Enhancing Strength of a Relationship between Customers and their Service Provider in Business-To-Consumer Hotel Industry: An Explanatory Study on Indonesian Customers of Hotels that are Established in Indonesia

GERRY STEVANUS, Yulia Arisnani Widyaningsih, M.B.A., Ph.D.

2015 | Skripsi | MANAJEMEN

Memiliki hubungan yang kuat dengan pelanggan adalah salah satu tujuan utama perusahaan-perusahaan ketika menggunakan strategi pemasaran hubungan. Kekuatan hubungan mempengaruhi pelanggan-pelanggan dalam mempertahankan mereka sebagai konsumen dari suatu perusahaan yang pernah mereka gunakan. Kekuatan hubungan dapat digunakan untuk mengurangi resiko kehilangan pelanggan. Komitmen pelanggan dengan perusahaan mempengaruhi pelanggan dalam kuatnya hubungan mereka dengan perusahaan. Beberapa teori juga mencakup kepercayaan, kepuasaan, durasi hubungan, dan frekuensi pertemuan mempengaruhi pelanggan dalam seberapa kuatnya hubungan mereka dengan perusahaan. Penelitian ini mengajukan model tentang bagaimana kekuatan hubungan pelanggan dengan pemberi jasa dipengaruhi oleh durasi hubungan, frekuensi pertemuan, kepuasaan, kepercayaan, dan komitmen. Sampel penelitian adalah konsumen hotel di Indonesia (n=196). Data penelitian ini diperoleh menggunakan kuesioner yang berisi pertanyaan mengenai kekuatan hubungan, komitmen, frekuensi pertemuan, durasi hubungan, kepercayaan, dan kepuasan. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa frekuensi pertemuan, komitmen, durasi hubungan, dan kepecayaan memiliki efek positif yang signifikan terhadap kekuatan hubungan. Sedangkan kepuasan tidak berefek positif terhadap kekuatan hubungan.

Developing the relationship strength with their customers is one of the main purposes of firms in adopting relationship marketing. Relationship strength influences the customers in being retained by the firms as their customers. Relationship strength serves as a tool for firm to mitigate the risk of losing customers. The commitment of the customers with their firms influences the customers on how strong their relationship is with their firm. Moreover, several theories also include that trust, satisfaction, relationship duration, and frequency of encounters influence the customers in how strong their relationship with their firms. This research seeks to offer a test of a model addressing on how a relationship strength between one customer with his or her service provider being affected by the duration of the relationship, frequency of encounters, satisfaction, trust and commitment. The sample of this research are Indonesian hotel customers (n=196). The data is collected using questionnaires that are consisting questions about relationship strength, commitment, frequency of encounters, relationship duration, trust, and satisfaction. Results demonstrate that frequency of encounters, commitment, relationship duration, and trust have a significant positive effect on relationship strength. On the other hand, satisfaction does not positively affect the relationship strength.

Kata Kunci : Relationship Marketing, Relationship Strength, Commitment, Trust, Satisfaction, Frequency of Encounters, Relationship Duration