Relationship marketing is the milestone of marketing strategy planning whether it would be in industrial marketing mechanism or consumer marketing mechanism (Tseng, 2007). According to Morgan and Hunt (1994), relationship marketing was defined as all the marketing activities that are designed to establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational relationship with customers. According to Hougaard and Bjerre (2002) relationship marketing is company behavior with the purpose of establishing, maintaining and developing competitive and profitable customer relationship to the benefit of both parties. Due to profitable relationship with customers on a lifetime basis may also create loss in some stages during the lifetime, Hougaard and Bjerre (2002) argued that marketing management must pay attention to three different objectives in terms of initiating and managing customer relationship, maintaining and enhancing customer relationship and handling those relationship termination.

 

There are different levels of relationship duration that would ultimately result in different levels of consumption patterns experienced by customers, producing different results, satisfaction and loyalty with different relationship marketing tactics (Wulf et al. 2001). In contrast with traditional marketing, relationship marketing has the core phenomenon of building relationship with customers which will ultimately result in achieving long-term mutual benefits for all parties involved in this exchange. Relationship marketing means making customers as your partners where they will give you monetary benefits in longer time period by showing their loyalty through purchases and companies get benefit through their future secured revenues by their those loyal customers (Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003). The main aim of relationship marketing is to gain the maximum value of a customer but with the essence of customer loyalty. According to Bowen and Shoemaker (2003) relationship marketing relies on continuity of partnership of loyal customers because they are not price sensitive but are quality sensitive and they don’t care about the price cuts over time.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

1關系營銷策略—Relationship marketing tactics:

 

There are many ways identified by the marketers to implement relationship marketing tactics, which are expected to have the long term impact on retaining customers and building customer loyalty by giving them value. According to Bansal, Taylor and James (2005) relationship marketing tactics are executed through service quality, price perception; alternative attractiveness, and so on. Based on the early theories, certain relationship marketing tactics which are considered of importance in service industry, such as service quality, price perception, and brand image, will be focused in the following parts.

 

1.1服務質量— Service Quality

 

Products and services are taken combine as commodities in business setting but both have different features. Products have physical features whereas compared to that services are features of intangibility heterogeneity, being produced and consumed simultaneously. Services can’t be stocked for consumption in some future time period. According to Gronroos (1990) a service is a process consisting of a series of more or less intangible activities that normally, but not necessarily always, takes place in interactions between the customer and service employees and/or physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which provided as solutions to customer problems”.

 

According to his perception, service is same as processes where both service provider and customers can interact marketing needs the interaction of both parties as a basic ingredient (gronoos, 2000). Service provider could have loyal customer by delivering services as per their need, this will make (goroon, 2000). Service quality is been taken as the overall excellent and superior interaction with one service provider than others in competition (Parasuraman et al. 1988). But it is critical aspect to judge as customer's perception may vary them loyal in long run which will ensure company’s profits in future. Mostly quality of the service is taken as good due to the positive interaction between both parties (goroon, 2000). Service quality is been taken as the overall excellent and superior interaction with one service provider than others in competition (Parasuraman et al. 1988).But it is critical aspect to judge as customer's perception may vary. Peculiar attributes of service quality make it more complex to evaluate a service than a product quality evaluation. There are many ways proposed by many researchers to evaluate a service quality.

 

A famous model SERVQUAL (developed by Parasuramna et al. 1988), measure the differences between what customers expect and perceive cross the following five determinants as follows.

 

Tangibles: Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, employees and communication materials from a service company.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Reliability: A service company’s ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

 

Assurance: employees’ knowledge and behavior about courtesy and ability to convey trust and confidence.

 

Responsiveness: A service company is willing to help customers and provide punctual services.

 

Empathy: A service company provides care and individualized attention to its customers, as well as having convenient operating hours.

 

Based on the previous literature, according to goroon 2000, there are 7 criteria’s of perceived good service quality,Professionalism.

 

1.2技能—Skills

 

Professionalism and skills are outcome related and technical quality dimension. Reputation and image related and fulfills a filtering function; whereas the rest of five are processes related and present the functional quality dimension. In competitive environment, the most common feature to be succeeded is to deliver the high service quality.

 

1.3價格認知— Price Perception

 

Customer buy products and services by money and that monetary cost is major element that effect consumer buying decision. The matter that how much will customer pay depends on the perceived price relying on the product/service provider and those price perceptions will be different for different customers. Sometimes high price negatively affect purchase decision (peng and wang 2006).customers often relate it to the price searching and are attracted by high quality products at competitive prices. While it is also observed that customers judge prices by relating it to service quality and that quality generates satisfaction and dissatisfaction based on equity principle. The customer make transaction if he finds that price as fair this price perception is measured on two dimensions: one is the reasonability (how the price is perceived by customer) and other is value for money (relative status of the provider in comparison to price).(cheng,2008)Literature evident the influence of price perception on customer satisfaction and trust (Oliver, 1997; Peng and Wang, 2006; Cheng et al., 2008; Kim et al., 2008) and that the switching occurs because of high perceived price or other pricing techniques (Peng and Wang, 2006). so this becomes highly important for firms to manage price effectively if they want their customers to stay with them and buy their products to be profitable e.g. carrying out attractive pricing, offering reasonable prices mix, lower prices without decreasing quality, etc.

 

1.3品牌形象— Brand Image

 

Brand concept has been frequently discussed in marketing literatures. Brand building is not only an important driving force for marketing physical products, it is also a vital issue for service firms. Brand image was defined by Keller (1993, p3) as the “perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand associations held in consumers’ memory.” It is thought as the perception or mental picture of a brand formed and held in customers’ mind, through customers’ response, whether rational or emotional (Dobni and Zinkhan, 1990). According to Grönroos (2000, p.287), “A brand is not first built and then perceived by the customers. Instead, every step in the branding process, every brand massages, is separately perceived by customers and together add up to a brand image, which is formed in customers’ minds”. Therefore, brand image is consequence of how a customer perceives the relationship with a brand over time (Ibid).#p#分頁標題#e#

 

The concept of relationship marketing within services displays the importance of one-to-one relationships between businesses and customers as well as relationships between consumers and the brands (O’Loughlin, Szmigin, and Turnbull, 2004). The development of a brand relationship with customers is based on a series of brand contacts experienced by customers (Grönroos, 2000). What customer perceives the brand image during such experience is critical issue for a service firm to realize. Furthermore, customers are likely to form brand image in mind from inexperience ways, such as word of mouth from other consumers, a company’s reputation in public, marketing communication, and so on. A positive brand image make it easier for a firm to convey its brand value to consumers, also generates favorable word of mouth among people; contrarily, a negative image affect people in opposite direction; a neutral or unfamiliar image may not cause any damage, but it does not increase the effectiveness of communication and word of mouth either (Ibid). The more customers consider a brand valuable, the more sales can be expected to be achieved (Ibid).

 

Therefore, a positive brand image is supposed to meet customer’s expectation and offer more benefits to customer, which may lead to customer satisfaction and trust.

 

2關系質量—Relationship Quality

 

Relationship Quality (RQ) emerged from the field of Relationship Marketing (RM). Due to the importance of relationship marketing in today’s businesses, relationship quality is essential for assessment of relationship strength and the satisfied degree of customer needs and expectations (Crosby & Evans & Cowles, 1990; Smith, 1998). Successful exchange events can finally lead to an enduring buyer-seller relationship if they are properly treated from both a buyer and a seller’s perspectives (Crosby et al., 1990). In some service contexts, since service is invisible and heterogeneous, customers would feel high uncertainty and risk in the transaction (Li and Ho, 2008). Whereas, good relationship quality could reduce service uncertainty and risk for the purpose of increasing customers’ reliability to develop long-term relationships (Crosby et al., 1990; Li and Ho, 2008). In other words, higher quality of relationship creates association between service providers and customers, and fosters long-term stable exchanges where both parties can gain mutual benefits (Singh, 2008).

 

Relationship quality does not have a widely accepted definition and measures (Singh, 2008).Various dimensions have been used to measure relationship quality within marketing researches. One attempt to conceptualize relationship quality has been proposed by Grosby etal. (1990), which viewed relationship quality as a high-order construct and should contain at least two dimensions: trust and satisfaction. Morgan and Hunt (1994) drew the commitment-trust theory by proposing that trust and commitment are two basic constructs for measuring relationship quality. By integrating different research viewpoint, Chakrabarty,Whitten and Green (2007) discussed that relationship quality is measured in terms of trust, commitment, culture, interdependence, and communication. Otherwise, Lages et al. (2005), from a perspective of business organization rather than consumers, suggested that relationship quality reflected the intensity of information sharing, communication quality, long-term orientation and satisfaction with the relationship between the exporter and importer.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Although there are no consensuses regarding the components that form up relationship quality,

 

It is generally accepted that trust and satisfaction are two significant factors for measuring relationship quality. Especially in the context of service markets, high relationship quality perceived by customers is achieved through customer trusts and customer satisfaction, which are two key points for service providers to consolidate stable long-term relationship with their customers, and in turn achieve customer retention and loyalty behavior. Therefore, we study relationship quality by focusing on trust and satisfaction from customers’ perspectives.

 

2.1信任— Trust

 

Trust is one of the most widely subjects across multi disciplines, including management,economics, philosophy and psychology. Various definitions of trusts have been given in previous literatures. One general concept of trust was provided by Mayer, Davis and

 

Schoorman (1995), who systematically studied organizational trust and defined trust as the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other, will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control the other party. Geyskens and Steenkamp (1995) also summarized trust as the extent to which a firm believes that its exchange partner is benevolent and honest. Doney and Cannon (1997) emphasized that trust is the perceived credibility and benevolence. Based on above definitions, it is clear that trust is a human characteristic that is based on assessment of one another’s personality traits (Chu, 2009), motives and behaviors(Tian et al., 2008). In the development of trust, trustees’ expectations and perception about trustees are involved. This is suggested that the level of trust is different significantly among individuals based on their personal decision-making habits and characteristics (Chu, 2009).

 

Trust or distrust often takes place with a relationship built up. As a supplier actively makes relationship efforts, it provides evidence to customers that the supplier can be trusted, concerns about the customers’ interests and is willing to make sacrifices for satisfying customers’ needs in the relationship (Liang and Wang, 2008)).

 

In practical business activities, therefore, the development of trust is considered to be critical result of establishing a long-term successful relationship between all the parties involved. In face of complicated service markets, customers tend to behave and make purchasing decision depending on their previous consuming experiences (Doney and Cannon, 1997), their expectations (Anderson and Narus, 1990; Mayer et al., 1995) and perception (Liuet al., 2008; Gwinner et al., 1998; Doney and Cannon, 1997) to service providers. Investing in long-term relationship with customers thus helps to develop customer trusts and improve the effective quality of a relationship in order to obtain mutual interests (Anderson & Weitz, 1989). Customers with trusts in service providers’ capability would probably be willing to commit to a service relationship for meeting their expectations (Morgan and Hunt, 1994).#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Even when the environment is changing, the customers would believe that the service provider will take customers’ interests into account instead of doing anything harmful to the development of relationship (Liu et al., 2008).

 

Mayer et al. (1995) conceptualized organizational trust by proposing three core elements as: trustee’s ability, trustee’s benevolence and trustee’s integrity. These three dimensions have been further supported and adopted by several researchers to operate trust in their later studies. (Lin and Ding, 2005; Aydin and Özer, 2005; Tian et al., 2008). Besides, cumulative process ina relationship was considered to construct trust on the basis of a party’s capability of implementing its obligations continuously (Doney and Cannon, 1997; Aydin and Özer, 2005).Trust is considered so important to long-term relationships and enhancing customer loyalty.

 

Many researchers have suggested that customers’ trust is a significant role in building long-term relationship and achieving customer loyalty (Berry, 1995; Bowen and Shoemaker,2003; Chu, 2009). With trust as a precursor, a customer becomes loyal to a firm and forms a commitment to that firm (Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003).

 

2.2 滿意度—Satisfaction

 

Customer satisfaction has been paid much attention among theoretical literatures and practical researches. It is also an expected outcome of implementing marketing activities, as providing satisfying products or services to customers relates to success achieved in today’s tensely competitive world of business.Fornell (1992) defined satisfaction as an overall evaluation dependent on the total purchase and consumption experience of the target product or service performance compared with repurchase expectations over time. Oliver (1997, 1999) reviewed satisfaction as pleasurable

 

fulfillment which is sensed by customers in the consumption. It means that “the consumer senses that consumption fulfills some need, desire, goal, or so forth and that this fulfillment is pleasurable” (Oliver, 1999, p.34).

 

In relationship marketing literatures, customer satisfaction has also been thought to be an key performance indicator for evaluating the quality of a relationship between service provider and customers. Customers’ expectations regarding costs and benefits of the relationship mainly depend on past experience, and satisfying experiences increase the motivation and the likelihood that an individual stays in the relationship (Mouri, 2005).

 

Customer perception to products or services has been widely used to measure customer satisfaction. Furthermore, customer satisfaction also has been measured relying on the phases of customer relationship life cycle, which characterizes different stages of a customer relationship and requires focus on specific target and customer expectation of different stages (Spath andFähnrich, 2007).In general, customer satisfaction enhances the quality of relationship between customers and service providers, and increases the repeat purchase behavior.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

3 轉化成本—Switching Costs

 

Switching behavior refers to customer’s termination of a relationship with a provider (Mouri, 2005). There are many reasons that might lead to customer switching behavior. Bitner (1990) proposed that customers change service provider due to time limitation, money constraints, and unavailable access to information, or habit among parties. Keaveney (1995) also suggested eight critical factors will cause switch behavior, such as attraction by competitors, inappropriate employee response to service failures, pricing problems, core service failures, service encounter failures, inconvenience, ethical problems, and situation changes. Switching cost incurred when a customer switches from an existing service provider to a new one. It is a barrier that influences customer’s decision to change service provider. Selnes (1993) suggested that switching cost includes the technical, financial, and psychological costs that make it difficult or costly for customers to change brands. Patterson and Smith (2003) defined

 

Switching cost as the customer’s perception of the importance of the additional cost lead to ending up a relationship and to securing an alternative one. N’Goala (2007) argues that the perceived costs of switching can be either monetary or non-monetary (time, effort, risk taking, psychological nature, etc.).Higher switching costs perceived by customers may affect their switching behaviors. In other words, the higher switching costs perceived, the more willing of a customer to remain loyalty with current service provider.

 

4客戶忠誠度—Customer Loyalty

 

It was defined by Oliver (1997, p.392) as “deeply held commitment to rebury or repatronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior”. Customer loyalty is thought to be the final goal that a firm apply relationship marketing tactics, by building long-term mutual relationship with customers.

 

Customers are the driving force for profitable growth and customer loyalty can lead to

 

Profitability (Hayes, 2008). For a customer, loyalty is a positive attitude and behavior related to the level of re-purchasing commitment to a brand in the future (Chu, 2009). Loyal customers are less likely to switch to a competitor solely because of price, and they even make more purchases than non-loyal customers (Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003). Loyal customers are also considered to be the most important assets of a company (Blackton, 1995).It is thus essential for vendors to keep loyal customers who will contribute long-term profit to the business organizations (Tseng, 2007). Attempt to make existing customers increase their purchases is one way to strengthen the financial growth of a company (Hayes, 2008).Furthermore, organization’s financial growth is dependent on a company’s ability to retain existing customers at a faster rate than it acquires new ones (Ibid). Therefore, good managers should understand that the road to growth runs through customers – not only attracting new customers, but also holding on existing customers, motivating them to spend more and getting them to recommend products and services to the other people (Keiningham et al., 2008).#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Customer loyalty has been generally divided into attitudinal loyalty and behavioral (Aydin and Özer, 2005). Attitudinal loyalty describes customer’s attitude toward loyalty by measuring customer preference, buying intention, supplier prioritization and recommendation willingness; on the other hand, behavioral loyalty relates to shares of purchase, purchasing frequency (Ibid).There are evidences suggesting that stronger relationship commitment leads to buyers’ repeat patronage. Wulf et al. (2001) defined the construct of behavioral loyalty as a composite measure based on a consumer’s purchasing frequency and amount spent at a retailer compared with the amount spent at other retailers from whom the consumer buys. Morgan and Hunt(1994) found significant relationships between the level of a buyer’s relationship commitment and his acquiescence, propensity to leave, and cooperation, all of which can be regarded as behavioral outcomes of relationships. In general, customer loyalties are the final purpose that firms implement relationship marketing.

 

5問題討論—Problem Discussion

 

5.1研究問題— Research questions

 

Businesses have implemented various relationship marketing tactics into practice. However, some of those tactics did not work effectively, and there are phenomena showing that switching behavior frequently occur among most of targeted customers. Accordingly, our research questions are brought forward as follows:

 

(1) What kinds of relationship marketing tactics in practice positively contribute to customer loyalty?

 

(2) How do different relationship marketing tactics impact on customer loyalty?

 

(3) Is the analytical model showed as figure 1.1 proved to be correct?

 

5.2目的—Purpose

 

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of customer relationship marketing tactics on customer loyalty within Pakistani education sector, by analyzing the relationship of every construct in the analytical model (show as figure 1.1). This study is expected to exam the relationship between the seven constructs in the model (service quality, price, brand image, satisfaction, trust, switching cost and customer loyalty), which can be a reference for Pakistan’s education industry.

 

In order to achieve this purpose, the research focuses on analyzing the developed conceptual model from consumer’s perspective, accordingly the following hypothesizes are aimed to be tested.

 

H1a: High service quality perceived by customers is positively related to customer satisfaction.

 

H1b: High service quality perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

H2a: Fair price perceived by customers is positively related to customer satisfaction.

 

H2b: Fair price perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.

 

H3a: Positive brand image perceived by customers is positively related to customer satisfaction

 

H3b: Positive brand image perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.

 

H4: Customer trust is positively related to customer loyalty.

 

H5: Customer satisfaction is positively related to customer loyalty.

 

H6: High switching costs perceived by customer is positively related to customer loyalty.