“While it may be argued that service
organizations are interested in promoting strong relationships
between customer and the firm, firms cannot ignore the fact
that a potentially stronger relationship can be established at
the interpersonal level with the contact service employee.
Similarly, in most cases one would expect that quality of the
interpersonal relationship would be consistent with the
customer’s assessment of the firm. However, relationship
quality at the individual level can have important direct effects
on customer loyalty to the firm and positive word-of-mouth
that are independent of the customer’s satisfaction with the
firm”