Mediating effects of relationship quality on customer relationships: an empirical study in Hong Kong

Purpose - To build and test a model of customer relationships, with particular reference to the financial services sector, relating the perceived quality of the relationship to one antecedent and two long term consequences. Design/methodology/approach - Data collected by street interviews with 207 consumers of financial services in Hong Kong were analysed by the research tool for this study is a questionnaire-based survey on the quality of financial services in Hong Kong. Customers were interviewed on the streets in the major commercial districts in Hong Kong and a total of 207 completed questionnaires were collected and subjected to factor analysis. The model was tested for goodness of fit and construct reliability. Findings - The findings confirm that there are significant relationships among relationship quality, information sharing, the expectation of continuing interaction and customers' willingness to recommend their service provider to others. Research limitations/implications - Future research should apply the model proposed in this study and the findings to other service sectors and other geographic locations, in order to enhance its generalizability. Practical implications - The study provides strong evidence that financial service providers need to cultivate good-quality relationships with customers, especially through regular and open information sharing, in order to maintain them in the long-term. Originality/value - The main contribution of this study is to demonstrate that relationship quality is a significant mediating variable between the antecedents and consequences of customer relationships. The expectation of a continuing relationship is also found to be strongly related to customers' willingness to recommend "their" service providers to others.