Localization and Customer Retention for Franchise Service Systems

This is one of the first studies to explore customer retention in reference to the franchisee–customer relationship. A subsequent objective was to examine localization and standardization from a franchise unit and system-level perspective. Data was collected using a self-administered survey based on customers of pet grooming services in Australia. Findings suggest that the addition of a customer retention perspective reveals a greater depth to the franchisee–customer relationship. Importantly, this implies that there are additional factors likely to influence franchisee–customer retention within franchise outlets. We suggest that individual franchise units, in cooperation with local customers, should co-create local marketing initiatives.     

Designing loyalty programs that matter to customers

This study explores a model proposing a customer loyalty program as an identity marketing tool that evokes customer's identity salience (one's perception that a loyalty program membership is important to his/her identity). The results of a Web-based experiment indicate that identity salience is heightened by (1) the uniqueness and exclusiveness of a loyalty program (distinctiveness), and (2) by the fit between the function of the program's rewards and the customer's identity goal (identity congruence). The heightened identity salience, in turn, positively influences the customer's attitude toward the retailer, satisfaction with the loyalty program and the perceived quality of his/her relationship with the retailer.     

Relative importance and combined effects of attributes on customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction with a service experience is often determined by several critical attributes. Prior studies have suggested that food, physical environment, and employee service impose an important effect on diners' satisfaction with restaurant services. Although much research has looked at the direct effect of these attributes individually, little is known about them when they are considered together. This study investigates the relative importance and combined effects of the determinants of customer satisfaction in China's hospitality industry. The results show that food taste, employee service, and physical environment (in that order) all significantly contribute to diners' satisfaction, and that one attribute may substitute for another attribute in the satisfaction formation process. Generally, humanic attributes (employee service) can effectively substitute for less humanic attributes (physical environment).     

Customer demotion in hierarchical loyalty programmes

Hierarchical loyalty programmes are popular in many service industries, as a means to tie customers to the company and improve customer relationships. In these programmes, customers obtain more benefits if they spent more but are demoted if they spent less. This study focuses on demotion and suggests that customer demotion can have an asymmetrical negative effect on customers' trust, commitment, and loyalty. The effect appears strongest for demoted customers with an external locus of causality. An experimental study also shows that customer loyalty is lower for demoted customers than for customers who were never elevated.     

Programme innovations and networks of French public theatres

Manager-ruled organisations are supposed to be less innovative than artist-ruled ones. However in France from 1995 to 1997, the managers of ‘scénes nationales’, who are not usually directors, are more open to lively playwrights than the ‘managers-cum-directors’ of national theatres and drama centres. Since audiences' risk aversion for contemporary authors is similar in all types of theatre, we may infer that ‘scénes nationales’ are more innovative than national theatres and drama centres. Nevertheless, internal observations on uniform criteria of selection qualify this view Multidimensional scaling of similarities in selling performances partly supports the assumption of status-oriented trade in theatre.     

Leakage,entrepreneurship, and satisfaction in hospitality

Tourism is a very important tool for economic development. However, its economic effects are mainly conditioned by the level of leakage. This work defines leakage, provides an original evaluation of the entrepreneurial environment in showing that it is the one with the lowest level of leakage, and creates a new framework. It also measures leakage in an innovative way using a quantitative approach. In addition, the paper explores and shows how leakage can affect critical business factors, such as customer and employee satisfaction. The empirical study uses structural equations and data from hotels in the Valencian Region (Spain) to show how important leakage is in making businesses more competitive. The results confirm the new model and are of interest for company managers and public organizations.     

Complainers versus non-complainers: a multi-national investigation of individual and situational influences on customer complaint behaviour

Abstract

One of the least understood areas in customer complaint behaviour (CCB) research is why some customers complain and others do not in similar dissatisfaction situations. Prior research has explored differences in customer characteristics between complainers and non-complainers, but not in association with relevant situational factors. This gap is addressed with a new conceptual framework incorporating two situational variables – customer dissatisfaction and involvement – and two consumer traits – impulsivity and self-monitoring. Several hypotheses about their main and interaction effects are tested in two different contexts, using a survey-based study in three countries (Singapore, South Korea, and the United States). Specifically, it is shown that CCB is positively associated with involvement and impulsivity, and negatively with self-monitoring. Involvement and impulsivity are shown to moderate the association between dissatisfaction and CCB positively, and self-monitoring moderates it negatively. Some implications and directions for future research are also discussed.     

Strategic marketing concepts and models

In this second of two articles on strategic marketing planning the author describes the techniques that have been developed to aid analysis of marketing information. Analytical frameworks such as the product life‐cycle, the growth‐share matrix, the Business Assessment Array and the Directional Policy Matrix are discussed and the benefits and pitfalls associated with strategic planning frameworks are considered by the author.     

Assessing the e-Service Quality of Sellers in an Industrial e-Marketplace

Existing studies of electronic service quality (e-SQ) mainly deal with online shopping mall operators in business-to-consumer (B2C) markets, whereas research into the e-SQ of sellers in industrial electronic marketplaces (e-marketplaces), characterized by multiple sellers and multiple customers, is lacking. Therefore, this study intends to determine if existing theories developed and tested in the B2C online shopping mall context are directly applicable to measure e-SQ of industrial e-marketplace sellers. By qualitatively analyzing customer feedback obtained in an e-marketplace, this study offers an in-depth exploration of e-SQ dimensions, discovers a tentative causal model of the e-SQ specific to industrial e-marketplace sellers, and compares the tentative model grounded in the qualitative data with existing research tested with quantitative data. This study shows that existing e-SQ scales may not apply, without revision, to measures of the e-SQ of industrial e-marketplace sellers.     

Customer Service Employees

ABSTRACT

In Singapore, the Company Act requires every company to have an audit every year regardless of the cost and whether the directors and shareholders want one. As there are many professional accounting firms competing for the audit business of these companies, it has become essential that these accounting firms must strive to ensure that their clients are satisfied with the services provided. This paper reports a survey of 1.96 companies with headquarters in Singapore, Japan, Europe and the United States. The survey revealed the reasons for choosing a particular audit firms and the reasons for staying with them. A modified version of the SERVQUAL scale developed by Parasuraman was used to measure both the expectation and performance of service quality. A gap analysis was also carried out to determine the differences.