The Effect of Effective Healthcare in Managing Customer Relationship - A Study on Health Care, Hospital Image, Satisfaction and Loyalty of Private Hospitals in Baghdad

Abstract

This paper examines the relative effects of the three dimensions of perceptible health care on the image of health institutions and customer satisfaction and loyalty. Simple regression analysis is applied to data collected from 180 Iraqi patients for four private hospitals in Baghdad (Al-jarah, Al-kayal, Al-rahibat, Kamal al-Samarrai). An exploratory descriptive approach was used, and the questionnaire and personal interviews tool was the only means of collecting data, and the results indicate that the four dimensions did not affect the hospital image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. The reason for this is a weakness in the provision of service and health care in private hospitals, and there is a clear weakness in the interest of the doctor and the administrative and nursing staff in the hospital as well as a weakness in the speed of providing health care, which led to adverse reactions to the customer’s satisfaction and loyalty, and that the reason for the patient’s call on these hospitals is because of the lack of the presence of price competition in the Iraqi market, as well as the doctor’s insistence on his patients to go to a particular hospital, which led to patients complaining about the hospitals that were treated with it.