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The purpose of this paper is to study the theoretical foundation of the relationship quality concept and loyalty, and to study the relationship between relationship quality, its antecedents and loyalty.

An empirical study was conducted in the parapharmaceutical sector. Data collection was carried out through the direct administration of a questionnaire to a sample of 300 pharmacists dealing with sales representatives of the parapharmaceutical products.

The results show that there is a significant relation between the antecedents of relationship quality, namely, interpersonal communication, relational contact, conflict resolution and client‐oriented behavior, and relationship quality itself. Relationship quality has also an impact on loyalty which is accounted for positively by satisfaction, and negatively by affective conflict.

The authors limited the scope of the study to purifying measurement scales and testing the links between the various concepts.

The paper sheds light on the action leverages that suppliers have to work on so as to improve the quality of their relation with their clients.

Compared to most previous research works which did not go beyond the probing of antecedents of relationship quality separately, the most important contribution of the study lies in taking into account some important antecedents in the study of the influence of antecedents of relationship quality on each dimension of relationship quality.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between pay satisfaction, global job satisfaction, loyalty and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) – as they all pertain to contingent workers. The proposed model suggests, due to the nature of contingent work, pay satisfaction will influence the above variables. Additionally, this study aims to explore the relationship between pay satisfaction and OCB directed toward an individual employee.

This study used a cross-sectional research design, administering a web-based survey to the participants (n=117) for data collection. Hierarchical regression, correlation and relative importance analyses were used for hypothesis testing.

The results suggest pay satisfaction of contingent workers is positively related to global job satisfaction, loyalty to a hiring agency, loyalty to a client company and OCB directed toward a client organization.

The primary contribution of the current study was the assessment of extrinsic rewards and their relationship to job satisfaction, loyalty and OCBs among contingent workers. This appears to be the first study to assess the relationship between pay satisfaction and loyalty, along with OCBs of contingent workers. The findings establish the importance of pay when loyalty to both staffing agency and client company is considered.

The effects of customer satisfaction on loyalty have been widely discussed by the academic community. Although the results of the studies reported in the literature are often contradictory, the existence of a relationship between satisfaction and loyalty is acknowledged, despite the influence of moderators and constraints of various kinds. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this relationship in the specific context of the retail sector, since this sector presents major challenges in terms of competition, and efforts placed on customer satisfaction and loyalty are more evident.

A survey based on the European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) model was applied to a retail store in Portugal. This model has its roots in Switzerland, where in 1989, Claes Fornell developed a new complementary method for measuring the overall quality of companies’ output, through the calculation of an aggregated customer satisfaction index. The proposed model is based on a set of causal relationships established between a set of constructs. The ultimate goal is to calculate both satisfaction and loyalty indexes as well as to estimate the relationship between both constructs. Structural equation modelling, based on a partial least squares (PLS) estimation methodology, is the statistical technique used to estimate the model parameters, as well as to compare the aggregated indexes. PLS is based on the principles of linear regression and combines multiple regression aspects with factor analysis, in order to estimate a series of interrelated relationships.

The results confirm a positive influence of satisfaction on customers’ loyalty to the retail store. The study also shows the importance of the image construct, due to its strong direct effects on satisfaction, which makes it essential for influencing the loyalty index, both directly and indirectly. The impact of the image construct is also evident on the expectations, as the latter has shown a considerable direct effect on perceived quality.

The study is based on a single case study of a Portuguese sports retail store. In future it would be interesting to study a representative sample of the whole retail sector.

The study is useful for the specific retail store where it was undertaken to help it devise better customer service, in order to increase satisfaction and loyalty. It is also useful for the entire network of stores for that retailer and other retail chains.

The systematic application of customer surveys to whole sectors of the economy would improve competition, customer service and, ultimately, contribute to development and economic growth.

The ECSI has been applied to various industry sectors in different countries, including Portugal. It has never been used in the context of the Portuguese retail sector and it adds to the discussion on the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty, which is a pertinent topic of interest for researchers in quality management.

Given the situation that the banking sector currently faces, this paper will focus on the importance of the presence of client commitment to retailers in general and, more specifically, to financial institutions. So, comments will be made concerning the evolution and current situation of the banking services sector in Spain. In addition, the concept of relational commitment as well as the influence that its development has on the presence of bank client loyalty will be specified. Lastly, an empirical study is developed. The results show differences in the commitment level that individuals project based on links to distinct types of financial entities.

Complaint management is at the heart of customer relationship management. While many studies have analyzed a client’s complaint behavior in business-to-business (B2B) relationships, there is a lack of research in the study of complaints by distributors from different countries. The purpose of this paper is to explain the following two main objectives: to analyze if the complaint management strategy of a manufacturer varies depending on the type of international distributor used (indirect exporters, direct exporters and commercial subsidiaries); and to analyze the potential effects of complaint management on the satisfaction and fidelity of distributors and the quantity of complaints that they put.

A stratified probabilistic sampling method was used, dividing the entire population of distributors of a leading Spanish manufacturer into three different groups. In total, 79 valid responses were obtained as follows: 24 per cent from indirect exporters (organizational commitment Grade 1), 68 per cent from direct exporters (organizational commitment Grade 2) and 8 per cent from commercial subsidiaries (organizational commitment Grade 3). Partial least squares were used to analyze the proposed relationships.

The results have confirmed that the procedure for resolving the complaint and its length (resolution time) depends on the seriousness of the complaint (the type of complaint). In turn, the resolution of the complaint influences the satisfaction of the vendor and the latter will influence its fidelity. Regarding the number of complaints, those distributors with the highest number of complaints satisfactorily resolved are those who remain loyal to the company. On the contrary, it is not possible to affirm that the type of distribution channel affects the types of complaints that are presented. Different kinds of distributors of the same manufacturer (indirect exporters, direct exporters and commercial subsidiaries) complain equally. In addition, those whose complaints take longer to resolve are not significantly less satisfied. Even more, low-satisfied distributors will present more complaints than the most satisfied ones.

First, this study investigates if different kinds of distributors with different international commitments (indirect exporting, direct exporting and commercial subsidiary) behave differently in terms of claims and complaints. Second, this paper analyzes the role of complaint management in international B2B relations to improve distributors' satisfaction and loyalty; but considering the join impact of three dimensions of a successful complaint management strategy that literature usually has examined separately as follows: what (the type of complaint), how it is resolved (management procedure) and when it is closed (duration).

Details the key role of employees in improving customer loyalty at Discount Bank, Israel.

Explains why strategic change was needed at the bank and how its management settled on the concept of direct banking relationships as the foundation for the reforms.

Describes the three levels of loyalty that managers identified – first creating good feelings toward the bank, then moving towards satisfied and finally appreciative clients – and explains the steps that managers took to achieve these levels of loyalty in practice.

Reveals that the strategy helped the bank to recruit more than 300,000 new customers in three years.

Highlights how service organizations can benefit from drawing customers into a close relationship with their employees.

Claims that direct banking relationships are new in the financial‐services sector.

Professional service organizations continue to face increasingly competitive markets. In this situation the key to profitability growth is client loyalty which depends on client satisfaction. Demonstrates how to go about assessing client satisfaction – short of face‐to‐face confrontation. To this end recommends a policy of individualized feedback and illustrates this with an example from a professional service firm. Described as the 450° feedback process, it provides partners with internal (in‐house) and external (clients) perceptions of service relationships, leading to improvement in client satisfaction and loyalty.

This study examines how professional service firms' communication effectiveness (affiliative communications style, social dialogue and information provision), social cognitive capital and rapport established between an auditor and SME client are instrumental in influencing the latter's evaluation of the technical quality of an audit.

The study combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies to create a cross-sectional survey covering four geographic regions in an emerging economy – Thailand. The authors examine the hypotheses by employing social interaction theory.

A study of 744 SME executives plus post-survey interviews with three audit partners revealed that an affiliative communications style and information provision are positively associated with the rapport developed between financial auditor and client, and that rapport, in turn, had a strong association with client perceptions of audit quality. In addition, affiliative communication style, information provision and social cognitive capital had a direct (positive) association with perceptions of audit quality. The effects of communication effectiveness and social cognitive capital varied, depending on whether or not the SME client possessed formal accounting qualifications.

The study contributes to the literature on the business-to-business professional services, and accounting in particular, by explicating the important roles of communication effectiveness, rapport, and social cognitive capital in the relationship between an auditor and a client. Moreover, the paper reveals that the differences in educational background of clients result in differential impacts of communication effectiveness and social cognitive capital on rapport and perceptions of audit quality.

This paper aims to examine the effect of customer relationship management (CRM) on patient satisfaction and patient loyalty, controlling for other socio-demographic characteristics.

The study used a two-stage sampling process and structured questionnaires to collect data from 788 patients from three health facilities (public, quasi-public and private) in Greater Accra, Ghana. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression via the partial least squares-based structural equation model.

The results suggest that CRM is significantly positively correlated with patient satisfaction and patient loyalty, with patient satisfaction also significantly correlated with patient loyalty. Additionally, the results suggest that the introduction of education, health facility ownership, health insurance status and gender, neither impact significantly on the relationship between CRM and patient satisfaction/patient loyalty nor influenced patient satisfaction and patient loyalty directly.

The findings of the current paper can have substantial practice implications for operators in the health-care industry in Ghana. CRM components such as service quality, customer service, communication and the use of appropriate technology to deliver service will be fundamental if organizations operating in the health-care ecosystem in Ghana are to be able to compete effectively.

This is one of the very few papers on the relationship between CRM and patient satisfaction and patient loyalty in African health-care literature. Thus, the findings of the paper can constitute a great resource not only to academics but also to practitioners who are looking to be competitive in the health-care market.

Recently, leading scholars suggested that firms should align strategic and tactical human resource management efforts to cope with growing turnover rates, and that the human resource management field should broaden its scope by embracing the views of all stakeholders. In this research paper, the authors aim to present a study inquiring about the influence of the implementation of an employee experience strategy on employee loyalty and the effect of employee loyalty on customer loyalty in a firm operating in the service sector.

The authors used longitudinal data collected yearly from 2020 to 2022. Overall, 766 employees participated in the longitudinal study. The authors also analyzed cross-sectional data from 166 employees and their customers.

The study’s results suggest that implementing an employee experience strategy increases employee loyalty. The study’s findings also indicate that organizations implementing such a human resource management strategy reach employee and customer loyalty.

There is a lack of evidence about the positive effect of the alignment of an employee experience strategy and tactics on different organizational stakeholders. This study provides insights for scholars and practitioners willing to use the employee and customer experience framework to positively impact organizations.