Impact of Relationship Marketing on Customer Loyalty, moderating effect of Commitment and Trust: Age and Management Type as a moderator in SMEs

Abstract

In today's extremely competitive market place, customer loyalty is believed to have a pivotal role in the achievement of corporate sector. This study investigates the influence of relationship marketing on customer loyalty, while interceding trust and commitment. Research in this area says that acquiring customers are cost effective, so companies must emphasize on retaining the existing customers. Relationship marketing is an effort towards identification of the factors which may have a positive bearing upon customer loyalty in SME’s. The data collected was from 300 customers and 15 different stores in Rawalpindi/ Islamabad, Pakistan. Study was cross sectional and data collection was done on 5-point Likert scale which makes it a quantitative study. The outcome of testing hypothesis illustrates that the relationship marketing has a noteworthy role on the customer loyalty, along with customer trust and commitment, pays a vital role in maintaining a strong relation-ship between them. For store owners/managers, the present study has important implications in terms of creating an overall climate within store which stress the importance of creating and preserving relationship with clienteles. Finally, implementations are strained from these outcomes, limitations and future research guidelines are also proposed.

Keywords: Relationship Marketing, Customer Loyalty, Trust, Commitment, SME’s