Globalisation and stiff competition have changed the landscape of doing business. Decrease in customer loyalty and increase in customer expectations have challenged businesses to come up with unique methods of enhancing their quality of service. The same is true for airlines industry too. As a result, many airlines have transformed their marketing strategies, especially with regard to service quality, in order to compete efficiently in the global market. The marketing literature has introduced models of service quality, e.g.: SERVQUAL and AIRQUAL to help organisations measure and enhance customer experiences. SERVQUAL has been extensively researched and applied in many industries. Similarly, AIRQUAL, a model for the airline industry, has been developed but applied only in Cyprus. Moreover, the AIRQUAL scale lacks validity, as its development process is incomplete. This research, therefore, adapted 30-items of AIRQUAL and assessed and validated this revised scale. The validated scale was then applied to the airline industry of Saudi Arabia. Further, a comprehensive model is proposed, where the impact of the validated scale of service quality is tested with its impact on customer satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty, word of mouth, repurchase intentions and complaining behaviour. The assessment and validation process is divided into two main stages: first, qualitative; where four focus group interviews were undertaken that generated 46 items for the adapted scale. These items describe the perceptions of airline customers regarding service quality and were classified on the bases of the scheme proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1988). Second, a three-phase two sample, quantitative, research was performed to derive a validated 30-item scale comprising five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Further, the improved scale was tested in a new market (Saudi market) in order to assess the service quality of Saudi Airlines. A total of 500 self-administered questionnaires were distributed among airline customers. The returned questionnaires underwent thorough screening and cleaning. The reliability of the scale was tested through Cronbach’s Alpha, followed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA), which emerged with five dimensions. The content, convergent and discriminant validities were established. Further scale confirmation was conducted on a sample of US airline passengers. Finally, the proposed model with nine hypotheses was tested, which resulted in statistically significant results for all the proposed hypotheses.

The increasingly competitive business environment has influenced contemporary organisations to build mutual beneficial relationships with their customers indicating a paradigm shift from transactional marketing. In order to compete in this intense competitive environment, organisations are creating competitive advantage over their rivals through service quality that will influence customer satisfaction which subsequently leads to customer loyalty. Service quality has been found to be the key strategy of success and survival for most organisations like retail supermarkets who want to win the loyalty of their customers because of its positive effect on customer satisfaction. The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the retail supermarket industry. An empirical study was conducted in Grahamstown between two main supermarkets through a survey that determined customers’ perceptions on service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty respectively. The empirical findings of this research study revealed that moderate to strong positive linear relationships exists between the dimensions of service quality (namely physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving and policy) and customer satisfaction at the 5% level of significance. Furthermore, this study showed that dimensions of service quality (namely physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction and problem solving) have weak negative linear relationships with price sensitivity dimension of customer loyalty. The study further showed that the dimensions of service quality (namely physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving and policy) have weak to moderate positive linear relationships with the purchase intentions dimension of customer loyalty. In addition, all the dimensions of service quality (namely physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving and policy) showed moderate positive linear relationships with word of mouth communication dimension of customer loyalty. A weak negative linear relationship between price sensitivity dimension of customer loyalty and customer satisfaction was revealed in this study. Purchase intentions dimension of customer loyalty was also found to have a moderate positive linear relationship with customer satisfaction. In addition, word of mouth communication dimension of customer loyalty showed a strong positive linear relationship with customer satisfaction. There is sufficient evidence that the customers of the two supermarkets in this study have different perceptions on problem solving dimension of service quality. This study further provides sufficient evidence of the significant difference between gender on the levels of customer satisfaction. In addition, this study showed that customers of various levels of education and occupations differ in price sensitivity dimension of customer loyalty. The average scores for word of mouth communication, purchase intentions and price sensitivity dimensions of customer loyalty were found to be significantly different between the two supermarkets investigated in this study. Therefore, for supermarkets to compete effectively in the intense retail supermarket industry in South Africa they have to manage their service quality dimensions so as to influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty respectively.

The thesis is based on the concept of an organization as a system of relations resulting from organization roles. The aim of the diploma thesis is to select tools and define criteria, by means of which the relations within an organization can be evaluated and their quality assessed. Theoretical part focuses on the explanation of the basic terms with organization and relations connected to it. Pursuant to this, specific tools are chosen, which enable evaluation of the organizational relations. Practical part then analyses the chosen organization as a system of relations resulting from organization roles and concentrates on the possibilities for their quality assessment by means of selected tools.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the loyalty system of Lancôme Beauty Institute and ascertain with the use of questionnaire investigation the satisfaction of customers with offered benefits and alternatively suggest the possibilities of improvement of the system. The theoretical part is focused on the general definition of customer satisfaction. The important part is recruitment, maintaining and motivation of current and potential customers. The practical part describes the functioning of the loyalty system of Lancôme Beauty Institute, the stages of development and implications of changes in the loyalty system. The questionnaire investigation was used to ascertain the satisfaction with loyalty system as well as to find the main imperfections -- the data were gathered, classified and analysed.

Digitalization has come to represent a larger part of people’s everyday lives. The technology makes it possible to conduct bank errand at all hours. Therefore, the use of digital services has increased remarkable the past years. SEB, Swedbank, Nordea and Handelsbanken are the four largest banks in Sweden, which all have been affected by the increased digitalization.   As the digital services becomes more common, the physical customer meetings become rarer, a situation that affects the customer satisfaction. It has become easier for the customers to switch between different banks as multiple of services is available online, something that sets high standards within the banking industry if the banks want to maintain satisfied customers, but also whilst adopting the new technology. This study aims to describe how the Swedish banks work with customer loyalty in view of the increased digitalization.   The theory is based on four components which all have a major impact on customer loyalty: customer satisfaction, trust, communication and competence. Customer satisfaction and trust are considered to have a direct impact on customer loyalty, while competence and communication have an indirect impact.

La mode est partout et recouvre de nombreux secteurs, produits, et concerne de près ou de loin de nombreux individus. La fidélité aux produits de mode soulève différentes interrogations concernant ce qui incite le consommateur à les choisir, à rester fidèle à la mode et ceci malgré les changements incessants propres à celle-ci. Cependant nous n’avons pas relevé d’approche se rapportant à une explication de cette fidélité basée sur les valeurs apportées par la mode au niveau du produit et indépendamment des caractéristiques physiques et/ou des fonctionnalités de ce dernier. Au cours de cette recherche notre intérêt portera donc sur la compréhension des raisons poussant l’individu à s’associer à la mode. L’analogie par rapport au capital de marque (Keller, 1993), nous incite à penser que de manière similaire à la marque, la mode apporte de la valeur ajoutée au produit en comparaison à ceux jugés non mode. Nous introduirons le concept de capital de mode afin d’appréhender cette valeur ajoutée que la mode apporte aux produits. L’analyse qualitative menée confirme les valeurs ajoutées par la mode au produit que nous avons identifiées. De plus, les résultats de l’étude empirique menée auprès de suiveurs montrent, comme cela était supposé, que l’attachement joue un rôle médiateur dans la relation liant le capital de mode à la fidélité au niveau du vêtement et du téléphone mobile. Les valeurs ajoutées par la mode contribuent donc au développement d’un attachement et d’une fidélité de la part de l’individu à l’égard de ce qui est mode dans les catégories de produits étudiés. Notre recherche propose ainsi une explication de la fidélité à la mode grâce au capital de mode. / Fashion transcends domains, applies to almost any kind of product and concerns many people. The loyalty towards fashion products raises questions about why and how products appeal to consumers, despite their constantly varying attributes. Furthermore, little is known about how fashion trends may induce people to stay loyal to fashion products. We are not aware of any other approach that explains consumer behavior on the basis of fashion value per se, that is, that a fashion product is of interest because it is explicitly perceived as a fashion item. We propose a new explanation for consumers’ interest in and loyalty to fashion products. Extending the concept of consumer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993), we propose that consumer-based fashion equity may account for the role that fashion plays, in determining consumers’ loyalty—similar to the way brand equity explains why high equity brands appeal more to consumers than do low equity ones. We introduce the concept of fashion equity to account for the value that fashion adds to products. The exploratory study conducted with followers confirms the values added by fashion to product and the results of our analysis demonstrates that attachment is a mediator in the relationships fashion equity-attachment-loyalty for fashion clothe and mobile phone. Therefore, these values contribute to the development of fashion attachment and fashion loyalty. Our research suggests an explanation of loyalty towards fashion thanks to fashion equity.

Dans notre recherche nous examinons les approches qui permettent de fidéliser les clients. Le marketing relationnel est sollicité, puis le rôle médiateur que joue la valeur perçue sur l’effet fidélisant dans l’approche relationnelle est étudié. Nous prenons pour champ d’étude les dirigeants d’entreprises libanaises, détenteurs de comptes bancaires. Les effets qui découlent de l’orientation relationnelle et du rôle médiateur qu’elle joue sur de ces dirigeants d’entreprises et qui peuvent influer sur leur fidélité sont pris en considération. Nous prenons aussi en compte le fait que le Liban traverse depuis des décennies des crises consécutives, ainsi que l’effet que cela laisse sur les décisions des dirigeants d’entreprises. Nous avons dégagé l’importance du rôle médiateur de la valeur perçue, les effets de la situation de crise, et l’influence des données personnelles des dirigeants d’entreprises sur la fidélisation des clients. Nous proposons dans une étape finale un modèle conceptuel intégrateur qui synthétise tous ces facteurs. Dans une ultime étape nous dégageons les résultats de l’étude et proposons une approche éventuelle pour traiter le problème de fidélisation des dirigeants d’entreprises en ce qui concerne leurs comptes bancaires dans une situation d’instabilité. / In our research we studied the different approaches leading to enhance the loyalty of the consumer. We have scrutinized the relationship marketing and the loyalty effect that can be enhanced by the mediator role of perceived value on the loyalty of the consumer. In our field of study we focused on the leaders of Lebanese enterprises, holding a bank account. We took into consideration the effects of the relationship orientation and the mediator role by which it can have an influence on the fidelity of these leaders. We also took into consideration that, for decades Lebanon has been facing different and consecutive crises, we studied the effects of such a situation upon the decision taking of the leaders of Lebanese enterprises. We showed the importance of the mediator role of the perceived value, the effects of the crises situation, and the influence of the personal data related to these leaders over their decision taking. In a final step we evaluated the results of the study and proposed a possible approach to the problem of loyalty of the enterprises’ leaders in regard of their bank accounts.

Quant à la loyauté, deux éléments particuliers interpellent. D’une part, la relative récence de son émergence dans l’édifice juridique, spécialement jurisprudentiel, contractuel et social, ainsi que la relative novation de ses applications dans le contrat, lequel était classiquement peu investi par le juge, et qui désormais s’inonde de diverses obligations de loyauté à charge des parties. D’autre part, c’est le caractère adapté, voire pertinent, presque affuté de ses commandements qui constitue finalement la première qualité de l’obligation et, pour le rapport de travail, relation déséquilibrée par excellence, la preuve de son utilité contractuelle. Des différences sensibles doivent être bien sûr observées selon qu’elle s’applique aux rapports collectifs ou individuels de travail. La loyauté appelle à cet égard un effort de conceptualisation qui nécessite de s’intéresser précisément à la notion sous l’angle de son émergence pour ensuite s’attacher efficacement à démontrer l’utilité de l’obligation / As for loyalty, two particular elements challenge. On the one hand, the relative recency of its emergence in the legal structure, especially jurisprudence. Also in contractual and social field, as well as the relative innovation of its applications in the contract, which was typically little invests by the judge. Now, it incorporates various loyalty obligations on parties. On the other hand, this is the relevance and suitability of its commandments which constitute the first quality of the bond. Concerning the work report, ultimate unbalanced relationship, these characteristics demonstrate its contractual value. Significant differences must be observed depending it applies to individual or collective relations of work. Loyalty calls in this regard a conceptualisation effort, that needs to focus specifically on the concept in terms of its emergence and then, attach effectively to demonstrate the value of the bond

Cette recherche a pour objectif d'explorer le concept de fidélité oppositionnelle de l'individu ainsi que son potentiel d'enrichissement du concept de fidélité à la marque tel que traditionnellement abordé. La fidélité à la marque, définie jusqu'ici par un comportement d'achat répétitif accompagné d'une attitude positive envers la marque choisie, acquiert ainsi une nouvelle composante issue de la littérature sur l'anti-consommation et la résistance qui constituent, aux côtés de l'identité sociale et de la recherche d'équilibre, le cadre théorique sur lequel est fondé ce travail. S'appuyant sur le terrain des smartphones, la méthodologie de recherche est articulée autour de trois sources de données principales : des commentaires d'internautes en ligne, des entretiens et des récits de vie. Ces données ont été traitées grâce à une analyse de contenu thématique classique. Les principaux résultats mettent en avant l'existence d'une fidélité oppositionnelle de l'individu qui s'appuie sur une attitude et un comportement positifs à l'égard de la marque choisie et négatifs à l'égard de la marque évitée. Qu'elle se présente sous sa forme attitudinale et/ou comportementale, la fidélité oppositionnelle évolue dans le temps aboutissant ainsi à différents profils de fidèles oppositionnels. Enfin, ce phénomène émerge comme une réaction/résistance au comportement de la marque, une volonté de distanciation par rapport à une image de consommateur-type ou un évitement suite à une expérience négative avec une marque donnée. Ces résultats permettent aux managers de définir des stratégies de défense du capital–marque de leur portefeuille de marques et de résister ainsi aux attaques des concurrents sur des marchés devenus de plus en plus concurrentiels. / This research aims to explore the concept of oppositional loyalty of the individual and its potential to enrich the concept of brand loyalty as traditionally addressed. Brand loyalty, so far defined as a repetitive buying behavior together with a positive attitude toward the chosen brand, acquires a new component borrowed from the literature on anti-consumption and resistance that constitute, together with social identity and balance quest, the theoretical framework on which this research is based. Based on the smartphones field, the research methodology is structured around three main data sources: online internauts' comments, interviews and life stories. These data were processed through a classical thematic analysis of content. The main results highlight the existence of an oppositional loyalty of the individual that is based on positive attitudes and behavior towards the chosen brand and negative ones towards the avoided brand. Whether it is manifested under attitudinal and / or behavioral form, oppositional loyalty evolves over time, resulting in different profiles of oppositionists loyal. Finally, this phenomenon emerges as: a response / resistance to brand behavior, a desire to distance oneself from the image of consumer-type or an avoidance following a negative experience with a particular brand. These results allow managers to define strategies for defending the brand equity of their brand portfolio and thus resist the attacks of competitors on markets that are becoming increasingly competitive.

Doctoral thesis, which deals with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in relation to a competitive advantage. Methodology used for purposes of doctoral thesis. The process of consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty research. References to foreign literature. A formulation of objectives and hypotheses. Specifics of customer satisfaction in the field of services with a high proportion of personal folders.