Patient Loyalty: A Case Study

2.4.6-Patient Loyalty:

It is Loyalty, that assists an organization not to fall apart in an intense competitive market where of many uncertain problems have to faced. (Amin et al., 2012). According to Mortazavi et al. (2009), patient loyalty can be defined as the assurance given by patients that the services will be unfailingly used in the future. Loyal patients will use the particular services again and also recommend them to others. Therefore, loyal customers assist any business to survive tough market and competitive environments.

Researchers like Santouridis and Trivellas (2010) strongly trust that loyalty is a function of service quality and customer satisfaction. Likewise, scholars like Ooi et al. (2011) believe that implementation of

(1996) used willingness to pay more as a behavioural proxy for value. Willingness to pay more is the customer’s intention to pay more for a service than the competitors charge, in order to receive the benefits that the customer currently receives from the service provider. According to Bigné et al., 2008, a loyal customer will be ready to pay higher prices based on value provided by that provider’s products and services.

Numerous researches were done on the effect of service quality and satisfaction on loyalty. Findings indicate that service quality and satisfaction has a direct relationship with WOM and WPM (Ladhari, 2009; Hanzaee and Shojaei, 2011)

Naidu (2009) described three aspects for the satisfaction of the patients. It included positive word-of-mouth, compliance as well as utilization. It is assumed that patient who are satisfied show their loyalty through two ways which includes willingness to return to the hospital and recommending it to others. (Badri et al.,2009). Lei and Jolibert (2012) consider patients’ loyalty merely as recommending hospital to someone who seeks the

(2011) studies the concept of patient satisfaction from six points of view, which includes interpersonal relations, technicality, accessibility, convenience, availability and overall quality.Kessler and Mylod (2011) proposed four dimensions for patient satisfaction including satisfaction with process, people, treatment as well as place.

Haque et al. (2012) divided patient satisfaction with service quality in hospitals into three dimensions, which includes satisfaction with personal support, hospital facilities and attention to patients. Lei and Jolibert (2012) also categorised the concept of patient satisfaction into three dimensions, namely, satisfaction with the paid money, received services and overall satisfaction.

Furthermore, Grondahl et al. (2013) concentrated on some service quality that could result in patient satisfaction including medical-technical competence, physical competence, cultural atmosphere, etc. And finally, Senarath et al. (2013) reviewed patients satisfaction with nursing care from five perspectives including interpersonal aspects, comfort and environment, cleanliness and sanitation, personal instructions, as well as efficiency and