Customers ’ ways of making sense of a financial service relationship through intersubjective mirroring of others

• The importance of relationships between buyer and sellers in marketingresearch is well established. This study contributes to relationship marketing (RM)research as it examines the microfoundations of fi nancial service buyer and sellerrelationships. The study uses intersubjective theory and a qualitative method with thepurpose of conceptualising the qualitatively different ways customers experience faceto-face interactions with a service provider. An empirical study is conducted to determine,based on the customer ’ s own words, what is experienced in the interaction between thecustomer and the provider. Findings from the empirical material show that not all personalinteractions between customers and a service provider, in this case a bank, can belabelled as relationships. Instead, what customers do perceive as a relationship is anencounter where the interaction entails symmetry in the way the customer and the providermirror each other. When customers receive a treatment in opposition to an expectationof intersubjectivity, they will not refer to the situation as a relationship and, subsequently,according to the underlying assumptions of RM, do not willingly engage in further businesswith the provider.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

customers ; intersubjectivity ; relationship ; relationship marketing ; retail banking ; service provider

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)