Abstract:

The present paper focuses on presenting how customer satisfaction research can enable companies to build long-term relationships with their customers. Relationship marketing approach is of paramount importance to companies that want to thrive in this highly competitive environment. Scholars affirm that maintaining and building a relationship (Hollensen, 2010) with your already existing customers is a better focus than the one time deal approach. The paper proceeds in the following manner: first, the theoretical foundations of relationship marketing and customer satisfaction research are reviewed; second, there are analyzed the possibilities of implementing the principles in a direct marketing company; third, the research team presents a case study consisting of an empirical research with 392 respondents on measuring customer satisfaction of a Romanian direct marketing company with the aim of identifying the specific elements that help build satisfying and long-term relationships

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