Abstract
AbstractEvery firm without good marketing team and strategies is bound to fail. In order to be competitive and profitable in the industry, bankers should acquire and retain profitable customers. Definitely this is done with Relationship marketing. Relationship marketing is a philosophy of doing business, a strategic orientation that focuses on keeping and improving current customers rather than acquiring new customers. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of Relationship marketing underpinnings on customers‟ loyalty. The study also investigated the mediating role of top management commitment between relationship marketing and customers‟ loyalty. The study is based on information collected from both primary and secondary sources of data. The sample for this study is taken from customers of Zemen bank in Addis Ababa. Data analyses were done using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, cross-tabulations, and tables followed by discussions. Moreover, inferential statistics of bivariate correlations and simple and multiple regressions were used. Findings of this study reveal that there is a significant and strong correlation between relationship marketing and customers‟ loyalty. Moreover, the study reveals that there is significant effect of trust, commitment, communication, and gratitude on predicting customers’ loyalty. Of these relationships, Gratitude emerged as the strongest factor which influences customers’ loyalty while conflict management remained statistically insignificant and negligible influence on customers’ loyalty in the cumulative model. However, all underpinnings had statistically significant influence on customers’ loyalty as individual. Moreover, management commitment had mediating effect between relationship marketing and customers’ loyalty. Depending on the findings, practical implications of this study is in order to ensure loyalty among bank customers; bankers should build a better relationship marketing strategy. Therefore, banks competitiveness and profitability will depend on their ability to build strong relationship bonds with their customers continuously. Furthermore, future research directions were also suggested on this study.
Highlights
1.1 Background of the StudyIt is clear that customer is the only source of the companies’ present profit and future growth
This study focused on these variables as relationship marketing dimensions from customers‘perspective and their effect on customers‘loyalty by considering Zemen Bank as a case study
The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship marketing dimensions such as trust, commitment, conflict handling, communication, and gratitude of Zemen Bank, in order to assess whether these dimensions have had the intended strengthening effect on customers‘loyalty. For better investigation of the study, the following questions were raised:
Summary
It is clear that customer is the only source of the companies’ present profit and future growth. Creating loyal customers is at the heart of every business (Keller and Kotler, 2012). Customers are central to all marketing activities all over the world. Success and in turn profit is not unthinkable without customers. Companies incur millions of dollars to attract customers and make them loyal. With the intense competition and increasing globalization of the financial markets, building customer loyalty has become a critical strategy for most financial institutions. The banking industry must develop strong relationships with their customers in order to compete successfully in the competitive retail banking environment (Zhang, 2009)
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