Title: Does customer relationship matter in medical cosmeticology service context?

Authors: Pi-Chuan Sun

Addresses: Department of Business Management, Tatung University, 40, Sec. 3, Chungshan N. Rd., Taipei City 104, Taiwan

Abstract: This study explores the important role of customer relationship in medical cosmeticology service context, an emerging need of medical care market with proactive health behaviours, wellness and health maintenance behaviours, rather than traditional treatment or cure-seeking behaviours. Convenient sampling and self-reporting survey was conducted to collect data from aesthetic patients, who have been receiving treatment from dermatology medical centres. The proposed structural equation model was assessed using AMOS 7.0 to estimate the path weights. The results of this study indicate that healthcare quality is important and necessary, but relationship creates differentiation. It suggests that customer relationship surpasses service quality as an important determinant of perceptions and behavioural intentions for medical cosmeticology customers.

Keywords: service quality; customer relationships; medical cosmeticology; medical care market; proactive health behaviour; wellness; health maintenance behaviour; traditional treatments; cure-seeking behaviour; aesthetic patients; dermatology medical centres; structural equation models; AMOS 7.0; path weights; healthcare; customer perceptions; customer satisfaction; behavioural intentions; service operations; informatics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOI.2010.031113

International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, 2010 Vol.5 No.2, pp.115 - 129

Published online: 21 Jan 2010 *

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