Enhancing Customer Retention within Malaysia Banking: Exploring the Impact of Relationship Marketing, Service Quality, Price, and Mediating Role of Satisfaction

Abstract

The value of Customer Retention as the primary goal is to cultivate a loyal customer base that continually generates revenue through repeat transactions. The merger undertaken by the bank has resulted in a more extensive customer base, affording the opportunity for cross-selling various financial products. It is noteworthy that the performance of banks exhibited fluctuations. Remarkably, smaller banks can outperform their larger counterparts. As a result, this study aims to explore the strategies that enhance customer satisfaction by nurturing customer relationships through the perspective of Relationship Marketing. The establishment of long-term relationships emerges as a pivotal approach for banks to deliver quality services, encompassing both human and non-human interaction. Satisfaction plays a mediating role in achieving customers’ expectations in addition of the pricing strategy employed by banks, particularly the interest rates extended to customers. To obtain empirical insights, quantitative research is being conducted. Questionnaires have been distributed to customers selected at random from three distinct areas in Perak state. A total of 129 questionnaires were gathered and analyzed with SmartPLS. The outcomes were positive and supported relationship between relationship marketing and service quality in promoting retaining customer, with the two variables being mediated by satisfaction. Despite that, the linkage of pricing strategies and Customer Retention is not substantiated, and no mediation through customer satisfaction is observed. This implies that customers may be highly inclined to switch if being offered more competitive pricing. For future investigations, in the banking performance, are encouraged to explore the perspective of banks’ operation cost and management expenses.