Effect of Relationship Quality on Well-Being and Performance. A study of Real-Estate Broker in Sweden

Problem: Within marketing, there is a consensus that increased customer satisfaction and loyalty is thought to be closely connected to present and future revenues. In service organizations, customer satisfaction is highly dependent on the service employee’s ability and motivation to execute the service in line with the customers’ needs and expectation. Most customers prefer a service relationship in contrast to a service encounter. So customer satisfaction is more likely to increase if the customer perceives that there is a relationship with the service provider. This might be as to why a lot of previous research, regardless marketing- or management perspective has focused on the customers’ perception of the relationship. To do that makes sense, after all it is the customer that uses and recommends the service and the provider, which of course Is connected to present and future revenues for both company and service provider. However, what about the relational perspective and benefits/motivation for the service provider, does the service provider prefers a service encounter or service relationship? Human relations has a major impact on subjective well-being, and subjective well-being impacts individual performance beyond job satisfaction. So is it possible that the relationship quality within customer relations, affects not only performance thru customer satisfaction, but also increases performance thru subjective well-being? Understanding what causes and influences performance within sales appears to be an everlasting puzzle among both practicians and marketing researchers. Previous marketing research with a relational perspective has done a comprehensive survey on influences- and effects of customer relations within the service domain. The major part of these studies is conducted in a B2B context where the relation and interaction between humans are seen and evaluated from a psychological perspective. The psychological relational perspective is not as common in studies in B2C studies within the service domain, aside frontline employee studies. There is a demand for studies among professional service providers, in respect to both performance, subjective well-being and relationship quality. Echoing that proposition, this study is conducted among Swedish Real-Estate Brokers (REB). This is due to REB:s long-lasting and intense customer relations. There is a strong incitement of trust due to the possibility that REB:s customers are both highly financially- and emotionally connected to their homes. Swedish REB are obligated to perform the entire real estate transaction, which makes them even more interesting as a study object, due to the increased amount of trust and time needed/spent with each customer. Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold: 1) to exam if preferred relationship (service- encounter/relationship) with customers differ between REB:s and, 2) exam if relationship quality from REB:s perspective affects individual performance and subjective well-being.Design/methodology/approach: This study applies a quantitative, deductive, hypothesis driven approach survey among 1000 Real-Estate Brokers in Sweden. Findings: Preliminary findings indicates that attitudes among real-estate brokers concerning customer relations varies. The variations in relationship quality connects to both performance and subjective well-being. Real Estate-Brokers, who prefers service relationships are more likely to have higher relationship quality, perform better and display higher levels of subjective well-being.Research limitations/implications: Real-Estate Brokerage is in some ways not only a unique occupation in itself, brokerage can also differ between countries. This can be mainly linked to legislation and culture. Therefore, a certain degree of caution is necessary before any generalizations can be made to other occupations within sales and Real-Estate Brokers in other countries. Takeaway for practice: Performance are interesting and problematic topics for both individuals and managers within sales. The salespersons perspective on customer relations has long been somewhat neglected by both researches and practitioners. This study contributes by adding understanding about the connection between a salespersons view on customer relations and performance thru subjective well-being. These insights might be used as: 1) an individual tool within sales to increase performance and subjective well-being thru customer satisfaction, and 2) managerial tool assisting in: hiring, implementations of Customer Orientation and Customer Relationship Management.Originality/value: The findings presented in this paper are partially in line with the previous studies and the theoretical assumptions made. To the best of my knowledge this is one of the first studies that investigate customer relations in this context from the salespersons perspective.