Yield management and its impact on customer relationships in the service industry.

Yield Management (YM) is regarded as one of the most researched areas in the service industry operations management literature. However, its implications on customer relationships (CR) are yet to be fully explored from a marketing perspective. Lacking in empirical studies, to date the question of whether YM practice facilitates or inhibits customer relationships remains unanswered. Accordingly, this study uses an international hotel company as a vehicle to investigate the impacts YM has brought upon CR. A qualitative singe-case study method was employed and in-depth data were collected through semi-structured interview, observations and document studies from divergent sources. Initial findings show that from a company's perspective, most of the managers acknowledge that YM has positively influenced the process of identifying and analysing customer value. However, from a customer's point of view, YM practice was found to have rather negative consequences, which damage relationship trust and undermine long-term relationships and commitment. Although the research findings cannot be generalised, the implications of this study suggest that more research in this area is needed and the impact of YM practice on CR should be further explored in a wide range of organisational and industry settings.