Part one: Service Quality in the
eyes of the customer
Relationship quality and Researching
service quality
7. 5.2012
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Articles for this lecture
• Holmlund, M (2008) A defintion, model, and empirical analysis of
business-to-business relationship quality, International Journal of Service
Industry Management, vol. 19, no 1.
• Gummesson, E. (2008) Quality, service-dominant logic and many-to-many
marketing, The TQM Journal, vol 20, no 2, p.143-153.
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What is a customer relationship?
(Holmlund 1997)
Relationship
Sequence
Episode
Episode
A
A
A
A i A
Sequence
Episode
A
A
A
A=Act
3
Phases of a customer relationship
Acquisition
Maintenance (customer loyalty)
Relationship ending (switching behavior or
withdrawing from the market)
4
Relationship quality
• “Joint cognitive evaluation of business
interactions by significiant individuals in both
firms in the dyad. The evaluation encompasses a
comparison of experienced with desired,
potential, usual or previous interactions which
constitute comparison standards”
• The difference of RQ from SQ is that RQ is dyadic
meaning that both companies, not merely the
customer, are significiant for quality perceptions
in their relationship, and that several persons
represent the business relationship.
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The Perceived Relationship Model
(Holmlund 2008)
6
Content of quality dimensions and domains in the dyad
Process domain
•
•
•
Technical dimension
– Design
– Production
– Inventory
– Delivery
– Recovery
Social dimension
– Appeal
– Trust
– Acquientance
– Respect
– Congeniality
– Pleasure
Economic dimension
– Pricing
– Costing
– Productivity
Outcome domain
•
•
•
Technical outcome
– Reliability
– Innovation
– Conformance
– Aesthetics
– Endurability
Social outcome
– Appeal (individual level)
– Trust (individual level)
– Acquintance (individual level)
– Respect (individual level)
– Congeniality (individual level)
– Pleasure (individual level)
– Inter-firm cohesion (company level)
– Attraction (company level)
– Trust (company level)
Economic outcome
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Competitive price level (benefit)
Volume (benefit)
Profit margin (benefit)
Productivity enhancement (benefit)
Latent relationship rewards (benefit)
Direct relatinship costs (cost)
Indirect relationship costs (cost)
Latent relationship costs (cost)
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Thank you for your attention
Loooking forward for the next lecture
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