Status demotion in hierarchical loyalty programs: effects of payment source

Hierarchical loyalty programs are being operated currently by many firms to improve customer relationships. While past work has demonstrated the negative effects of status demotion in such programs, research on how these effects may vary across different customer group based on payment source is almost nonexistent. This paper examines the moderating role of payment source (‘own money’ versus ‘others money’) on the effects of status demotion on customer attitudes and behavior in hierarchical loyalty programs. Analysis of data collected from members of airline loyalty programs show that the negative effects of status demotion on customer attitudes, loyalty intentions, and share-of-wallet are stronger for demoted ‘own money’ customers than for demoted ‘others money’ customers. The study provides a deeper insight about the effects of status demotion and points out that firms could possibly be endangering the loyalty of many potentially valuable customers, in particular among the ‘own money’ customer group.     

Adherence to customer loyalty programmes and changes in buyer behaviour

This study examines the factors that influence the effectiveness of customer loyalty programmes to cause a change in consumers' behaviour in retailing services. In particular, three explanatory variables are analysed: the quality of service offered to the customer, her/his trust in the company, and her/his attitude towards loyalty programmes. The results obtained indicate that a change in the buyer's behaviour is directly influenced by her/his loyalty to the retailer and by her/his attitude towards loyalty programmes. Furthermore, an indirect effect on changes in buyer behaviour caused by the quality of service and the consumer's attitude towards loyalty programmes is observed.     

Building customer trust and loyalty: an empirical study in a retailing context

This paper integrates the seller's characteristics and the consumer's individual characteristics in testing the person-to-person and person-to-firm effects of trust on loyalty in the department store. A multidimensional model of the behavioural components of trustworthiness is used to examine their differential effects on consumer trust. The results reveal that the effects of behavioural components of trustworthiness on trust in salespersons and trust in department stores are different. Trust in salespersons contributes to the trust in the department stores they work for. In addition, although both trust in department stores and trust in salespersons are expected to enhance customer loyalty, person-to-person trust has stronger influence on loyalty than does person-to-firm trust. The findings also suggest that customers' individual characteristics should be considered in assessing the role of trust in business relationships other than sellers' characteristics.     

Customer Retention Strategies of Fast-Food Outlets in South Africa: A Focus on Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Nando's,and Steers

The primary aim of the research was to critically analyze and evaluate the different customer retention strategies being implemented by fast-food outlets such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Nando's, and Steers in South Africa. The fast-food industry in South Africa is experiencing numerous market-related changes, which range from intense globalization forces to heightening competition levels. The pressure on businesses today is further increased by a market where the customer acquisition rate is slowing, customer loyalty is decreasing, and sales cycles are lengthening. In such an environment, losing a valuable customer to a competitor can have a significant impact on profitability and growth. As a result, many companies have shifted their focus from customer acquisition to customer retention. The research was primarily concerned with assessing customer relationship management, relationship marketing, and communication through technology as strategies to maintain intimate relationships with customers. Personal interviews and in-depth interviews with the help of questionnaires were used to collect primary data in the research. The results indicated that KFC, Nando's, and Steers adopt similar marketing strategies or use the same concepts to manage their relationships with both internal and external customers and other stakeholders. These strategies and concepts include customer relationship management, relationship marketing, and technological means of communication.     

培育合理的客户忠诚

本文认为,客户的忠诚是相对的,企业没有必要使所有的客户都维持高度忠诚,否则就有可能跌入客户忠诚陷阱。企业应根据不同客户的实际情况,在客户忠诚、客户关系成本和客户忠诚成本之间寻找较好的平衡,培育合理的客户忠诚。当企业愿意支付的客户关系成本刚好能补偿客户的忠诚成本和保留收入时,客户忠诚成本的灵敏系数或最小忠诚成本系数越小,企业能够培育的合理客户忠诚度越高;当企业愿意支付的客户关系成本大于客户的忠诚成本和保留收入时,客户关系成本的灵敏系数或最小关系成本系数越小,企业能够培育的合理客户忠诚度越高。     

The reward gap in hierarchical loyalty programmes: how to enhance bottom-tier customers’ loyalty without alienating top-tier customers

ABSTRACT

Reward gap is the difference in the number and nature of rewards allocated to specific customer groups (or tiers) in a hierarchical loyalty programme. Building on the social comparison, equity and attribution theories, and two experiments conducted in a retailing context, we investigate the effect of reward gap size and visibility on both bottom-tier (BT) and top-tier (TT) customers. Findings from Study 1 show that a large reward gap reduces loyalty to the programme in BT customers, while it enhances it in TT customers. These effects are mediated by perceived fairness and perceived control. Findings from Study 2 show that a non-visible large reward gap increases loyalty to the programme in BT customers without affecting it in TT customers. This effect is mediated only by perceived fairness. Altogether, the findings highlight the mechanisms that explain the effect of the reward gap on BT and TT customers’ loyalty to the programme.     

运用CRM提升客户忠诚度的途径探讨

提升客户忠诚度是当前营销领域的一个热点和难点,良好客户服务是提升客户忠诚度的最佳方法。为营造以客户为中心的业务流程、建设客户数据库、完善客户服务、开展客户分析和个性化服务,在CRM支持下提高客户忠诚度的途径,运用CRM中的分析型功能收集、整合和分析客户数据以提高客户忠诚度。     

Customer retention in sports organization marketing: examining the impact of team identification and satisfaction with team performance

Over the past two decades, relationship marketing efforts have assumed a prominent role in sports organization marketing. A sports organization that successfully implements relationship marketing programmes is able to develop long‐term relationships with its fans, thus increasing the likelihood of customer retention. This study examines customer retention in sports organization marketing by considering the impact of team identification and satisfaction with team performance on four fan consumption behaviours: in‐person attendance, media‐based attendance, purchase of team merchandise and word‐of‐mouth communication related to the team. Survey data were collected from 300 fans of more than 40 professional and collegiate teams involved in seven sports. Results suggest that both team identification and satisfaction with team performance impact multiple consumption behaviours, as represented by fans' intentions to engage in future consumption. Team identification was found to have the greater impact on consumption behaviours, suggesting that a sports organization's continuing efforts to bond with its fans may provide greater benefits than efforts to improve the team's competitive performance.     

Customer retailer loyalty in the context of multiple channel strategies

With an increasingly competitive retail environment and decreasing customer switching costs, customer retailer loyalty is a critical goal for merchants of all types. We investigate customer retailer loyalty in the context of multiple channel retailing strategies. Results show that multiple channel retail strategies enhance the portfolio of service outputs provided to the customer, thus enhancing customer satisfaction and ultimately customer retailer loyalty. These results suggest that multiple channel retailing can be a useful strategy for building customer retailer loyalty.     

关系营销理论与顾客关系管理

关系营销将建立和发展与相关个人、企业组织的关系作为市场营销的关键变量 ,把握了现代市场竞争的时代特点 ,体现了电子商务时代的互动性、合作性和个性化发展趋势。因特网作为一种有效的双向沟通渠道 ,使企业与顾客之间可以实现低成本、高效率的沟通和交流 ,为关系营销提供了有效的技术保障。在电子商务时代 ,抢占市场的关键已从管理营销组合转变为企业与顾客的互动关系管理 ,顾客关系管理为关系营销提供了有效的技术支持     

论商业银行顾客忠诚度的提高

忠诚的顾客对商业银行的经济效益影响极大,影响顾客忠诚度的因素有转移成本、顾客满意、顾客信任以及顾客感知价值。要提高商业银行的顾客忠诚度,必须在“以客户为中心”的理念的指导下,在利用数据仓库,对顾客进行分类管理,提供个性化服务的同时,进行业务流程创新,实行内部营销。     

消费者创新性对顾客忠诚的影响

近年来,随着买方市场特征的日益显著,企业竞争策略开始从单纯的争夺顾客向保留顾客转变。鉴于当前消费者创新性对顾客忠诚的重要作用,研究消费者创新性对顾客忠诚的影响,对于我们更好地认识顾客忠诚形成机制并指导顾客关系管理实践具有十分重要的意义。基于消费者视角,借助计划理论与调节聚焦理论探讨消费者创新性对顾客忠诚影响的内在机理可以发现,消费者创新性对顾客忠诚具有负向影响,且这种负向效应不受顾客满意度水平高低影响。同时,消费者创新性对顾客忠诚两个维度的影响存在差异,即消费者创新性负向影响行为忠诚,而对态度忠诚并无显著影响。考虑到消费者创新性对顾客忠诚及其具体维度的影响,为更好地进行企业顾客关系管理,必须关注目标顾客消费者创新性程度,特别是重视目标市场中消费者创新性程度较高的那部分顾客。企业在追求顾客忠诚时,不能仅仅关注顾客满意,还要充分认识消费者创新性对顾客忠诚的负向影响,将注意力转向企业外部,关注消费者创新性程度,采取适当的营销策略合理防止消费者创新性程度较高的顾客发生购买行为转移。     

Effects of web site characteristics on customer loyalty in B2B e-commerce: evidence from Taiwan

This study proposes a model to explain how web site characteristics influence customer e-loyalty and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) via relationship quality (trust, satisfaction, and commitment) in business-to-business e-commerce. Three hundred and twelve online services users of the Market Intelligence Center in Taiwan were recruited and structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses. The result indicates that web site characteristics positively influence relationship quality. A follow-up post-analysis showed how five dimensions of the web site characteristics impacted relationship quality. In addition, both trust and satisfaction have a positive direct effect on e-loyalty, but not on positive WOM. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications of the findings were discussed.     

谈饭店顾客关系的软、硬管理

近年来饭店业的过热增长使得这个行业的竞争焦点由“量”的竞争转变为“质”的竞争,也即从关注市场份额转变为关注忠诚顾客。硬管理和软管理是两种不同风格的管理方式。而如何刺激顾客的重复购买决策,硬管理诉诸于顾客的理性抉择,软管理则侧重培养顾客的情感忠诚。     

客户关系管理研究进展及其未来发展方向

客户关系管理在过去十多年得到了快速发展。然而目前由于不同学者研究视角和研究出发点等方面差异,他们研究的结论并不相同,甚至是相互矛盾,因此有必要从客户关系管理的理论基础、客户关系管理的内涵及其演进、客户关系管理对组织绩效的影响效应等几个方面对该领域现状进行了系统研究,并在此基础上探明现有研究存在的局限及其未来发展趋势。     

The Relationship between Consumers' Unethical Behavior and Customer Loyalty in a Retail Environment

This paper investigates the relationship between two outcomes of relationship marketing – affective commitment and behavioral loyalty – and consumers' unethical behavior. The main objective of the study is to assess whether affective commitment and behavioral loyalty to a store translate into more ethical behavior towards that store, controlling for the variables of age, gender, and ethical beliefs. The study does not rely on a single measurement tool, but is based on ten months' panel data and three different mail surveys targeted at 359 Belgian households. The results provide support for our hypothesis that affective commitment is indeed negatively correlated with consumers' unethical behavior. The same conclusion could not be drawn for the relationship between behavioral loyalty and consumers' unethical behavior. No significant relationship was detected, not even in situations where affective commitment was high. The results hold major implications for retailing practice.     

Perceived value and customer loyalty in financial services

Taking into account how expensive it is to maintain customer loyalty programmes, it is necessary to know which aspects of the firm’s service are the ones that really deliver value to the customer. The aim of this paper is to study the relationships between perceived value, satisfaction and consumer loyalty in the financial services market, in order to know which factors are the most important for gaining the customers’ loyalty. A personal survey was made of 200 customers of financial entities, and structural equations models were used to test the relationships posited.     

论关系营销原理在旅行社顾客管理中的应用

在激烈的旅游市场竞争中与顾客保持长期的良好关系,是旅行社企业获得经营优势的关键。所以必须将关系营销理论与传统的市场营销相结合,在遵循顾客让渡价值、提升顾客满意度与盈利能力的原则指导下,使关系营销原理在旅行社顾客管理中具体运用,才能有效地提升旅行社的经营效益。     

基于多情境因素调节的顾客忠诚管理研究

本文以移动通信服务业为对象,通过实地访谈和抽样调查等研究方法,应用SPSS11.0统计软件包,分析不同情境因素调节作用下顾客满意、关系信任和转换成本对顾客忠诚的驱动机制,探讨顾客忠诚的形成机理。研究结果表明,顾客忠诚的形成离不开顾客满意、关系信任和转换成本等驱动因素的直接影响,而在顾客忠诚的形成过程中,这种驱动作用总是受制于产品经验、利益相关性、替代选择性和产品复杂性等情境因素的调节作用。研究结果对我国企业经营者制定顾客忠诚驱动策略和改善顾客关系管理工作具有重要的现实意义。