An Investigation into the Effect of Relationship Marketing on Costumers’ Loyalty; a Case Study: Mehr-e-Eghtesad Bank; Sistan and Balouchestan Province, Iran

Abstract

Today, creation and preservation of loyal customers plays a vital role in organizations’ success in current competitive atmosphere. Loyal customers have various advantages. They use organizations’ products or services more, they are less sensitive to probable price rise and as a positive propaganda tool they recommend the organization’s services to their close relatives. To this end, modern organizations try to identify and implement mechanisms by which they can create and preserve royal customers. Relationship marketing is among the mechanisms with the capacity of attracting and preserving loyal customers through identifying and better understanding of their needs as well as establishing sustainable relations based on mutual benefits. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of relationship marketing on customers’ loyalty. Following the investigation of previous studies carried out inside and outside Iran and negotiations with the authorities and specialists of this field, this study investigated the fundamental components of relationship marketing including competence, communications, commitment and conflict management and their relationship with the relationship quality (RQ) and customer loyalty. This study examined one main hypothesis (leading hypothesis) and four sub hypotheses (alternatives). The main hypothesis assumed a significant relationship between relationship marketing and customer loyalty. The first sub hypothesis, however, implied a significant relationship between relationship marketing fundamental components and customer trust while the second sub hypothesis indicated a significant relationship between relationship marketing fundamental components and customer satisfaction. The sub hypotheses 3 and 4 considered the dimensions of relationships quality (RQ) and indicated a significant relationship respectively between customer’s trust and satisfaction with customer’s loyalty. Statistical Population consisted of loyal customers with a long-term background in Mehr-e-Eghtesad Bank, branch Zahedan, Sistan Balouchestan Province. Data was collected through a questionnaire. Simple random sampling method was used to select the members. A total of 200 customers provided the data of this study. Data was analyzed using one-sample t-test, Friedman test and Structural Equations Model (SEM). The results indicated a significant relationship between relationship marketing, relationship quality and customers’ loyalty. In other words, all the main and subsidiary hypotheses were accepted.