Social customer relationship management: a customer perspective

ABSTRACT

While the construct customer brand engagement is gaining magnitude in hospitality studies, this study establishes positive word of mouth and brand loyalty as relevant outcomes of customer brand engagement. It proposes and empirically tests a model which is underpinned by social customer relationship management theory. By means of survey questionnaires, data was obtained from 373 customers from hotels, in the island of Mauritius. The proposed model was tested using the AMOS version 22, structural equation modelling software. Results indicate that social customer relationship management activities can trigger service process innovation which in turn leads to customer engagement with the hotel brand. However, the relationship between use of social media platforms and positive word of mouth was not supported. The current study brings interesting theoretical contributions and it further serves as a benchmark to hotel managers for the effective implementation of a SCRM strategy.

在酒店业研究中, 顾客品牌参的建构越来越重要, 本研究建立了正面的口碑和品牌忠诚度作为顾客品牌参与的相关结果. 提出并实证检验了一个以社会客户关系管理理论为支撑的模型. 通过调查问卷, 从毛里求斯岛的373家酒店的顾客中获得了数据. 利用AMOS 22版结构方程建模软件对所提出的模型进行了测试.研究结果表明. 社会化的顾客关系管理活动能够触发服务流程创新, 进而导致顾客对酒店品牌的参与. 然而, 社交媒体平台的使用与正面口碑之间的关系不受支持. 本研究提供了有趣的理论贡献, 并进一步作为酒店管理者有效实施SCRM策略的基准.

KEYWORDS:

• Customer engagement
• Brand loyalty
• Social media
• Positive word of mouth
• Social customer relationship management