ABSTRACT
Since Berry (1983) introduced the term “Relationship Marketing” more than two decades ago, customer retention has become a fundamental question both in the marketing literature and for managers. Previous studies on this topic have focused primarily on analysing behaviours oriented to developing and maintaining relationships, but little empirical research has been done on how an already established relationship dissolves. In this study, we seek to extend the existing relationship dissolution literature by investigating the impact of complaint management and trust on the probability of ending a relationship and customers’ attitudinal loyalty. In addition, the study also examines whether trust mediates the relations between complaint management and these two outcome variables. To achieve these objectives, we analyse the relationships that retail travel agencies establish with their customers. An investigation of these issues in the tourism industry is important for various reasons. First, the tourism industry is of increasing importance in all developed economies. Second, tourism services are heavily people based and may require various interactions with the consumers and/or the coordination of different service providers. Thus although tourism firms try to offer a high level of quality in their activities, they are unlikely to be able to eliminate all service failures. Consequently, complaint management is an important part of their daily routine. Third, complaint management is of strategic relevance as an effective customer retention instrument (Johnston & Mehra, 2002; Maxham, 2001; McCollough, Berry & Yadab, 2000; Stauss & Seidel, 2004). In the following, we define the key variables included in the study and formulate specific hypotheses regarding the abovementioned relationships.
