Relationship Maintenance Through Firm-Initiated Service Devlivery Change: A Process of Proactive Communication

Abstract

The marketing literature (Mohr & Nevin 1990) has identified four important facets of communication strategy that are applicable to the discussion at hand: (1) frequency; (2) direction; (3) modality; and (4) content. Frequency refers to the amount of communication between partners, where a high degree of frequency means more messages are shared in a shorter time frame. Direction can either be one-way (unidirectional) or two-way (bi-directional), depending on the structure of the relationship. Modality is the medium of communication, and there are two categories of – informal (personalized, word-of-mouth, etc.) or formal (usually in form of a written mode). Finally, content is the message that is being shared between parties.