Managing students' loyalty to school after graduation through relationship marketing
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider customer expectation, perceived service performance and customer satisfaction as issues of total quality management (TQM) in relationship marketing, and examines how these relate to students' anticipated loyalty to college after graduation.
Design/methodology/approach
It is a survey research. Participants are 467 college students of 18 years and above, in the USA. Standardized instruments are used for data collection.
Findings
Standard multiple regression analyses results show that customer satisfaction, expectation and perceived service performance jointly predict anticipated loyalty. The predictor variables correlate among themselves. Among seven services studied, academic and recreational/social services are the most important predictors of students' anticipated loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
School administrators should closely assess students' expectations on academic and recreational/social services with the aim of improving school services. This could encourage students' loyalty to the school after graduation. This paper is conducted among undergraduate students only, and from just one institution; these limit the generalizability of the paper.
Practical implications
Customer expectations, perceived service performance and students' satisfaction serve as issues of TQM in school organisations.
Originality/value
Students are customers of school services, and research on TQM could be extended to the school setting.
Keywords
Citation
Osayawe Ehigie, B. and Taylor, M. (2009), "Managing students' loyalty to school after graduation through relationship marketing", The TQM Journal, Vol. 21 No. 5, pp. 502-516. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542730910983416
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited