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.