A retenção de clientes pode ser um diferencial competitivo para provedores de serviços e, sob a ótica das trocas relacionais, torna-se fundamental entender os fatores determinantes que a antecedem, identificando os construtos que a estimulam. Para o desenvolvimento desta pesquisa, foi desenvolvido e testado um Modelo Teórico, com suas respectivas hipóteses, que contemplam os construtos Táticas Vinculantes (Financeiras, Sociais e Estruturais), Reputação do Provedor de Serviços, Confiança e Compromisso como antecedentes da Retenção de Clientes. Neste sentido, o objetivo geral deste trabalho foi analisar as Táticas Vinculantes (Financeira, Social e Estrutural), a Reputação do Provedor de Serviços, a Confiança e o Compromisso como antecedentes da Retenção de Clientes. Foi realizado o levantamento teórico que aborda a Retenção de Clientes, bem como o entendimento e a análise dos construtos que a antecedem e que a afetam. Posteriormente, foi realizado um estudo quantitativo, de caráter descritivo, por meio da implementação de uma survey. A análise dos resultados foi feita com base em estatísticas multivariadas, utilizando-se a técnica da Modelagem de Equações Estruturais para se observar e analisar os elementos que compõem o fenômeno em estudo. A amostra foi composta por 344 empresas-clientes dos provedores de serviços contábeis pesquisados. Os resultados da pesquisa indicam que o Modelo Teórico apresentou índices satisfatórios, considerando-se o seu ineditismo. As contribuições e destaque são a comprovação de que as Táticas Vinculantes Financeiras, Sociais e Estruturais impactam positivamente a Confiança; que a Confiança e o Compromisso impactam positivamente na Retenção de Clientes; e que a Reputação do Provedor de Serviços não tem influência significativa sobre a Retenção de Clientes e a Confiança. / Customer retention can be a competitive advantage for service providers and, from the perspective of relational exchanges, it is essential to understand the determinants that precede, identifying the constructs that stimulate. To develop this research project, it was developed and tested the theoretical model, with their hypotheses, which includes the constructs bonding Tactics (Financial, Social and Structural), Reputation Service Provider, Trust and Commitment as antecedents to the Customer Retention. In this sense, the aim of this study was to analyze the bonding Tactics (Financial, Social and Structural), the Reputation of the Service Provider, Trust and Commitment as background to the Customer Retention. It was held the theoretical research that addresses the Customer Retention and understanding and analysis of the constructs that precede and that affect it. Subsequently, it conducted a quantitative study of a descriptive nature, by means the implementation of a survey. The analysis was based on multivariate statistics and it used the technique of structural equation modeling to observe and analyze the elements of the phenomenon studied. The sample consisted of 344 client companies of financial services providers reaserched. The survey results indicate that the Theoretical Model stated presented satisfactory levels, considering its originality. Still, the associations were analyzed time and size of client and the type of business and the form of taxation adopted, confirming that client's size affects the bonding Financial Tactics. The contributions and highlight are proof that the tactics bonding Financial, Social and Structural positively impact the Trust; the Trust and Commitment impact positively on Customer Retention; the Reputation of the service provider has no significant influence on Customer Retention and Trust.

M.Comm. / In summary, e-commerce will absolutely change the way in which many company decisionmakers and business leaders think, as their companies compete in an online virtual world of business: a real-time, highly competitive marketplace. Companies will be required to rethink their core business processes and then create new strategies for performing e- businesses (Fellenstein & Wood, 2000:105). Forehand (2001:22), who is managing partner and CEO of Accenture, formerly known as Andersen Consulting, has the following views on succeeding in the New Marketplace: • "The New Economy pioneers have unearthed a few truths about how to win in the new marketplace. Speed is the new mantra. Change is the only constant. Content carries a premium. Consumers have perfect information. Brands signal trust. Value drives loyalty. And so on. These are quite important considerations, because when you take a step back and think about it, the way we conduct business really has been radically altered. Forever. • It's not easy to keep an organisation thriving as each new technology change surfaces. (And we've barely tapped the awesome potential for mobile commerce through wireless technology.) Success requires a sense of urgency across the entire organisation. It requires deep cultural change. It requires different and new relationships with customers, employees, alliance partners and even competitors. The end result is often significant business transformation that gets to a company's core business model. • Leading companies will put the customer at the centre of everything they do. Think about the implications of that to your business model. About a year ago we conducted research in the area of customer relationship management (CRM), which concluded that superior customer capabilities could account for 50 percent of the difference in return on sales between low and high performing companies. Those companies that can effectively put the customer at the centre of their business add tens of millions of dollars to the bottom line. • Leading companies will put technology on the personal agenda of every senior executive. Information technology has clearly progressed beyond the early days when it was relegated to the back office. But leaders of tomorrow will look at technology as much more than an enabler of business strategy. Technology will become a creator of business strategy. • Leading companies will apply the same rigour to human performance that they do to all areas of the business. There is an enormous challenge in getting the human element of an organisation equipped to operate in an increasingly digital world. Part of that challenge is finding and keeping talent. And the other is maximizing an individual's performance. Ensuring that people have the right skills, knowledge and behaviours is quickly becoming a company's biggest gating factor to future success. Not technology, not financial capital: human capital. • Leading companies will operate at speed. This is about an emerging leadership style that enables companies to be responsive to a dynamically changing marketplace. Leadership used to be structured and hierarchical. But now leadership requires quick wits, quick decisions, judgement calls, guts and passion. To operate at speed, companies will create internal environments that support and promote constant innovation. Success can often breed complacency, which dampens a company's sense of urgency and its ability to capitalise quickly on good ideas. The winners of tomorrow will realise the power of innovation and bring a start-up mentality inside". The above extract highlights various factors, which will become clearer as one progress through the dissertation. At the end, if one returns to this section, it is hoped that the new insight gained into the online world of the Internet will become apparent. This dissertation considers research into the various business models for Internet-based start-ups, the expectations of the customer, how to satisfy these expectations by means of customer service and how to build customer loyalty. Also considered are what relationships, if any, exist between a successful business model and customer loyalty. More emphasis will be placed on business-toconsumer as opposed to business-to-business transactions and models throughout the dissertation. The research method used in this dissertation is that of a literature study. A literature survey is conducted of the various business models used, customer expectations, customer service and the building of customer loyalty by Internet organisations. The collected information is described, interpreted and evaluated on a qualitative basis to address the purpose and the objectives of the study. With the above as background, this study proposes a business model and identifies factors that build customer loyalty, which will make a contribution towards guiding start-up ventures in strategically directing their business into a globally competitive and customer-focused world. The important findings that were identified in this study are: • Design a business model based on the following components — people, innovation, focus, speed, equity, technology, size, metrics, strategic vision and leadership. (These are the prime levers that today's Internet start-ups use to compete against the incumbent world of business.) • Carry out regular market research to establish exactly what it is that your customers expect from your web site. Constantly innovate, and by meeting or exceeding customer expectations, the customer expectation gap will be narrowed, which will lead to increased customer satisfaction, with a higher likelihood of customer retention. • Establish relationships with your customers and provide them with a unique online experience by utilising technology in such a way that every customer interaction is kept simple and saves the customer time and money. Providing this kind of customer service will build customer loyalty and enhance the company's brand name.

The Internet has provided marketing with many new tools and given old tools new or improved meanings. The Net poses tremendous challenges for scholars in many lines of research, from usability studies and consumer behaviour research to marketing and advertising research. Because the World Wide Web (the Web) presents a fundamentally different environment for marketing activities than traditional media, conventional marketing activities are being transformed, as they are often difficult to implement in their present form. This means that in many cases these marketing activities have to be reconstructed in forms more appropriate for the new medium. A lot of technological changes have affected the marketing environment of today. Companies must adapt to these changes in order to improve their marketing strategies. This has, among other things, resulted in an emphasis on relationship marketing. The purpose of this thesis is to explore what strategies are used in practice by companies in order to market and promote their products and services by using their Web sites as well as to build effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In order to fulfil the research purpose, interviews were conducted at a number of companies (medium and large), and questionnaires were mailed to various companies in the motor retail industry. The result shows that a company can use traditional as well as online marketing and promotion strategies when conducting business. This can also help companies to gain better relations with their customers. The different marketing and promotion strategies are useful for attracting new business as well as maintaining and stimulating existing relations. The research problem addressed in this study was to determine the factors that are effective in marketing and promoting of Web sites as well as the methods used in building CRM.

M.Com. / South Africa exists, that focuses on Customer Relationship Management and Customer Loyalty. The study investigates Customer Relationship Management and its influence on Customer Loyalty at Liberty Life in South Africa. Over the past twenty years, the importance of the services industries to the world economy has grown. In the South African economy the services sector contributed 71.4% of South Africa’s total GDP in 2006. The world economy is struggling in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Customers are cancelling their policies as they struggle to survive the down turn in investment and credit markets. Liberty Life experiences persistency problems as customers cancel their policies. Liberty Life is required to focus on its relationship with customers to increase customer loyalty. To establish the influence of trust, commitment, two-way communication and conflict handling on Customer Relationship Management and its influence on Customer Loyalty at Liberty Life in South African, an empirical investigation was conducted. The sample consisted on 254 customers visiting the customer walk-in-centres situated in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban. The study indicated that a significant positive relationship exists between trust, commitment and conflict handling, and Customer Relationship Management at Liberty Life. The study further revealed that a significant negative relationship exists between two-way communication and Customer Relationship Management at Liberty Life. In addition, the empirical investigation revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between Customer Relationship Management and Customer Loyalty at Liberty Life in South Africa. The study provided strategies for Liberty Life to improve and maintain its relationships between the organisation and customers if Liberty Life exhibits trustworthy behaviour, shows genuine commitment to service, communicates information to customers efficiently and accurately, thereby also listening to their iii customers and handling potential and manifested conflicts skilfully. This will ultimately, contributes to Customer Loyalty, which will ensure economic prosperity for Liberty Life.

The main research objective of this study was to determine whether Wi-Fi affects customer's loyalty and how its impact differs depending on the type of restaurants: coffee shops, fast food restaurants, and casual dining restaurants. For the study I designed a primary field survey to collect data and performed multiple linear regression analysis to test the study hypotheses. Findings show that Wi-Fi service factors turned out to be significant for all types of restaurants for both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. Wi-Fi service factors were more important for coffee shop loyalty than fast-food restaurants or casual dining restaurants. However, not all of the Wi-Fi usage factors were significant consistently. Furthermore, Wi-Fi service factors were much more important for coffee shop loyalty than fast food restaurants or casual dining restaurants. Findings are expected to assist hospitality marketers to utilize Wi-Fi service as a point of service towards their customers.

Customer relationship management (CRM) presents a new paradigm shift to the old traditional marketing strategies that are known and practiced by many organisations in South Africa and across the globe. Competition is not an excuse for failure anymore. Organisations that do not have any concrete strategies in dealing with the customer will not survive in the market. The ultimate goal of CRM is to enable organisations to forge closer ties with the customer so that a solid bond can be created to enhance loyalty and satisfaction. The goal for this research was to identify the CRM strategies used by a single organisation and thereafter suggest improvements to enhance customer loyalty. The results of the study could assist the management of the organisation to improve the CRM strategies which will hopefully enhance retention and prevent customer attrition. A literature review was conducted to unveil various elements of CRM, and strategies that can attract and retain customers. It helped in identifying themes for the empirical study. An in-depth interview was conducted with the general manager of the organisation to gauge his perception, and CRM practices in the organisation. An interview guide was used during the interview process. Four main topics namely: implementation of CRM, customer loyalty, customer complaints and conflict, and employees training and motivation were utilised for the interview guide and followed by further probing. Based on the responses obtained, analyses were made by comparing the responses to what literature revealed so that shortcomings could easily be identified.The study revealed that there were several inconsistencies with what was practised by the organisation and what the literature study revealed. Bearing in mind the shortcomings identified in the empirical study, the researcher made the following recommendations. The CRM implementation approach needs to be carefully planned with a clear defined vision and mission statement that focus on customer centredness. The organisation needs to invest in modern and innovative channels of communication and strategic partnership to reach the right customer. The organisation has to develop effective market segmentation and targeting to know the customer well. Consistent and highly relevant customer experiences should be drawn-on to fulfill the organisation’s promise of trust and reliability. The organisation should adopt competitive pricing strategy to limit customer sensitivity on price. The organisation should invest in employees’ development and welfare. Further research can be conducted to investigate the perception of other food retailers on the CRM strategies practiced. Further research can also be conducted in the organisation to investigate the perception of employees and customers on the CRM strategies practised.

This diploma thesis deals with loyalty and tools which could deepen the loyalty of customers. The thesis provides theoretical background of the theme and outlines essence of the customer loyalty for consequent proposition of tools for its creation. At the beginning of this thesis the conception of loyalty is supported by basic facts of marketing theory, e.g. marketing communication, marketing mix and brand. The thesis continues with essence of loyalty, aspects of loyalty, its drivers, possibilities of satisfaction and loyalty meassurement and effects of loyalty with focus on banking sector. Further this part defines the banking sector, specifics of banking product and developement trends in banking. Partially the influence of current economical crisis on customer loyalty is taken into account. Practical part is focused on description and practical examples of each tool which extends customer loyalty to bank institution in Czech republic and abroad as well. Tools are divided by marketing mix elements according to prevalent characteristics corresponding with the given element. Next are mentioned suggestions to proposition of new loyalty program. The thesis set 3 possible ways of future developement of customer loyalty creation.These ways are focus on simple program resembling to sales promotion, complex program creating real customer loyalty and focus on soft elements (e.g. service quality and pleasant surrounding). At the conclusion is given recommendation for future developement of customer loyalty creation in Česká spořitelna.

This research makes a case for treating an electronic commerce web site as a social actor and argues that LT-enabled support for personalization systems and virtual communities has a significant impact on the perceived communication characteristics of a web site. This research studied the impact of two communication characteristics - adaptiveness and connectivity of a web site. Adaptiveness indicates the extent to which a web site adapts itself to support the needs of its customers whereas connectivity refers to the ability of a web site to link potential customers with other visitors. Further, synthesizing research from communication, media choice and technology adoption literatures, this thesis proposes social presence as the experiential construct and perceived usefulness as the utilitarian construct that will mediate the relationship between communication characteristics of a medium and customer loyalty. A survey and a laboratory experiment were conducted to test the linkages proposed above. The survey showed that while adaptiveness impacted on both social presence and perceived usefulness, connectivity had an impact only on social presence and an insignificant impact on perceived usefulness. Social presence did not influence perceived usefulness while both social presence and perceived usefulness had a significant impact on customer loyalty. By filtering Amazon.com real-time, the lab experiment was conducted to specifically study the causal impact of a web site's support for personalization and virtual communities. Support for personalization had a strong impact on adaptiveness, whereas support for consumer reviews had strong effect on connectivity. Interestingly, support for personalization had a weaker, but significant effect on connectivity and support for consumer reviews had a similar effect on adaptiveness. Data from the experiment was also analyzed using mediation analyses as well as partial least square analysis to show that the general pattern of results observed were consistent across methods thus improving the confidence in the research model proposed. This research by proposing social presence as a crucial experiential predictor of customer loyalty has addressed an important gap that exists in our current understanding of web users' behavior. It also makes a key contribution by empirically showing that a web site's support for IT-enabled personalization and virtual communities do have a significant impact not only on the perceived communication characteristics, but also on customer loyalty through social presence and perceived usefulness. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to explore the various forms of brand loyalty, to understand the drivers of brand loyalty and disloyalty, and to determine within which product categories consumers were brand loyal or disloyal at the base of the pyramid (BoP) in South Africa. The study was exploratory, therefore a qualitative research design was adopted where individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with 18 low income consumers in Living Standard Measure (LSM) 2 to 4, residing in urban Gauteng. The findings show that low income consumers are increasingly brand conscious with proven access to media and therefore marketing messages. Primary brand loyalty drivers at the BoP include perceived quality, durability, brand experience, brand trust and affordability, while in their absence consumers are disloyal. Affordability is important to these consumers, but they also value these other aspects of brands, making them discerning and value driven. Consumers are loyal to those brands that are relevant to them at an acceptable price value proposition. Consumers spend more of their money on consumables than durables and branded services. Brand loyalty is minimal across product categories; consumers seek variety and are prone to sales promotions, making them multiple brand users. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Sharing economy (SE) has become a major business on a global stage, given that many of the companies involved have grown to become some of the leading firms in terms of investment and reach. Examples include companies in the transportation and car service sectors along with the lodging services. Some of the famous companies are Lyft and Uber in the transport sector and Airbnb in accommodations. As the SE gains ground, there are new challenges presented in understanding customer loyalty. Traditional studies on customer loyalty focused on understanding why consumers remained loyal to one service provider, which was straightforward. However, SE is a challenge because more than one provider gives service. The main purpose of this research was to understand how the various antecedents of customer loyalty along with the traits of SE influence the loyalty of consumers who utilize the SE services, specifically concerning the vehicle transport and car services sharing economy. This research utilized quantitative methods through questionnaires that gathered data from respondents who have utilized a website or app to engage SE services in the transport sector. All antecedents of sharing economy tested such as perceived value and perceived service quality were found to have a positive correlation to customer satisfaction, which had, in turn, a strong positive correlation with customer loyalty.