Mindfulness, reliability, pre-emptive conflict handling, customer orientation and outcomes in Malaysia's healthcare sector

This paper draws from the mindfulness theory in examining the effects of service reliability (including reliable health information and care), pre-emptive conflict handling, and customer orientation on customer satisfaction and loyalty in healthcare service delivery in Malaysia. A survey of 423 consumers of healthcare services in Malaysia provides support for the theory. The findings of the study indicate that care reliability, information reliability, and pre-emptive conflict handling directly affect customer orientation; all four directly affect customer satisfaction, and indirectly affect customer loyalty via customer satisfaction. Thus, customer satisfaction fully mediates in the relationship of care reliability, information reliability, pre-emptive conflict handling, and customer orientation with customer loyalty. These findings lead to research and managerial implications that conclude the paper. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.