Influence of Relationship Marketing on Customer Satisfaction With Companies Importing and Distributing Pharmaceutical Products in Nairobi, Kenya
Abstract
In the current competitive marketplace where various businesses are competing for
clients, relationship marketing has become a constituent useful in customer satisfaction
and as customers retention bait, a vital differentiator and business strategy
distinguishing successful organizations. The study thus sought to establish the effect of
relationship marketing strategies on customer satisfaction of companies importing and
distributing pharmaceutical products in Kenya.The theories anchoring the study include
commitment trust theory, relationship marketing theory and the social exchange theory.
The study undertook both the empirical and theoretical review where the concept of
relationship marketing was analyzed. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional
research design. All the 38 large manufacturing firms that import and distribute
pharmaceutical products as registered Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM)
were considered for the research. Primary data was obtained via self-administered
questionnaires. The response rate was 84% from 32 pharmaceutical firms. The data
collected was edited and coded into the SPSS software version 23 to generate both
descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings were presented using tables. The
descriptive statistics findings on the relationship marketing recorded average means of
8
3.91 in a five-point Likert Scale implying that the strategies have been implemented to
a large extent by the import and distributing pharmaceutical firms in Nairobi, Kenya.
The regression analysis findings revealed a statistically significant effect of relationship
marketing on customer satisfaction as shown by significance level of 0.002 which is
<0.05. This affirms that the model is statistically fit as an estimator of customer
satisfaction. The coefficient of determination (R2) 0.269 value implied that 26.9% of
customer satisfaction of import and distributing pharmaceutical products in Kenya is
attributed to relationship marketing. The regression coefficient results, further revealed
that a unit increase in relationship marketing by 0.417 triggers a positive and
statistically significant variation in customer satisfaction. The study recommends that
the firms ought to consider organizing sensitization workshops to train the employees
on relationship marketing strategies facilitated by experts in the field of marketing. This
may also be realized through emulating good practices from successful corporate
companies which are known for exemplary services and customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction may also be achieved by selling products of quality, safe, meet
the expectations of the customers and all other necessary requirements as stipulated in
the pharmacy and poisons board act.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- School of Business [1311]
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