BUILDING AGENT-CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP IN THE TAKĀFUL INDUSTRY: A FRAMEWORK OF ISLAMIC RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

The term ‘relationship marketing’ has grown to become a popular subject in the marketing literature over the last three decades. The literature indicates the significance of maintaining long-term relationship with customers, especially these days. The questions that then arise are: what are the antecedents that significantly contribute to building and maintaining a long-term buyer-seller relationship, and what are the outcomes of a strong buyer-seller relationship? Discussions of relationship marketing have even gained popularity in the Asian literature since 2000; yet research conducted on the issue of Malaysian Islamic financial institutions is very scarce.

The existence of a gap in the Asian literature on this topic has led the researchers to develop a suitable theoretical framework of Islamic relationship marketing for Islamic financial institutions, particularly the takāful industry. The study expects that the framework of Islamic relationship marketing will be a reference material for players in the takāful industry in strengthening their relationship with their customers. Indeed, a strong agent-customer relationship will ensure the development of the takāful industry in the future.