The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Social Interest of Employees on Customer Loyalty in Tehran Sports Complexes

Poster Presentation
Paper ID : 1062-12THCONG
Authors
1Ph.D. Student in Sport Management, Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2Master of Science (MSc) of Sports Pathology and Corrective Exercises, University of Ferdowsi, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
Nowadays, organizations realize that customers are a critical element to get success. Also, they realize that attracting new customers will be costlier than retaining existing customers. In fact, the best customers are the most loyal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between employees' emotional intelligence and social interest on customer loyalty in Tehran sports complexes.
The study was a descriptive and survey that the population consisted of all customers of Tehran sports complexes who 385 individuals selected according to Cochran's Formula, and through Cluster sampling. The tool was Questionnaires: Emotional Intelligence questionnaire of Alvani and Dadebeigi (2007), Social Interest questionnaire of Sahami and Mazloomi (2012) and Customer Loyalty Questionnaire of Zahir et al (2011). The validity was confirmed by 10 relevant professors and its reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alpha (α = 0.770). Data were analyzed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Pearson correlation coefficient test.
The results showed that there was a meaningful relationship between the amount of emotional intelligence score of the staff (Sig = 0.001, p = 0.410) and the social interest of the staff (Sig = 0.001, p = 0.380) with the customer loyalty of Tehran sport complexes.
In general, this study confirmed the positive relationship between emotional intelligence and social interest of employees with customer loyalty. So, if employees' emotional intelligence and social interest increase, the customer's loyalty will increase. Therefore, it is recommended that managers of Tehran sports complexes try to improve these skills by focusing on in-service training, organizing workshops and explaining brochures or related books.
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