Relationship Marketing and Organizational Performance of the Hotel Industry in Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of relationship marketing and organizational performance in the hospitality industry in Bayelsa State. It adopts the cross sectional research design to elicit information about employees’ empathy and satisfaction and how these antecedents give rise to increased market share and sales volume of hotels in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. The population consists of all existing hotels in the state and their workforce from which a sample size of seventy-six (76) employees was drawn using the simple random sampling technique. These samples were issued self report questionnaires and the collected data were analyzed using Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient through the aid of SPSS version 25. The findings revealed that relationship marketing (empathy and satisfaction) had a positive and significant correlation with performance (market share and sales volume), which is influenced by participants’ level of education. Based on this, it was concluded that relationship marketing dimensions of empathy and satisfaction are key predictors of organizational performance in terms of market share and sales volume among hotels in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. The study therefore recommends that since in today’s competitive world, customers are in the center of organization’s attention and their satisfaction is the main factor in gaining competitive advantage, therefore, continuous training of employees on relationship marketing approach should be encouraged in the hotel operations as it would help hotels to retain valuable customers and equally attract potential ones. Also, hotels in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State should only employ individuals with requisite knowledge of themselves (self awareness) as this will reflect on the way they serve customers.