The management of long-term marketing relationships in business-to-business financial services.

Since relationship marketing re-emerged as an approach to marketing, the conceptwas met with a great deal of interest. This interest resulted in relationship marketingbeing researched extensively, whilst businesses started to look for ways to buildrelationships with their clients. Relationships with clients can, however, only bemanaged if the dimensions contributing to the relationship are adequately identified.From an academic viewpoint, once all the relevant dimensions have been identified,these dimensions can be used to construct a model that can guide the managementof long-term marketing relationships.The aim of this study was to identify the dimensions that are important when longtermmarketing relationships in business-to-business (B2B) financial services aremanaged. The study started with a comprehensive review of the marketingliterature. The literature review was followed by two empirical studies. The firstempirical study was conducted among relationship managers, while the secondempirical study focused on both the relationship managers and clients of a leadingSouth African financial services provider. Both the relationship managers as well asthe clients were part of the afore-mentioned financial services provider’s B2Bdomain. Phase 1 of the empirical research (the exploratory study) focused on anassessment of the perceptions of 75 relationship managers in respect of theimportance of a number of pre-determined dimensions. A web-based approach wasused and a questionnaire was developed according to the requirements of theAnalytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) method. Based on the literature review and theresults of the exploratory study, a set of 11 dimensions emerged as important for themanagement of long-term relationships in B2B financial services.The second phase of the empirical research focused on the perceptions of bothrelationship managers (the relationship manager sample) and B2B clients (the clientsample). In the case of the relationship manager sample, a web-basedquestionnaire was sent to 300 relationship managers, while 400 clients participatedin the client study. Relationship manager data were analysed by means ofregression analysis whereas the client data were analysed with the aid of StructuralEquation Modelling (SEM). The LISREL 8.80 software program was used to fit boththe measurement model and the SEM model. The results of the study confirmed the important roles of especially trust andcommitment on a person’s intention to stay in a relationship. Furthermore, the studyfound that relationship managers and clients appear to view the process ofrelationship management as an intricate process. Although relationship managersand clients differ on the importance of some of the further dimensions, agreementexisted for the importance of especially satisfaction and communication. It was alsofound that relationship managers appear to over-estimate their performance levelson some of the identified dimensions.The uniqueness of the study lies in the simultaneous consideration of theperceptions of both relationship managers and clients. The most importantcontribution of the study is the construction of a model through which long-termmarketing relationships in the B2B financial services industry can be managed.