Relationship Marketing
To understand contemporary marketing, it is very important to study business exchange relationships from a relational and sustainable perspective (Möller & Halinen 2000). Many authors recognise that the new paradigm of marketing is relationship marketing (see Sheth & Parvatiyar, 1995; Möller & Halinen 2000; Veloutsou, Saren & Tzokas, 2002; Grönroos, 2000), which is considered to be at the forefront of marketing practices for services (Astuti & Nagase, 2014), due to the close interactions with customers (Sin et al., 2006).
Relationship marketing (RM) is a concept of market action whose effectiveness depends on establishing bonds with market participants. It is a dialogue-based process aimed at building mutually beneficial long-term relationships between a company and its customers and other stakeholder groups (Astuti & Nagase, 2014), in such a way as to achieve the objectives of the partners involved (Grönroos, 1994). RM definitions primarily emphasise the importance of building as well as consolidating and strengthening mutually positive and mutually beneficial partnerships. The development of long-term relationships is made possible by creating an atmosphere of mutual trust, which is built primarily through communication processes and sustained cooperation between partners (Grönroos, 2000; Morgan & Hunt, 1994). Essentially, therefore, relationship marketing is based on relationships, networks and interactions, focused on 'win-win' relationships with individual customers and where value is created together (Gummesson, 2002). The type of relationship depends on the object of the relationship and the actors who form it. In the literature, the concept of RM has been described by six components: trust, bonding, communication, shared value, empathy, and reciprocity (see Ersoy & Tehci, 2023; Sin et al., 2002).
The originator of the relationship marketing concept is considered to be Berry (1995), who defined relationship marketing as creating, maintaining and enriching a relationship with a customer. A company can build consumer trust in three ways: through the communication process, through the guarantee of its services and by ensuring the highest possible standards of its actions (Berry, 1995). The main features of relationship marketing include an emphasis on the quality of customer service and a focus on customer retention, a long-term scale of action, constant communication and monitoring of the situation with the customer, creating new value for the customer or helping to create partnerships both internally and externally – with suppliers, intermediaries, to create the value expected by the customer (Gordon, 1998).
The premise of the RM concept is to build relationships based on loyalty (Gilaninia et al., 2011). Underlying this perspective is the recognition that customer retention is as important as customer acquisition (Berry 2002); consequently, particularly in service industries, this has led to the original 4-P marketing mix approach being extended to include people, processes and physical evidence (Booms and Bitner 1981). Yildirim and team (2022) argue that a number of factors can be identified that are effective in ensuring patient loyalty. These include, for example, healthcare institutions taking into account patient complaints, service quality and patient satisfaction, corporate image, hospital reputation, trust and doctors' reputation (Yildirim et al, 2022).
Relationship marketing has a significant potential in the context of public healthcare, based on its advocacy of building relationships between providers and customers and between providers and their suppliers. It is important to transform public health care from a primarily provider- and product-based service to a truly relationship-oriented service (Wright & Taylor, 2005). Building relationships with patients is critical to the success of many healthcare organizations (Wagner et al., 1994). As a determinant of relationship quality, trust is fundamental to patient satisfaction (Han & Hyun, 2015). In turn, effective communication is crucial for empathy in care and understanding of the patient in relation to healthcare quality (Ersoy & Tehci, 2023). Relationship marketing practices should contribute to patients leaving the healthcare facility satisfied. It is believed that feeling special and valuable, in addition to social benefits and trust, will positively influence patient loyalty (Yildirim, Amarat & Akbolat, 2022). Ensuring patient satisfaction can encourage patients to continue to use the same institution. For these reasons, for shaping, enhancing and maintaining patient loyalty, understanding relationship marketing – which aims to earn trust, ensure loyalty and communicate with customers in a timely, reliable and proactive manner – occupies an important place in the service sector (Taleghani et al., 2011).