Abstract
M.Com. (Business Management)
Success for the road transport industry in South Africa with reference to the side
tipper business, is dependent on how well transporters understand their customers’
needs and wants and subsequently service them, ensuring not only their customers’
commitment but also their loyalty. Being customer focused and understanding your
customers’ needs and wants is the essence of marketing and requires a strong
relationship to be built and maintained between a road transport service provider and
their customers’. Transporters who adopt this attitude towards business are the ones
who ensure customer satisfaction, retention and ultimately the customers’ loyalty.
Relationship marketing is a tool that is used not only to attract new customers, but
more importantly to develop relationships with existing customers. However, in order
for relationship marketing to be effective, relationship commitment needs to be
established. Relationship commitment indicates how willing either party is to invest
time or money into a relationship, which will result in benefits being achieved for both
parties. Customer commitment is a dependent variable in determining whether or not
a customer will remain loyal to their service provider.
This study aimed at determining the influence that the factors of trust,
communication, shared values and attractiveness of alternatives have on customer
relationship commitment and ultimately loyalty, within the bulk road transport industry
in South Africa. The research focused on customers of the bulk side tipper road
transport industry and due to the geographical split of customers within this industry,
the research took place in the Gauteng, North-West, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mpumalanga,
Limpopo and Free State provinces of South Africa. Although there has been
previous research done on trust, communication, shared values and attractiveness
of alternatives and its influence on customer commitment in various industries, no
research has been done on these factors and their influence on customer
relationship commitment within the bulk road transport industry in South Africa...