Cross-industry Comparison Of Relational Benefits And Their Impacts On Customer Loyalty

Since 1980s, service marketing has become a relatively independent research field in marketing. An increasing number of researchers began to pay close attention to the design, production and distribution of service products. Meanwhile, a series of researches on rational benefits discussed the benefits brought to customers via establishing and maintaining long-term relationship with service firms. However, most of studies on relational benefits have not discussed the contribution of industrial difference, which includes the difference of perceived relational benefits among different services, and the difference of impacts of relational benefits in different service industries. Moreover, results of these studies which used the same service classification were totally different. Based on depth-interviews and the results of the previous studies on relational benefits, this study chooses the intensity of contact between customer and service provider and the degree of customization as two industrial characteristics, both of which relate to relational benefits, and tries to test whether the intensity of contact and the degree of customization would influence customer's perception of relational benefits and the impacts of relational benefits on customer loyalty.Therefore, this paper aims at analyzing whether relational benefits and their impacts on customer loyalty are different in services from the respective of the intensity of contact and the degree of customization. The result discovers that customers receive the highest confidence benefits in all services, followed by social benefits, and the least is special treatment benefits. The contact between customer and service provider could improve three kinds of relational benefits significantly when the degree of customization is medium. The degree of customization could also improve relational benefits when the intensity of contact between customer and service provider is medium, but it could not affect social benefits and special treatment benefits significantly when the contact level is high.The study also points out that confidence benefits, social benefits and special treatment benefits have significantly positive effects on customer loyalty, but only the impacts of social benefits and special treatment benefits vary significantly in services. Both the intensity of contact between customer and service provider and the degree of customization could moderate the influence of social benefits and special treatment benefits on customer loyalty. The intensity of contact between customer and service provider could moderate the relationship between social benefits and customer loyalty positively, and could moderate the relationship between special treatment benefits and customer loyalty negatively, while the impact of the degree of customization is opposite to that of contact.