Marketing Service Relationships: the Relative Role of Service Quality
Marketing Service Relationships: the Relative Role of Service Quality

Summary/Abstract: Increasingly, firms recognize the value of close relationships with their customers because customer retention in intensifying competition is more and more important. The paper analyses services quality in the new relationship marketing paradigm. The article is focused on Anglo-Australian approach to relationship marketing. In this research approach the integration of quality management, services marketing concepts and customer relationship economics are emphasized. The article is organized in six parts. The first part is introduction. In this part research problem, the aim ant the objectives are presented. In the second part different services quality models are analyzed in order to determine how these models are adequate to changing relationship marketing paradigm. The Adequacy of service quality GAP model, the perceived service quality model and the Gummeson 4Q model of offering quality is analyzed. The analysis reveals that service quality models and instruments are limited to evaluation of a service episode and are static while relationship marketing paradigm requires dynamic approach which could help to assess service quality in long-term perspective along with other relationship quality dimensions. In the third part V. Liljander – T. Strandvik relationship quality model (1995) is analyzed in order to identify its worth, weaknesses and strengths. The analysis reveals that this model is useful and helps to understand the main relationship quality formation principles. Service quality in this model is treated not as a single variable, but as a loyalty determinant belonging to the system of determinants influencing customer loyalty and interacting with each other. Moreover, another advantage is inclusion of customer behavior variables in addition to the perceptual variables. However, the constructs of this model are vaguely defined, there are only several loyalty determinants, and model is theoretical. Literature analysis showed that there are more significant loyalty drivers therefore further analysis is required. In the fourth part are presented the main relationship quality dimensions (loyalty drivers) identified analyzing and synthesizing scientific literature. In the fifth part different empirically tested models are analyzed in order to determine relative importance of these determinants on customer loyalty and to analyze the interaction of theses determinants.

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