The Relationship Between the Customer Relationship Management and Patients’ Loyalty to Hospitals
<p><strong>BACKGROUND & AIM: </strong>Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with its various components has been considered as a tool causing customers' loyalty. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the various components of customer relationship management and patients' loyalty to the place of their treatment.</p> <p><strong>METHODS:</strong> This cross sectional and descriptive-analytical study was conducted among nurses and hospitalized patients in inpatient wards in selected hospitals in 2014. Using the stratified random sampling method, 224 valid and reliable researcher-drafted questionnaires were completed for CRM by nurses and 359 questionnaires were completed by patients for patients' loyalty in the studied wards. Data were analyzed using the SPSS<sub>20</sub> software.</p> <p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> There was no statistically significant relationship between the level of patients' loyalty and organizational indicators, information technology and knowledge management (P Value>0.05). However, there was a statistically significant relationship between loyalty and the dimensions of the service process (P Value=0.04), human resources (P Value=0.002) and CRM (P Value=0.038). The strength of these relationships were 34, 40 and 36 percent, respectively all of which were positive.</p> <p><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> Customer Relationship Management is a tool for improving influencing factors on patients’ satisfaction and loyalty. Therefore, attempts to implement customer relationship management as a process for improving hospitals performance and improving<strong> </strong>communication between service providers in hospitals and customers leading to enhance patients’ loyalty should be taken into account by managers and policy makers in the health sectors.</p>