Customer Relationship Typologies and the Nature of Loyalty in Irish Retail Financial Services

This paper presents the key relationship findings from an in-depth qualitative consumer study of Irish retail banking and explores the nature of customer loyalty and its effects on relationship preferences and decisions. Building upon prior exploratory managerial and consumer research, 50 in-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive stratified sample of Irish consumers representing the desired range of demographic and product-related characteristics. From the research findings, key customer relationship typologies were identified and profiled which included Transactional Experiences, Outcome-Focused Relationships, Interactive Friendships and Personal Relationships. Furthermore, the nature of customer loyalty was explored and key moderating factors including type of product, financial experience and income and customer lifecycle were identified and investigated.