Are relationships for everyone?

It is frequently documented in the literature that firms should develop mutually beneficial relationships to gain competitive advantage, strengthen core competencies, create market position, increase loyalty and improve profit. Although the adoption of a Relationship Marketing orientation has visible advantages for many firms, marketers must be aware that not all customer service provider interactions have the propensity to develop into relationships. In many cases customers may not want a relationship with the service provider and in such situations, relationship building maybe unnecessary and could have negative implications for the service provider. As such, this research focuses on identifying those services, with which consumers do and do not want to build a relationship. This paper reports the results of six empirical studies, in which consumers were asked about their attitudes and opinions on building long-term relationships with service providers. It was found that there are many services where a significant percentage of customers do not look for or require a relationship. Government services and telephone companies were found to have the highest ‘dissonance’ ratings.