Relational Benefits Analysis of Credit-Delivering Services for Small and Medium Enterprises in Indonesia

Abstract

Relationship marketing is one of key success factors for maintaining customersfor the long term, and for establishing business competitive advantage. In thedelivery of credit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), banks need to buildrelationships with the SME clients. To formulate effective marketing strategiesin credit services, banks should know the SMEs preferences in terms of relational benefits. The objective of this study is to explore the relational benefits sought bythe SME clients from the banks as these SMEs apply credit for developing theirbusiness. In Indonesia, SMEs are located in three different regions. Another objective is to determine the differences among the three regions in terms of the relational benefits sought. A total of 265 entrepreneurs from three regionsparticipated in the survey. The factor analysis results show consistency with theprevious studies. The 15-item scale yield three benefit factors sought by SMEsincluding: confidence benefits (50, 46 %), social benefits (11, 16%), and specialtreatment benefits (7, 87%). The variance analysis show significant differences inthe three benefit factors sought by SMEs across the regions. This suggests thatbanks’ delivery of credit services to SME should consider these differences. Keywords - Marketing, relational benefits, confidence benefits, social benefits, specialtreatment benefits, Indonesia