The Influence of Overall Satisfaction and Trust on Customer Loyalty

A number of researchers have reported the positive benefits of creating and maintaining customer loyalty. This study tries to clarify the concept of loyalty and examines the influence of two relationship marketing concepts, namely overall customer satisfaction and customer trust on customer loyalty in the banking sector in Romania. Business customers in Romania were surveyed using a questionnaire administered via email. A total of 78 firms provided the date for the empirical study. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used in order to test the model fit and estimate the hypothesized relationships. The results of the empirical study show that overall customer satisfaction and customer trust are significantly related to both dimensions of loyalty, namely customer’s behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. Our findings also reveal that overall customer satisfaction and customer trust are positively and strongly associated. This study reinforces the importance of customer loyalty as a source of sustainable competitive advantage that secures banks with a stable position in the banking sector over time. This paper also presents the limitations of this research, discusses the implication of this study and provides directions for future research.