Customer loyalty through social networks: Lessons from Zara on Facebook

Companies’ escalating investment in social media—in particular, in Facebook—has become reality. However, most firms still do not see social networks as a vehicle for cultivating and winning customer loyalty, but rather as a resource for creating brand awareness. In this article, we offer a different view. By examining fans and non-fans of the Zara brand on Facebook, we discovered that Facebook enhances the relations that increase loyalty via trust, customer satisfaction, perceived value, and commitment. Our results revealed that these relations are stronger for fans of the brand than for non-fans, and suggest that customer satisfaction is the strongest determinant of loyalty. This indicates a new opportunity for marketing managers to achieve customer loyalty: Facebook.     

The effect of social conflict on relationship loyalty in business markets

This study examines the impact of perceived social conflict on existing buyer-seller relationships. The results indicate that as the level of social conflict increases, perceptions about the loyalty of the relationship decrease. Perceived importance of the relationship had no impact on conflict or relationship loyalty. Ramifications of these findings for selling, sales management, and sales training are discussed.     

关系利益影响顾客满意和忠诚的机制研究--中介与调节效应检验

文章通过检验感知价值的中介效应和转移成本的调节效应,分析了关系利益影响顾客满意和忠诚的作用机制,结论如下：信任利益和社会利益两个维度显著正向影响顾客满意和忠诚,但特殊待遇利益维度对顾客满意和忠诚的影响不显著;感知价值在信任利益维度对顾客满意的影响以及社会利益维度对顾客满意和忠诚的影响中起到部分中介作用,在信任利益维度对顾客忠诚的影响中起到完全中介作用;转移成本正向调节信任利益维度对顾客满意和忠诚的影响以及社会利益维度对顾客忠诚的影响。即当顾客感知到较高的转移成本时,他们更倾向于对现有的关系状况感到满意,也更倾向于继续与企业维系现有关系,对企业更加忠诚。     

The role of the brand in driving online loyalty for multichannel retailers

Multichannel retailers offer shoppers the possibility to cross channels to complete their shopping process. Multichannel retailers, unlike pure online sellers, offer shoppers multiple contact points to experience the brand. Also, multichannel retailers can leverage the trust and attachment to their brands that has been built with their offline presence to drive customers to buy online. Our paper explores the role of the customer relationship with the brand, with variables such as brand trust, brand attachment and length of brand relationship, as drivers of loyal behaviours towards the online channel. We compare the impact of these variables with those of the technology acceptance model. Multiple linear regression analysis is applied to data collected through a survey answered by 1533 multichannel retail shoppers in two product categories (apparel and consumer electronics) in two countries (UK and Spain). Our findings show that both brand trust and brand attachment have a positive impact on loyal behaviours towards the online channel, and that different loyalty behaviours, i.e. purchase intentions, word of mouth and electronic word of mouth are explained by different variables.     

Buyer Loyalty in Business Markets: Can the Firm and Salesperson Get What They Truly Desire?

Purpose: Prior literature has acknowledged multi-foci customer loyalties (loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty) and argued that both entities (selling firms and salespersons) foster customer loyalty through respective loyalty-capturing efforts (relationship investments). However, scholars have not investigated the influences of different types of interfirm relationship-specific investment (RSI) activities and salesperson behaviors (brand-building and guanxi behavior) on customer loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, especially their simultaneous (interaction) effects. The current research attempts to address this issue and examines the impacts that RSIs and salesperson behaviors have on customer loyalties.

Methodology/approach: A survey of seller–buyer dyads was conducted to test the proposed theoretical model and hypotheses. Using 192 dyadic data from customers and salespersons in the Chinese business-to-business contexts, this study specifies the direct and interactive effects of sellers’ RSIs and salespersons’ behaviors on customer loyalties.

Findings: Results indicate that selling firms’ loyalty-capturing efforts—property-based and knowledge-based RSIs—have different influences on two types of customer loyalty. Salespersons’ relationship investments—brand-building and guanxi behaviors—also have asymmetric impacts on customer loyalty. Counterintuitively, salespersons’ loyalty-capturing efforts weaken the relationships between firms’ RSIs and customer loyalties.

Originality/value/contribution: This study specifies different types of relationship investments and examines their respective and interactive impacts on two types of customer loyalty—loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty. The findings indicate that firms’ and salespersons’ efforts may lead to unexpected and unintended effects on multi-foci loyalties. Therefore, the current study enriches our knowledge about multi-foci loyalty management and relationship marketing.

Practical implications: Because firms’ and salespersons’ loyalty-capturing strategies exert positive direct influences on loyalty to the selling firm and salesperson-owned loyalty, both entities may actively leverage relationship investments’ impact on customer loyalty. However, as the interactive effects derived from concurrent loyalty-enhancing activities are negative, firms need to clearly assess the nature and

characteristics of their relationship with buyers and properly design relationship investments and guide salesperson behaviors. Managers should use property-based RSIs as a primary safeguard of customer loyalty to the selling firm. Meanwhile, internal branding and training programs can help salespersons develop brand building behaviors and better understand the potential unintended outcomes that different behaviors may induce. Aligning a branding goal between the firm and salespersons can benefit both parties while avoiding counter-productive outcomes.     

关系营销背景下维护商业银行顾客忠诚的策略研究

随着各商业银行规模的扩大以及外资商业银行的冲击,国内商业银行面临着巨大的挑战,如何维护顾客忠诚成为商业银行的一大难题。文章以关系营销为背景,分析了目前商业银行在维护顾客忠诚所面临的挑战及其影响因素,并从提高消费者的意识、获得消费者信任、建立银行与消费者的联系、提升顾客满意、鼓励顾客分享和巩固顾客忠诚等角度进行了探讨。不但丰富了商业银行维护顾客忠诚策略的理论研究,而且给商业银行维护顾客忠诚提供了具体的可操作性建议,具有一定的现实意义。     

服务质量开发过程的质量管理体系

由于服务业在质量管理中存在许多问题,很难找到现成和权威的答案,因此要对服务质量管理所涉及的内容和方法进行分析与研究,借带制造业产品质量开发的步骤和技术,构建一种面向服务质量开发过程的服务质量管理体系构架。     

顾客忠诚的价值

建立顾客忠诚对企业至关重要 ,顾客忠诚所创造的价值包括了一般顾客可能带来价值的所有方面 ,顾客忠诚的价值在于不仅为企业带来稳定可观的销售利润 ,而且影响企业长期的经营和发展 ,是企业拥有的核心财富和战略资产 ,是真正属于企业的核心竞争力 ,对企业的生存和发展具有重要的战略意义。     

电子商务企业如何培养顾客忠诚度的思考

在网络时代,如何培养顾客忠诚度仍然是企业所要关注的重要问题。电子商务企业培养顾客忠诚要比传统企业困难得多,而建立和维持顾客忠诚度则是电子商务企业获得竞争优势的关键因素,电子商务企业要具体分析影响其顾客忠诚的原因,对症下药,采取相应的措施。     

员工忠诚度评估的模糊综合评判模型

员工忠诚度的定量评估是一个比较复杂的问题 ,运用多级模糊综合评判模型进行评估 ,通过分级评估和权重选择 ,考虑了各类因素的相互作用和整体组合效应 ,实现了对员工忠诚度的科学评价与判断。