A New Paradigm: Relationship Marketing: Building Positive Relationships and Customer Loyalty in Department Stores

Abstract

As companies increasinglyrecognize the importance of interaction with customers, relationship marketingis assuming a central place in both marketing theory and practice. The purposeof this working paper is to offer a general overview of the roots ofrelationship marketing as well as of its conceptual background. The dominantconclusion arising from this study is that customers do perceive thatrelationships exist between the customer and the department store. Theserelationships develop as a result of positive personal interactions betweencustomers and department store staff and as a result of certain value drivenrelationship marketing strategies. Essentially it was determined that thedevelopment of these relationships is predicated upon customer satisfaction.Once satisfied a customer is more likely to become loyal and develop arelationship with one store over another. This research concludes that thechallenge for department stores is to identify the drivers of satisfaction andin doing so build positive relationships with their customers.