Effect Of Customer Relationship Management (Crm) On The Quality Of Private Health Care Service In Nigeria

Description

ABSTRACT

Health care delivery has become one of the fundamental issues being given attention by governments of most developing countries. The Objective of this study therefore is to investigate the effect of customer relationship management (CRM) on the quality of service provided by private healthcare providers in Lagos State Nigeria and to examine how Customer Relationship Management can be employed to bring about improve health service quality in Nigeria. The data for the study was collected through questionnaire instrument administered to 200 health workers at the St. Nicholas Hospital and Reddington Hospitals, which are private hospitals located in Lagos State of Nigeria. Thus the study adopted a case study approach method. Exploratory test was conducted to determine the mean age of the Sample distribution, while Chi-square, Kolmogorov Smirnov test and Factor Analysis were Statistical techniques employed to further perform data analysis on the study. Findings reveal that the mean age was not significantly different from the hypothesized value, Customer Relationship Management (C.R.M.) has significant effects on the quality of Hospital Services in Nigeria ( χ² =0.000, d.f=2 and P ≤ 0.05) and three factors namely: Interactive Management, Personalisation, and Relations with Patients are relevant factors in the implementation of Customer Relationship Management in Nigerian Hospitals. The study recommends pre- planning and understanding expectation of Stakeholders for CRM successful implementation.

TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT.

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
• AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
• RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
• SCOPE OF THE STUDY
• OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

• CONCEPTUAL REVIEW
• CONCEPT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
• CONCEPT OF SERVICE QUALITY

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• INTRODUCTION
• STUDY AREA
• RESEARCH DESIGN
• POPULATION
• SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
• DATA COLLECTION
• STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
• ETHICAL APPROVAL

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULT ANALYSIS

4.1.    RESULT ANALYSIS

4.2     DISCUSSION

CHPATER FIVE

CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATION AND REFERENCES

• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION
• REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                        INTRODUCTION

1.1                        Background to the Study

In any health-care delivery system, hospitals are critical components. A hospital plays a critical role in maintaining and restoring people’s health. A hospital’s broad functions include caring for the sick and injured, providing preventive health care, conducting research, and training medical and paramedical staff. It includes outpatient and inpatient hospital services, as well as emergency medical services on many occasions (Dash and Panda, 2011). Therefore, human resources are an important resource in a hospital.

Private healthcare facilities, according to popular belief in Nigerian society, are more expensive than public healthcare facilities, but they are more effective in providing patients with the level of care required to regain their health. This prevalent viewpoint is reflected in the increased demand for private healthcare services among the upper and middle classes, indicating a lack of quality care in the public sector. Private healthcare providers’ profit motive is one of the main reasons they are more innovative in developing customer-centered approaches to meet their patients’ needs and ensure customer satisfaction.

Some healthcare service providers are also interested in finding new ways to satisfy customers; however, the majority of businesses strive for good customer relationships, which entail providing better service and preventing customers from becoming promiscuous. Many health-care businesses are focusing on building long-term relationships with their customers (both domestic and international), suppliers, employees, distributors, and the general public (Amoako, Arthur, Bandoh, and Katah, 2011). Customer relationship management is becoming increasingly important to businesses as they seek to increase profits through longer-term relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, distributors, and the general public.

Customer relationship management (CRM) and customer satisfaction appear to be top managerial decisions made by firms in both the service and non-service industries to attract new customers, build profitable relationships with existing customers, and try to keep customers by meeting their expectations in order to help firms increase sales of whatever product or service they are offering. Customer relationship management, according to Buttle (2010), entails managing all aspects of a company’s interactions with its customers, including prospecting, sales, and service.

By combining all of these views of customer interaction into one picture, CRM applications aim to provide insight into and improve the company or customer relationship. In the health-care industry, CRM is one of the most important sources of competitive advantage.Furthermore, CRM is an extensively accepted instrument that supports customer oriented organizations’ decisions (Mohammed, Rahid and Tahir, 2014).

Furthermore, effective customer relationship management (CRM) can assist businesses in developing long-term relationships with their customers, which can lead to increased loyalty and revenue. As a result, it is thought that the concept of effective CRM can be applied to private health-care organizations; with such an interactive customer-centric process in place, physicians can establish ongoing relationships with their patients, allowing them to focus on prevention, improving patient wellbeing, and satisfaction (Microsoft Dynamics, 2018). CRM tools, at their most basic level, create a simple user interface for data collection that aids healthcare providers in recognizing and communicating with patients in a way that can be measured for effectiveness. CRM can be used across a wide range of interactive channels, including websites, social media, phone calls, chats, emails, and a variety of other marketing channels. CRM software is available in three dimensions; namely: operational, analytical, and collaborative.

• Statement of the Problem

Private healthcare system which is an integral part of the healthcare sector has been in existence in Nigeria healthcare sector yet, it appears the quality of services the system is providing is still below standard. Furthermore, it seems the applications of customer relationship management tools are not quite effective in the private healthcare sector of Nigeria. It appears the Private healthcare sector in Nigeria lacks the necessary support to effectively utilize customer relationship management tools in order to improve the quality of their service. The factors suspected to be responsible for such situation are; the lack of adequate government support in coordinating the supply of relevant medical data base for the healthcare providers, Poor healthcare policies in Nigeria, lack of knowledge of the appropriate CRM tools available for use in the medical sector, lack of skilled personnel to handle new and advanced medical technology available for use in the private healthcare sector, the general attitude and awareness of the public towards advanced healthcare system.To this end and in line with the identified gaps in raised above that this study is initiated to examine theeffect of customer relationship management (CRM) on the quality of service provided by private healthcare providers in Lagos State; Nigeria.

• Aim and objectives of the Study

The study attempts to investigate the effect of customer relationship management (CRM) on the quality of service provided by private healthcare providers in Lagos State; Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study includes to:

1. assess the relationship between key customers focus and service delivery;
2. examine the influence of CRM organization on quality of service provided;

• investigate the effect of technology-based CRM on the quality of services provided;

1. determine the effect of knowledge management on the quality-of-service delivery.
   • Research Questions
2. What is the relationship between key customers focus andservice delivery?
3. To what extent does CRM organization influencethe quality of service provided?

• What is the effect of technology-based CRM on the quality of health services provided?

1. What is the effect of knowledge management on the quality of service delivery?
   • Research Hypothesis

In order to address the aim and objective of the study the following hypothesis are formulated:

H₀₁: There is no significant relationship between key customers focuses and service delivery

H₀₂: CRM organization does not significantly influence the quality of service provided.

H₀₃: There is no significant effect between technology-based CRM and the quality of health services provided.

H₀₄: There is no significant effect between knowledge management and the quality of service delivery..

1.6   Significance of the Study

It is expected that at the end of the study, the findings derived would go a long way to assist the management and investors in the private health care sector to ascertain the areas of improvement in the quality of service and appropriate CRM tools to be used in achieving a high standard quality. Findings from the study would also assist the users of the health care system to understand their rights as patients and how they can get better services from their health care providers. The outcome of the study would also be relevant to academia for providing scholarly information and students as educational material for further studies.

• Scope of the Study

This study focus on examining the effect of customer relationship management on the service delivery among health service providers in Lagos State, but due to some constraints, the study will only be conducted on the selected privately-owned healthcare institutions in two local governments such as St. Nicholas Hospital in Lagos Island and Reddington Hospital in Victoria Island area of Lagos State so as to ensure that a manageable scope is covered within time frame and budget.

• Operational Definition of Terms

Patient: A person receiving services or registered to receive the service of medical treatment from a healthcare institution.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): In this study, this is concerned with patient information management in the areas of managing detailed information about individual patients, as well as carefully managing patient-doctor touch points in order to maximize patient satisfaction and provide high-quality medical care.

Services: These are described as deeds, processes, and performances that have different characteristics from goods in three aspects in relation to how they are produced, consumed and evaluated.

Service quality:Service quality is defined as a perceived judgment resulting from anevaluation process where customers compare their expectations with the service they perceive to have received

Customer expectations: This may be defined as the desires and wants of consumers and the feel what a service provider should offer rather than would offer.

References

Amoako, G.K Arthur, E, Bandoh, C & Katah, R.K (2011). The impact of effective customer relationship management (CRM) on repurchase: A case study of (GOLDEN TULIP) hotel (ACCRA-GHANA).African Journal of Marketing Management 4(1), 17-29.

Buttle F. (2010) Customer relationship management: Concepts and technology; Sydney: A Butterworth Heinemann.

Dash, S.K., & Panda, A.K. (2011). Managing customer relationships in private healthcare facilities: A study with reference to greaterNoida city of Uttar Pradesh. Serbian Journal of Management 6 (1); 27-42.

Mohammed, A., Rahid, B., & Tahir, G. (2014). Customer relationship management (CRM) technology and organization performance: Is marketing capability a missing link? An empirical study in the Malaysian hotel industry. Asian Social Science, 1(10), 197.