, in order of impact. For the relationship between customer value and commitment, quick service and response value are shown to have significant positive impact. Customer confidence has a very high positive influence on commitment. For the relationship between the quality of the relationship (customer confidence and commitment) and customer loyalty, customer confidence is shown to have more of an impact than commitment, in terms of a direct influence of customer loyalty. Commitment showed a positive impact on customer loyalty. For the relationship between customer confidence and customer loyalty, commitment showed a mediating effect. Conclusions - Many additional variables could apply; this study focused on customer value, quality of the relationship, and customer loyalty. In particular, there will be significant value in identifying the relationships among customer value, relationship quality, and customer loyalty by using impact factors for customer value; ensuring external validity by expanding denotation and applying the findings to other service industries; and undertaking continuous research. This study has limited generalization potential because the target for this survey was located only in the Seoul area.