Two component customer relationship management model for healthcare services

To sustain competitive advantage, it is necessary to understand consumers and their psychological fears and deliver them a service solution which is best under existing conditions so as to ensure consumer loyalty and retention. This paper seeks to conceptualise and operationalise customer relationship management (CRM) through two component model (operational CRM (OCRM) and analytical CRM (ACRM)), particularly in the healthcare sector.

The relationship between OCRM, based on three patient‐staff constructs (physicians, nurses and support staff) and ACRM based on four constructs (satisfaction, repatronization, recommendation and organizational performance) was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (AMOS). The data for the model were collected from 306 indoor patients of three large public hospitals who have been associated with the hospital for at least five years.

The model portraying service quality as an antecedent to OCRM is found to be acceptable whereas the other two models, namely, service quality as the moderating variable in explaining OCRM and ACRM relationship effectively and direct relationship between OCRM (service quality implicit) and OCRM) were rejected. Characteristics, primarily caring attitude, friendliness, helpfulness, response to queries, expertise and effective treatment are found to be significant for OCRM from physicians, nurses and support staff perspectives that can impact the four ACRM dimensions – satisfaction, repatronization, recommendation and organizational performance.

The study contributes to the current understanding of CRM in particular and consumer behaviour in general, in the context of the healthcare sector. The role of service quality in influencing patient‐staff interaction and CRM linkage with the service dominant concept has added more strength to the conceptual development of TCRM.