社會線索與選擇問題對顧客忠誠度影響之初探

Exploring the Impact of Social Cues and Selection Problems on Customer Loyalty

顧客與公司維持關係的初衷在於獲取商品選擇之便利，過去的研究著眼於探討關係品質之內涵，本研究則將焦點置於關係問題之解決。本研究運用「社會線索」的概念，瞭解公司如何維繫顧客關係，藉以提升顧客的信任感及減少顧客對商品與服務的選擇問題。根據這項原理本研究之目的在於成立一基本模型：將社會線索分為「社會互動」與「社會導向」，探討它們對信任與選擇問題的影響，進而影響顧客的忠誠度。同時，採社會理論與社會網絡的資訊概念，描述如何利用較優的方式來創造線索進而減少顧客的選擇問題，爾後並檢驗與傳統服務線索之關係強度的差異性。結果顯示：社會互動與社會導向對信任有正向的影響，其中社會導向的影響強度較小；而二類線索相較，僅社會導向之運用有減少選擇問題的效果。另一項重要的發現是，信任在社會互動與選擇問題間屬於完全中介變項，而於社會導向與選擇問題間屬於部分中介。本研究的貢獻是增加社會線索之概念於勸誘顧客與公司維繫關係認知之解釋。

The customer’s original intention of maintaining relationship with a company is to facilitate commodity selection. Much of the conventional research about relationship marketing seems to be based on relationship quality. However, this research is focused on how to reduce relationship problems. Accordingly, this study, applying the concept of social cue, is to explore how a company foster customers trust and reduce their selection problems about products and services. The authors develop and test a baseline model: social interaction and social orientation are modeled antecedents to trust and selection problem, which in turn are antecedents to customer loyalty. This research, drawing from social theories and the point of information in social network, describes what the best way of creating cues to reduce customer’s selection problem, and then tests the strength of relationship differences with the traditional application of service cues. The results show that the social interaction and social orientation have positive effects on trust, and social orientation is somewhat less important than social interaction. However, only social orientation has a negative influence on selection problem. Another important finding reveals that trust is a full intermediate variable between social interaction and selection problem, but is a partial one between social orientation and selection problem. This study contributes to an appreciation of social cues that may induce customer’s perception of cultivating relationship with a company.