The influence of occupational status, income and academic qualifications on the relationship intention of South African short-term insurance clients : an exploratory study

Abstract

Building long-term relationships with clients benefit businesses in many ways. However, clients do not necessarily want to establish long-term relationships with businesses. The objective of this research was to establish whether clients with different occupational status, income and academic qualifications display significant differences between the five relationship intention constructs of involvement, expectations, forgiveness, feedback and fear of relationship loss. A non-probability sample of 114 clients of a short-term insurance broker completed self-administered questionnaires. Findings indicate that, for a sample of high relationship intention clients of the insurance broker (including retirees, economically active clients, different income category clients and clients with different educational profiles) no practically significant differences were found on any of the relationship intention constructs.