The battle for customer loyalty: An examination of customer loyalty in the goods and services domain

摘要

Customer loyalty has always been a priority even among top firms. Though traditionally customer loyalty is looked at in terms of cognitive judgment on product or service attributes, recent literature in quality management and service marketing show that firms shift toward both co-production and co-creation experience models where customers are co-producers. As a result, firms provide memorable experiences for customers to feel engaged in order to enhance their competitive advantage in markets with higher profit margins and greater market share, leading to higher loyalty returns. The article is based on interpersonal relationship theory from social psychology. The investment model (Ref. 1), examines situational variables that customers use in decisions to remain loyal to a firm's offering. Two highly competitive product sectors, automobile ownership and apartment rentals were used to test the investment model. Results show that customer satisfaction, attractive alternatives and investment size as situational variables that impact customers' evaluations in making informed decisions to remain loyal. Thus customers assess their relationship experiences and engagement levels with the firm to exhibit loyalty behaviors.