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

a r t i c l e i n f o 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. Healthcare organizations (HCO) operate in an extremely difficult environment with little or no room for errors or service failures, as errors may result in disastrous consequences, including death (in extreme circumstances), customer dissatisfaction, and defection. None of these outcomes is good for the HCO. While customer defection may not be as catastrophic as death, it is an unwelcome result for the organization since attracting new customers tends to be more expensive than keeping existing customers (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Consequently, an increasing number of service organizations (in particular HCO) are recognizing the importance of stable customer relationships and focusing on the enhancement of the overall customer experience (Johnston, 1999). Some try to create healthcare initiatives and programs in ways that prevent disastrous outcomes by applying the mindfulness strategies. According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2003), the first rule of service quality is to implement a procedure right the first time, which would make service recovery largely unnecessary. To get it right first time, is to create reliable service. When individuals and institutions increase mindfulness or decrease mindlessness (Langer and Moldoveanu, 2000) they can enhance service reliability. Changing existing procedures (or services) to eliminate those aspects that unwittingly promote mindlessness or by implementing procedures that strategists develop mindfully (Langer and Moldoveanu, 2000) can enhance service reliability. Systems and processes need to promote individual and collective mindfulness — a way of working marked by a focus on the present, attention to operational detail, willingness to consider alternative perspectives, and an interest in investigating and understanding failures (Langer, 1989; Weick and Sutcliffe, 2001). Mindfulness theory provides a succinct and compelling lens for viewing key …