With a significant number of retail companies posting negative results, it is important for these companies to start focusing on their customers" needs. Many companies are using relationship marketing to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, which should increase their store patronage. Customers that maintain relationships with clothing or accessories salespeople are widely considered to have a higher level of service satisfaction and shopping frequency.
Reynolds & Beatty (1999) and Benapudi & Berry (1997) offer explanations as to why customers engage in a relationship with their sales associates. Not much has been studied, however, on customers who do not maintain relationships with salespeople and their level of satisfaction and shopping frequency compared with those of relationship customers. Learning more about the satisfaction and patronage of non-relationship customers can help companies to understand that customer and offer alternatives that are more tailored to their shopping needs.
Review of Literature.
Benefits of salesperson relationships to customers.
A relationship customer is a consumer that has an ongoing relationship with a salesperson and the two know each other (Reynolds & Beatty, 1999). There are many reasons customers prefer to maintain relationships with specific salespeople.
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Time is a precious resource to today's consumers and many are looking for products and services that make more efficient use of their time (Reynolds & Beatty, 1999). When a customer maintains a relationship with a salesperson, the salesperson will be familiar with the customer's tastes and needs and can pick out items to have ready when the customer arrives. The salesperson can also call the customer when a particular item has arrived and arrange to have it delivered. The customer would never have to even go to the store. Salespeople may also go the extra mile for their loyal customers by calling other stores or finding complements for the customer's purchases (Benapudi & Berry, 1997).