Relationship Marketing (RM) is an emerging marketing discipline which focuses on attracting, maintaining and enhancing long term customer relationships in profitable manner. The private sector healthcare, a prominent high involvement service which comes under the “people processing category” was taken to the consideration in the study.
The purpose of this study is to examine the Relationship Marketing practices and their relative importance on satisfying customers which lead to build a loyal customer base (Customer Loyalty) and promote positive Word of Mouth Communication (WOM) in long run at private sector healthcare. Prominent variables such as, Trust, Commitment, Empathy and Equity were used in measuring the Relationship Marketing. This research is descriptive in nature and based on both primary and secondary data. The data were collected through a self administered questionnaire and administered to a sample consists of three hundred healthcare consumers the data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, correlation etc. The study discloses that though all the dimensions of the RM are important to the private sector healthcare, the most salient factor is “empathy “in satisfying customers. The implication of the study is that, the management of private sector health care has to emphasize on empathy and train their internal staffs in such a manner that increase their empathetic behavior towards healthcare consumers.
Relationship Marketing, Trust, Commitment, Empathy, Equity, Customer satisfaction, loyalty, word of mouth communication
