The Outcomes of Relationship Marketing Strategy in Banking Industry by Emphasizing on Word of Mouth

ABSTRACT: In recent years, banking industry has undergone intense competition along with many opportunities and threats. In such competition, those banks are successful which acquire higher share of the market with the lowest cost. It needs to design and execute a proper marketing strategy. Relationship marketing approach is an effective strategy in retaining competitive status and the success of companies. The main purpose of present study is to investigate the impact of relationship marketing strategy aspects on customers’ satisfaction and the impact of such relational satisfaction on word of mouth. Seven hypotheses are provided. Noteworthy, in terms of method and nature, present study is a causal research and in terms of administration, it is a survey– type. Likewise, in terms of aim, it as an applied research which uses structural equations model (SEM) to study the relations between various components of the model. Its population consists of banks’ customers in the city of Tehran in 2011. To achieve the aims of the research, 350 questionnaires were distributed among banks’ customers in Tehran of which 316 questionnaires were analyzed. Except than a hypothesis on the impact of communications and empathy on customers’ satisfaction, other hypotheses were supported. The findings indicate that using relationship marketing strategy in banks leads into the happiness and satisfaction of customers and such satisfaction bring about word-of-mouth by satisfied customers.