Impacts of relationships on customer retention in the banking industry

Abstract

A survey of rural Michigan banks found that building good customer relationships is an important goal. The financial success of efforts to build relationships depends on the customer loyalty associated with friendly relationships. Customer loyalty was investigated in a survey of financial institution customers located in rural areas. Compared to unfriendly relationships, friendly relationships increased the interest rate differential on deposited funds required for a customer to switch institutions by 74 basic points. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.