<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Customer engagement can be used as a proxy in customer behaviour research for evaluating customer relationships towards a company and/or brand. Companies are increasingly recognizing the value of establishing close customer relationships. The objective of the research was to explore the associations among customer engagement dimensions and loyalty for evaluating customer relationships in hotel industry. Furthermore, the study evaluated the level and influence of new customers and repeat customer segments. The questionnaires were completed by 240 customers from five star hotels (30% customers) and four star hotels (70% customers) in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Descriptive, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and regression analysis were used to test the constructs. The results suggested that customer engagement (CE) makes a substantial contribution to the prediction of loyalty in building customer relationships. The findings proposed that hoteliers can actively incorporate strategies to enhance CE, which eventually develops a sustainable loyal customer relationship. The results could be effective to hoteliers in engaging customers while marketing, branding, differentiating and segmenting its products and services in building loyal customer relationships. Moreover, segmenting the customers offers a deeper and more inclusive knowledge of nature of customer relationships and how engagement can be fostered and developed among diverse customer segments.</p></abstract>

Customer engagement can be used as a proxy in customer behaviour research for evaluating customer relationships towards a company and/or brand. Companies are increasingly recognizing the value of establishing close customer relationships. The objective of the research was to explore the associations among customer engagement dimensions and loyalty for evaluating customer relationships in hotel industry. Furthermore, the study evaluated the level and influence of new customers and repeat customer segments. The questionnaires were completed by 240 customers from five star hotels (30% customers) and four star hotels (70% customers) in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Descriptive, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and regression analysis were used to test the constructs. The results suggested that customer engagement (CE) makes a substantial contribution to the prediction of loyalty in building customer relationships. The findings proposed that hoteliers can actively incorporate strategies to enhance CE, which eventually develops a sustainable loyal customer relationship. The results could be effective to hoteliers in engaging customers while marketing, branding, differentiating and segmenting its products and services in building loyal customer relationships. Moreover, segmenting the customers offers a deeper and more inclusive knowledge of nature of customer relationships and how engagement can be fostered and developed among diverse customer segments.

Customer engagement for evaluating customer relationships in hotel industry

European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Customer engagement for evaluating customer relationships in hotel industry"}

Customer engagement can be used as a proxy in customer behaviour research for evaluating customer relationships towards a company and/or brand. Companies are...

Customer engagement for evaluating customer relationships in hotel industry

Published Online: Oct 10, 2017

Page range: 1 - 13

Received: Sep 15, 2016

Accepted: Dec 05, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ejthr-2017-0001

Keywords
Customer engagement, Customer loyalty, Customer relationship, Hotel industry

© 2017 Raouf Ahmad Rather et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Customer engagement for evaluating customer relationships in hotel industry

Published Online: Oct 10, 2017

Page range: 1 - 13

Received: Sep 15, 2016

Accepted: Dec 05, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ejthr-2017-0001

KeywordsCustomer engagement, Customer loyalty, Customer relationship, Hotel industry

© 2017 Raouf Ahmad Rather et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Customer engagement, Customer loyalty, Customer relationship, Hotel industry