The Effects of Relationship Maintenance on the Proneness of Relationship between Customers and Self-service Technology

Abstract：In recent years，the application of the Big Data，Internet，and AI promote the rapid development of self-service； the traditional interaction between customers and people who provide service has increasingly transformed to the interaction between customers and self- service technology. The success of self- service marketing will be determined by the relationship between customers and self- service technology. To explain the influencing mechanism of relationship maintenance on the proneness of relationship between customers and self- service technology，according to the theories of social exchange and relationship marketing and taking tourism website as the research object，the author carries out an empirical analysis of 536 tourism website consumers. It is found that the interaction of perceived complementarity，service quality and perceived novelty forms relationship maintenance strategies，and relationship investment and relationship quality are the two full mediators between relationship maintenance and consumer relationship proneness. So to better maintain the relationship with customers，the tourism website should pay more attention to the application of relationship maintenance to customer relationship management，pay more attention to the integrity and systematicness of relationship maintenance strategy，and pay more attention to the marketing of relationship maintenance strategy.

Key words：self- service technology；customer proneness；relationship marketing；relationship construction；relationship

maintenance