Emerging perspectives on customer relationships,interactions and loyalty in Irish retail financial services

• This paper presents the key findings in relation to current consumer perspectives on the role of relationships, the nature of loyalty and types of customer interaction from an in‐depth qualitative consumer study of Irish retail banking.
• Although the literature proposes that the RM approach is particularly applicable to the financial services sector, the research findings identify key supply and demand‐related changes within Irish financial services and raise questions as to the appropriateness of general RM theory to the current nature of interaction between consumers and their financial suppliers.
• Key customer factors such as low involvement, apathy and dissatisfaction have resulted in much apparent customer loyalty actually being spurious. More important for customers in this study was how convenient the bank was for their lifestyle.
• In an age in which increased depersonalisation and automation impact upon the nature of consumer‐supplier interaction and service delivery, it would appear that the concepts of relationship and loyalty need to be fundamentally re‐examined and their role and relevance within current retail financial services re‐appraised.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.