Customer Relationship Management

Journal of Management and Marketing Research

Effective customer relationship management of health care: a study of hospitals in Thailand

Bunthuwun Laohasirichaikul Siam University Sirion Chaipoopirutana Assumption University Howard Combs San Jose State University

ABSTRACT This article investigates the effects and the relative importance of the four perceived service quality dimensions on corporate image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. To obtain results, factor analysis and multiple regression techniques are applied to data collected from 500 Thai outpatients of the five largest private hospitals in Bangkok. The findings indicate that the four dimensions significantly affect corporate image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. More specifically, the doctor concern dimension is the most important factor affecting customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The tangibles dimension is the most important factor affecting corporate image. Keywords: health care, relationship management, Thailand, corporate image, service quality

Effective Customer Relationship Management, Page 1

Journal of Management and Marketing Research INTRODUCTION The healthcare industry in Thailand is highly competitive as it has opened to the private sector (Hasin, Seeluangsawat, and Shareef, 2001). At present, the competition is even more intense given the high market value of the Thai healthcare industry. This has forced private hospitals to compete with each other to gain as much market share as possible. As a result, many private hospitals are more emphasizing more on marketing to compete for an increased market share (www.siamturakij.com, 2008a). In Thailand, total market value of all private hospitals in 2006 was over 49,000 million baht ($1.5 billion) and this business is both globalizing and growing rapidly (www.thannews.th. Com, 2008). Private hospital has high potential in serving patients in Bangkok as the proportion of private hospitals in Bangkok...