Relationship Marketing Practices and Customer Loyalty – Special Reference to Arpico Interiors (Pvt.) Ltd - Colombo District

Abstract

Relationship marketing is identified as the most important concept under the marketing paradigm. It is also recognized as the strategic concept to the business to business practices to enhance customer loyalty in the hyper competitive environment. In this context, the study examines the influence of relationship marketing on customer loyalty with six underpinning dimensions of relationship marketing practices as trust, competence, communication, conflict handling, commitment and bonding. The study employs exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis to come to the general conclusion based on sample respondents. Study covers the Colombo district and applies the facts on business customers and questionnaires completed by 108 customers of Arpico Interiors, who represent the executive level positions in the organizations using simple random sampling. Results of the study stress the underpinning relationship between relationship marketing and customer loyalty. The findings revealed that the relationship marketing practices significantly influence on customer loyalty (R2 = .772) in Interiors Company. Among the dimensions competence, commitment and bonding enhance the customer loyalty. Implications are derived from the results and recommendations are discussed.