An insight into the impact of a retailer's relationship efforts on customers' attitudes and behavioral intentions

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to summarize existing evidence about the behavioral sequence of relationship marketing at the individual customer level, and also to offer a conceptual model of the impact of particular behaviors that signal whether customers remain with or defect from the company. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the SEM tool of Lisrel (Linear Structure Relation), This study develops and empirically tests a model for examination of the impact of different relationship efforts (financial bonding, social bonding, and structural bonding) made by a retailer on key relationship marketing outcomes (perceived relationship investment, customer satisfaction, trust, relationship commitment, and behavioral intentions). A cross‐department study in the financial services industry was conducted, based on three customer samples (from the departments of loans, deposits, and credit cards) drawn from XYZ bank, one of the most famous banks providing merchant banking services in Taiwan. Findings – SEM results indicate that retailers who undertake relationship efforts with loyal customers can positively affect these customers' attitudes and behavioral intentions. The findings suggest that financial services with different attributes require different kinds and levels of customer treatments and relationship efforts. They support the contention that the aggregation of customer satisfaction from continuous exchange leads to trust between the two parties (retailers and customers). They also suggest the direction of resource reallocation. Consequently, managers and employees of retail banks need to be trained, motivated, and rewarded for making relationship efforts with regular customers. Practical implications – According to the research, managers should segment their customers into several groups effectively and use different marketing programs for customers of various characteristics, so as to get correct and efficient results. Originality/value – The research suggests that managers of financial services institute should be serious about targeting investment dollars to improve customer satisfaction, and know why customers buy what they sell.