Measurement Of The Value Of Customer Relationship

As customers’subjective evaluation on the relationship, relationship value is the latest development subject and a major domain in customer valuation research. Making sense of the relationship value in a long-term relationship is significant for the company adopting relationship marketing. Researchers have currently defined and measured the relationship value under business-to-business circumstances, However, From the view on marketing documentation, the definition of relationship value under business-to-customer circumstances is not widely accepted and its research dimensions are dispersed. Some researchers have researched the relationship interest and relationship cost in relationship value, but they don’t reach a consistent concept.On the basis of existing documentation and qualitative consumer interviews, this article defines the customer relationship value as follows:It is a kind of tradeoff between relationship interest and relationship cost generated with the development of relationship and customer perception. It is further divided into three relationship interests and two relationship costs:confidence interest, social interest, and special treatment interest as well as material cost and psychological cost. This article makes use of consumer sample data to develop a measurement table of customer relationship value including the five preceding dimensions. It is stated that this measurement table is of great reliability and effectiveness. This article tries to define relationship value in all around under business-to-customer circumstances and develop the measurement table. The first trial may be taken as references for further researching the concepts such as relationship value, relationship interest and relationship cost under business-to-customer circumstances in the future and may be beneficial for researchers to research relations among all dimensions of customer relationship value. In practice, this article provides a tool for business managers to assess customer relationship value and strategic basis to help them improve relationship management and make relationship marketing policies. The research is helpful to the following:(1) Understanding the value factors of customer behaviors(2) Discussing how to grasp all aspects of customer relationship value, thus enhancing the reorder trend, public praise spread, and long-term purchase trend(3) Accumulating enterprises to reconsider necessary customer information and best way to obtain the information.