The moderating effects of technology-based interactions on the service provider-customer relationships

Teknoloji tabanlı etkileşimlerin servis sağlayıcı-müşteri ilişkilerine olan değiştirici etkileri

Abstract

Relationship Marketing (RM) is defined as engaging in cooperative and collaborative activities with business partners and end-user customers to create or enhance mutual economic value at reduced cost. RM, initially applied between companies, is currently being applied to consumer markets and is studied both theoretically and practically. In service sectors especially, companies use RM strategies to know their customers that would provide long-term profits, to retain them and to enhance relationships. Advances in information and communication technologies are used for that purpose to analyze and predict customers’ needs and to develop strategies. From consumers’ perspective, relationship quality and relationship satisfaction are the constructs that are developed and studied to understand how consumers perceive RM programs. Relationship quality has had the greatest influence on relationship outcomes, such as objective performance and has been used as a key relational mediator, comprising of the dimensions of trust, commitment and relationship satisfaction. The RM research studies have usually been realized within the context of customer-service provider relationships where face-to-face interactions take place. Today companies use technology to reach their customers via phone, mobile phone, and the Internet. Banks use these technologies most frequently and successfully. The purpose of this study is to understand how the relationships that customers feel towards their providers are affected when service is delivered via technology-based channels and how customers feel when they use technology-based channels. The research involves application of a questionnaire to bank customers in general. More specifically, bank customers that use a particular technology-based service channel to realize their banking operations are randomly selected to form a sample. The model is tested using Structural Equation Modelling with software AMOS V7. The dependencies between several concepts, the existence of a multi-order construct like relationship quality necessitated the use of multivariate analysis. The model uses a widely studied notion that the relational mediator, relationship quality, affects relationship commitment, or loyalty as a relationship outcome. The two constructs preceding relationship quality are technology-based service media characteristics and the perceived performance of interactions on these media, in marketing terms, service channels. The two constructs are mainly designed to measure the critical factors of technology-based service channel usage and the drivers of perceived performance of such interactions. The results of the study confirm the majority of the research hypotheses proposed and that technologybased service interactions do not deplete the relationship quality perceived by banks’ customers. The ATM users and internet users perceive medium characteristics of technology-based options at differing levels. ATM users perceived privacy, security and interactivity more important compared to internet users, who perceive personalization and efficiency as more important. ATM users also perceive interactivity characteristic as higher in importance which could be related to their need to be directed by a friendly and interactive screen while realizing their operations. Internet users, however, perceive personalization and efficiency as more important. Service firms must prepare personalized screens and messages in order to increase their customers’ commitment to their relationships. Efficiency is an important characteristics that both ATM users and internet users perceive as effective in their sense of relationship. In order to do that banks can provide user friendly interfaces that include easy to understand commands, simple to follow menus and sequencing of operations. Perceived trust in technological competence of service provider is an important variable in consumer’s perception of higher performance and relationship quality. Service providers can offer new technology-based channels after verifying that consumers can reliably perform their operations. Service failures are the most important and critical incidents that service firms should handle with care. Perceived cooperation to use technology-based mediums is also effective in assessing performance of technology-based interactions. Service firms can use alternative methods so that they can serve their customers to install the necessary equipment for using technology-based channels at an advantage.

Özet

İlişki Odaklı Pazarlama (İOP), işletmelerin birbirleri, tedarikçileri ve müşterileri ile işbirliği yaparak, karşılıklı ekonomik değeri artırmak, maliyetleri düşürmek için geliştirilen programları uyguladıkları bir süreçtir. İOP günümüzde perakende, servis tüketicileri için de araştırılmakta olup, özellikle servis yoğun sektörlerde işletmeler İOP stratejilerini uygulayarak, uzun dönemde daha çok getiri sağlayacak müşterilerini tanıyıp onları korumayı, onlarla ilişkilerini daha güçlü ve karlı hale getirmeyi amaçlamaktadırlar. Bu amaçla, bilişim ve iletişim teknolojilerindeki gelişmelerden yararlanılarak müşterilere teknoloji tabanlı telefon, cep telefonu ve İnternet gibi farklı hizmet kanalları ile ulaşılmaktadır. İOP programlarının nasıl algılandıklarını araştıran, bu amaçla yakınlık kalitesi, yakınlık memnuniyeti gibi değişken yapılarını test eden çalışmalar bulunmaktadır. Ancak bu çalışmalar daha çok ilişkilerin yüz yüze geliştiği ortamlarda gerçekleştirilmektedir. Bankacılık sektöründe teknoloji kanalları sıklıkla ve başarılı uygulamalar ile kullanılmakta, düşük maliyetleri nedeniyle müşteriler bu kanalları kullanmaya özendirilmektedirler. Araştırmanın amacı, tüketicilerin, bankacılık işlemlerini gerçekleştirmek için kullandıkları teknoloji hizmet kanallarının, bankalarına duydukları yakınlığı nasıl etkilediğini irdelemektir. Bir anket çalışması sıklıkla belli bir teknoloji hizmet kanalını kullanan bireysel bankacılık müşterilerinden veri toplanmıştır. Kullanılan model İOP kuramına, tüketicilerin teknoloji kanallarında gerçekleştirdikleri bankacılık işlemlerinin performansını nasıl algıladıklarını ölçen yeni bir yapının eklenmesi ile geliştirilmiştir. Çalışma sonuçları modeli büyük oranda desteklemekte, teknoloji hizmet kanallarının ilişki kalitesi algılamasını olumlu yönde etkilediği sonucu ortaya çıkmaktadır.