Despite its often controversial and philosophically divisive nature, preferential treatment of customers holds the potential to contribute to important relational outcomes valued by firms. In this study, sampled customers (n = 2,461) of a national upscale department store chain representing recipients of three different levels of preferential treatment are tested. While controlling for individual customer characteristics, higher levels of preferential treatment are shown to positively influence relationship commitment, increased purchases, share of customer, word of mouth, and customer feedback. This study fills a major services marketing research gap by assessing the favorable effects of higher levels of preferential treatment as a relationship marketing strategy.
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