A Comparative Study and Causal Analysis of Customer-Centric Marketing Mix Factors Affecting Customer Loyalty in the Service Sector
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Abstract
This study aimed to investigate: (1) customer-centric marketing mix factors for service businesses; (2) customer loyalty in service businesses; (3) comparisons of marketing mix factors by business type; (4) comparisons of customer loyalty by business type; and (5) the influence of customer-centric marketing mix factors on customer loyalty in the contexts of hotels, hospitals, and buffet restaurants. Data were collected from 635 Thai consumers through questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and stepwise multiple regression.
The findings revealed that: (1) the overall and individual dimensions of the marketing mix factors were rated at a high level, with the highest being physical confidence, followed by staff attentiveness, and customer cost as the lowest; (2) customer loyalty was also high, with attitudinal loyalty ranked first, followed by behavioral loyalty; (3) the average marketing mix factors differed significantly across the three business types at the .05 level; (4) customer loyalty in attitudinal, behavioral, and overall aspects also showed statistically significant differences; and (5) the stepwise multiple regression analysis identified key influencing factors on loyalty: service capability, physical confidence, staff attentiveness, communication, and streamlined processes. The model significantly explained customer loyalty variance for service businesses (R² = 0.866), hotels (R² = 0.864), hospitals (R² = 0.852), and buffet restaurants (R² = 0.838) at the .001 level.
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