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The Relationship Intention Short Term Insurance Clients

THE RELATIONSHIP INTENTION OF
SHORT TERM INSURANCE CLIENTS


1. DEFINITION OF TERMS

1.1 RELATIONSHIP ITENTION

In order to explain the concept of relationship intention, the concept of relationship marketing needs to be understood. Sheth & Parvatiyar (1995:1) define relationship marketing as an orientation that seeks to develop close interaction with selected customers, suppliers and competitors for value creation through co-operative and collaborative efforts.

This definition stresses the importance of collaborative and co-operative efforts from both parties involved. Both parties should thus be committed to this partnership. It also states that close interaction should be developed with selected customers, suppliers and competitors. The word that should be stressed is “selected”. Not all individuals or groups wish to be collaborative and co-operative when undertaking business transactions. They would rather support a transactional approach than a relationship approach. Donaldson & O’Toole (2002:8) support this by stating that it is important to identify those partners with whom a relationship should be built and developed. They further state that not all suppliers, from a buyer perspective, nor all customers from a seller’s perspective, are worth investing heavily in relationship building.

It is thus important to identify those clients, suppliers and competitors that wish to support a long-term relationship with a business, i.e. those that are relationship inclined. Relationship inclination thus refers to whether these clients, suppliers or competitors are inclined to support a long-term relationship with a business.

1.2 SHORT-TERM INSURANCE CLIENTS

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship inclination of short-term insurance clients. The study will thus focus on the short-term insurance industry. An industry is a group of firms that offer a product or class of products that are close substitutes for one another...