Master Thesis, Halmstad University i Halmstad University School of Business and Engineering Master Program in International Marketing The Impact of Customer Relationship Marketing Tactics On Customer Loyalty — Within Swedish Mobile Telecommunication Industry Master’s Dissertation in International Marketing Final seminar 2009-05-22 Authors: Xuan Zhang 840905-T102 Yuanyuan Feng 801229-T186 Supervisor: Venilton Reinert
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Master Thesis, Halmstad University
i
Halmstad University
School of Business and Engineering
Master Program in International Marketing
The Impact of Customer Relationship
Marketing Tactics On Customer Loyalty
— Within Swedish Mobile Telecommunication Industry
Master’s Dissertation in International Marketing
Final seminar 2009-05-22
Authors:
Xuan Zhang 840905-T102 Yuanyuan Feng 801229-T186
Supervisor:
Venilton Reinert
Master Thesis, Halmstad University
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Acknowledgements
During working on this thesis, we have learned a lot. We would like to sincerely thank all the
people who helped us to complete this thesis.
We would like to express our gratitude towards our supervisor Mr. Venilton Reinert for his
helpful guidance, support and contribution. And there is a special thank to Professor Göran
Svensson who helped us solving some problems on statistical tests. Your information was
essential for us to conduct the data analysis.
We also appreciate all the students in Halmstad University who participated in our survey,
without your kind responses to the questionnaire we definitely cannot complete this study.
Thank all of you for your kind assistances and your valuable time.
Halmstand, 2009
Xuan Zhang and Yuanyuan Feng
Master Thesis, Halmstad University
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Abstract
Due to the more and more fierce competition in today’s business, many companies are
required to build long-term profitable relationship with customers and to achieve customer
loyalty. Therefore, relationship marketing has become more and more important since last
decade of 20th century, especially in service industry. There are many different relationship
marketing tactics implemented for retaining customer. However, some of those tactics did not
affect customer loyalty effectively, and switching behaviors frequently occur among most of
targeted customers. Therefore, this study is aimed to investigate the impact of relationship
marketing tactics on customer satisfaction and trust, which in turn increase customer loyalty,
by focusing on Swedish mobile telecommunication sector. A analytical model is developed as
a guildline to test the relationships between relationship marketing tactics, relationship quality
(trust and satisfaction) and customer loyalty.
a quantitative method with deductive approach are chosen in this research. In order to collect
primary data, a self-completed questionnaire is designed and randomly sent out by email to
the students in Halmstad University. The SPSS for windows is used to process the primary
data. The findings shows that Service Quality, Price Perception, and Value Offers have
impact on customer loyalty indirectly via the customer satisfaction and trust. Brand image is
positively and directly related to customer loyalty. However, switching costs is found to be
less correlation with customer loyalty, as well as satisfaction and trust in Sweden
The introduction chapter will starts with a background of the subject and a analytical model
that will be researched, followed by a problem discussion and the research questions, then the
purpose of this study will be presented. This chapter will end up with delimitations.
1.1 Background
As the competitive environment becomes more turbulent, the most important issue the sellers
face is no longer to provide excellent, good quality products or services, but also to keep loyal
customers who will contribute long-term profit to organizations (Tseng, 2007). To compete in
such overcrowded and interactive marketplace, marketers are forced to look beyond the
traditional 4Ps of marketing strategy, which are not longer enough to be implemented for
achieving competitive advantage. Therefore, relationship marketing has become an alternative
means for organizations to build strong, ongoing associations with their customers. As a part
of marketing strategy, relationship marketing seek to acquire and retain customers by
providing good quality customer services, and therefore has become one of the keys to
success in acquiring strong competitiveness in the present markets, because of its implications
for access to markets, generation of repeat purchase, creation of exit barriers, and the view
that it benefits all parties (Andaleeb, 1996).
Relationship marketing has received much attention in both academy and practice areas in the
last few decades. It was during the last decade of the 20th century that relationship marketing
began to dominate the marketing field (Egan, 2001). During this period relationship
marketing became a major trend in marketing and management business (Ibid). Relationship
marketing is concerned about building customer loyalty by providing value to all the parties
involved in the relational exchanges (Peng and Wang, 2006), as customer loyalty is the final
goal of relationship marketing.
Buyers and sellers in markets achieve mutual benefits through developing relationships,
which are not simple that a customer is 100 per cent loyal to a vendor (Stone & Woodcock &
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Machtynger, 2000). There are often switching behaviors occurred in different stages of a
partnership relationship. Relationship marketing tactics are thus approaches to apply
relationship marketing in practice (Tseng, 2007). Effective customer-oriented relationship
marketing tactics may help marketers to acquire customers, keep customers, and maximize
customer profitability, and finally build up customer loyalty..
The telecommunication industry is becoming one of the most important industries in the
world. The telecommunication industry delivers voice communications, data, graphics, and
video at ever increasing speeds. Telecommunication influences the world economy and the
telecommunication industry’s revenue was estimated to be $1.2 trillion in 2006. The
competition is also becoming more and more sharp. In order to obtain sustainable competitive
advantage, telecommunication firms are forced to make innovation and do the best for
customer satisfaction. Due to this, customer relationship marketing plays an important role in
telecommunication industry. It demands a relationship-oriented strategy in marketing
(Grönroos, 2004).
Moreover, the new electronic communication regulations suggested that the regulations would
harmonize the legislation of the EU countries and increased competition would favor the
consumers. And Sweden, as a precursor in this industry also faced a tense competition. In
2004, there are 6.447 million telephone main lines are in use, then in 2005, the number
became 8.044 million
Sweden liberalized its telecommunication sector starting in 1980s and being formally
liberalized in 1993 which was earlier three years than USA, and the European common policy
allowed for an open and competitive telecommunication market five years later. So, the
Swedish telecommunication industry has already became a mature market. The main Swedish
mobile operators – Tele2, Telia, Telenor, and 3(Hutchison) – have launched a mobile
marketing initiative. Facing the fierce competition, it is more and more important for each
firm to execute relationship marketing tactics in order to retain loyal customers who will bring
long-term profit and create competitive advantage to firms.
Considering the significant importance of relationship marketing in today’s business, it will
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make sense to understand how the relationship marketing are executed in practice and how
this type of marketing take effect, e.g. influencing long-term relationship building and
customer loyalty. Therefore, this study is aimed to develop and exam a analytical model
regarding the field of relationship marketing in practice, based on reviewing literatures and
theories about relationship marketing tactics, relationship quality and customer loyalty. This
developed analytical model is presented as Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1: Analytical model (developed by authors)
1. Relationship marketing tactics: Relationship marketing is carried out with many
relationship marketing tactics, which are widely to be applied in today’s business. Many
tactics may have potential to influence relationship quality and retaining customers. On basis
of previous researches, four ways of implementing relationship marketing tactics are focused
on this study, such as service quality, price perception, value offers and brand image. These
four tactics will be discussed in detail in the next chapter.
2. Relationship quality: It is usually used to assess the effectiveness of relationship marketing
tactics. It is also considered to be antecedent of achieving customer loyalty. Customer
Relationship
Marketing Tactics
Service
Quality
Price
Perception
Brand
Image
Value Offers
Relationship Quality
Customer
Trust
Customer
Satisfaction
Switching
Costs
Customer
Loyalty
The Impact of Relationship Marketing Tactics on Customer Loyalty
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satisfaction and trust are two basic components for measuring relationship quality. Higher
level of relationship quality is reflected by higher level of customer satisfaction and trust.
3. Switching costs: It happens when a customer switches from an existing service provider to
a new one. Switching costs perceived by customers can be either monetary or non-monetary
(time, effort, risk taking, psychological nature, etc.). It is considered as a barrier that
influences customer’s decision to change service provider, in turn affect customer’s willing to
remain loyalty with current service provider.
4. Customer loyalty: It was defined by Oliver (1997, p.392) as “deeply held commitment to
rebury or repatronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future, thereby causing
repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and
marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior”. Customer loyalty is
thought to be the final goal that a firm apply relationship marketing tactics, by building
long-term mutual relationship with customers.
1.2 Problem Discussion
Confronted with the fierce competition in today telecommunication marketplace, there have
been many marketing strategies for service providers to plan and implement. However,
consumers are disturbed by a number of marketing activities ranging from aggressive sales
tactics, telemarketing, direct mail, doorstep selling, radio advertisement, TV advertisement,
and internet promotion to customer loyalty programmers (Peng and Wang, 2006). There are
also evidences shows that consumers tend to other competitors when they can not be satisfied
with the service quality.
Relationship marketing strategy might be one of the best ways for service providers to retain
customers and building customer loyalty. Many empirical studies have provided evidences
that relationship marketing tactics have impact on behavioral loyalty which affects customer
retention (Peng and Wang, 2006). Therefore, well awareness of the target consumers and
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building good relationship with them is the most significant issue.
The challenge for telecommunication service providers is to attract more customers, focus on
building good relationship quality with customers, make customers satisfied and trust, and
step by step obtain customer’s loyalty, through relationship marketing tactics.
1.3 Research questions
Companies have implemented various relationship marketing tactics into practice. However,
some of those tactics did not work effectively, and there are phenomena showing that
switching behavior frequently occur among most of targeted customers. Accordingly, our
research questions are brought forward as follows:
(1) What kinds of relationship marketing tactics in practice positively contribute to customer
loyalty?
(2) How do different relationship marketing tactics impact on customer loyalty?
(3) Is the analytical model showed as figure 1.1 proved to be correct?
1.4 Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of customer relationship marketing
tactics on customer loyalty within Swedish mobile telecommunication sector, by analyzing
the relationship of every construct in the analytical model (show as figure 1.1). This study is
expected to exam the relationship between the eight constructs in the model (service quality,
price, value offers, brand image, satisfaction, trust, switching cost and customer loyalty),
which can be a reference for Swedish mobile telecommunication industry.
In order to achieve this purpose, the research focuses on analyzing the developed conceptual
model from consumer’s perspective, accordingly the following hypothesizes are aimed to be
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tested.
H1a: High service quality perceived by customers is positively related to customer satisfaction.
H1b: High service quality perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.
H2a: Fair price perceived by customers is positively related to customer satisfaction.
H2b: Fair price perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.
H3a: Positive brand image perceived by customers is positively related to customer
satisfaction
H3b: Positive brand image perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.
H4a: The value offers perceived by customers is positively related to customer’s satisfaction.
H4b: The value offers perceived by customers is positively related to customer’s trust.
H5: Customer trust is positively related to customer loyalty.
H6: Customer satisfaction is positively related to customer loyalty.
H7: High switching costs perceived by customer is positively related to customer loyalty.
1.5 Delimitation
First, in terms of the constructs showing in the model, only four ways of relationship
marketing tactics (service quality, brand image, price perception and value offers) are focused;
and only two basic components (satisfaction and trust) are used to measure relationship
quality. Other tactics and quality measurements are beyond this study.
Second, this study only focus on Swedish mobile telecommunication industry, the other
sectors in other countries are not involved.
Third, this study will be done only from customer’s point of view, the service firms’
perspective about this subject are not be researched.
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2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter consists of five parts, the theory of the relationship marketing will be discussed
firstly, and then followed by discussing the relationship marketing tactics, relationship quality,
switching costs and customer loyalty, in which each construct showed in the model is
discussed respectively, and the research hypothesises are proposed accordingly.
2.1 Relationship Marketing
During the last decade of the 20th century, relationship marketing has been seen as the
mainstream of though in planning a marketing strategy both in industrial marketing and
consumer marketing (Tseng, 2007). According to Morgan and Hunt (1994), relationship
marketing was defined as all the marketing activities that are designed to establishing,
developing, and maintaining successful relational relationship with customers.
Hougaard and Bjerre (2002, p.40) also defined relationship marketing as “company behavior
with the purpose of establishing, maintaining and developing competitive and profitable
customer relationship to the benefit of both parties”. Due to profitable relationship on a
lifetime basis may also create loss in some stages during the lifetime, Hougaard and Bjerre
(2002, p.40) argued that marketing management must pay attention to three different
objectives in terms of :
� “The management of the initiation of customer relationships”;
� “The maintenance and enhancement of existing relationships”;
� “The handling of relationship termination”.
Wulf et al. (2001) suggested that different levels of relationship duration would result in
different levels of consumption experience, producing different results, satisfaction and
loyalty with different relationship marketing tactics.
Compared with traditional marketing, relationship marketing is more concerned about
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building customer relationships in order to achieve long-term mutual benefits for all parties
involved in the exchanges. Relationship marketing essentially means developing customers as
partners, where a approach is different from traditional transaction (Bowen and Shoemaker,
2003). Table 2.1 as below shows the differences between relationship marketing and
traditional marketing.
Table 2.1 Relationship marketing compared with traditional marketing
Source: Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003
Since the final purpose of relationship marketing is to gain the maximal value of a customer,
customer loyalty should be emphasized to achieve this goal. The benefits of relationship
marketing derive from the continuing patronage of loyal customers who as a partnership are
not sensitive to price cut over time (Bowen and Shoemaker, 2003). Interdependence, mutual
cooperation and commitment between supplier and customer tend to be essential in
relationship marketing, as such whole relationship is viewed as the key to competitive
advantage (Hougaard and Bjerre, 2002).
Relationship marketing compared with traditional marketing
Relationship Marketing Traditional marketing
Orientation to customer retention Orientation to single sales Continual customer contact Episodic customer contact Focus on customer value Focus on product features Long-term horizon Short-term horizon High customer-service emphasis Little emphasis on customer service High commitment to meeting Limited commitment to meeting Customer expectations customer expectations Quality concerns all staff members Quality concerns only production staff *Traditional marketing can also be considered transactional marketing, in which each sale is considered to be a discrete event. This table is based on an idea from: F. Robert Dwyer, Paul Schurr, and Sejo Oh, “ Developing Buyer-seller Relationships.” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51, April 1987, pp. 11-27.
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2.2 Relationship Marketing Tactics
There have been various ways for marketers to implement relationship marketing tactics,
which are expected to have impact on customer retention and loyalty. Bansal, Taylor and
James (2005) suggested that relationship marketing tactics can be executed through service
quality, price perception, value offered, alternative attractiveness, and so on. Tseng (2007)
discussed that tactics as direct mail, tangible rewards, interpersonal communication,
preferential treatment and membership could enhance long-term relationship and increase
relationship satisfaction, trust and commitment. Peng and Wang (2006) also examed the
application of relationship tactics in service quality, reputation (brand), price perception, value
offers.
Based on the early theories, certain relationship marketing tactics which are considered of
importance in service industry, such as service quality, price perception, value offers and
brand image, will be focused in the following parts.
2.2.1 Service Quality
Service is different from physical products. Compared with physical products, Service is
thought to be intangible, heterogeneous, produced and consumed simultaneously, unable to be
kept in stock, etc. A widely accepted definition of service is proposed by Grönroos in 1990 as:
“A service is a process consisting of a series of more or less intangible activities that normally,
but not necessarily always, take place in interactions between the customer and service
employees and/or physical resources or goods and/or systems of the service provider, which
are provided as solutions to customer problems” (see Grönroos, 2000, p.46). This definition
implied that service is a process where interactions between customer and service provider
most often exist. Hence, in a service context, there are almost a relationship between customer
and service provider, such relationship can be used as a basis for marketing (Grönroos, 2000).
In order to retain loyal customer who will bring long-term profit to the firm, the key issue for
service provider is to make use of this relationship in the way it manages customers by
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offering what the customers needs and wants.
The quality of a service is subjectively perceived by customers during the interactions with a
firm (Grönroos, 2000). Parasuraman et al. (1988) defined service quality as the consumers’
judgment about a firm’s overall excellence or superiority. What happens and perceived by
customers in the interaction process will obviously have critical impacts on customers’
evaluation of service quality (Grönroos, 2000).
Due to the peculiar attributes of service, the evaluation of service quality is more complex
than evaluation of product quality. There have been various ways for measurements of service
quality proposed by previous researches and literatures. The famous measurement model of
service quality is SERVQUAL developed by Parasuraman et al.(1988), who measured the
differences between customer expectations and perceptions cross five determinants as
follows:
� Tangibles: Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, employees and communication materials from a service company.
� Reliability: A service company’s ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
� Assurance: employees’ knowledge and behavior about courtesy and ability to convey trust and confidence.
� Responsiveness: A service company is willing to help customers and provide punctual services.
� Empathy: A service company provides care and individualized attention to its customers, as well as having convenient operating hours.
Later, based on integrating previous studies and conceptual works, Grönroos (2000)
summarized seven criteria of good perceived service quality as: (1) professionalism and skills;
(2) employees’ attitudes and behavior; (3) accessibility and flexibility; (4) reliability and
trustworthiness; (5) service recovery; (6) serviscape; and (7) reputation and credibility. The
first criteria is outcome-related and thus a technical quality dimension; the last one is
image-related and fulfils a filtering function; and the rest five ones are process-related and
present the functional quality dimensions (Ibid).
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High service quality is regarded as a key to succeed in competitive service markets. Many
researches have showed that service quality perceived by customers are will directly influence
customers’ satisfaction, as well as their trust in the service firm (Parasuraman et al., 1988;
Aydin and Özer, 2005; Ismail et al., 2006; etc.). Customers might be satisfied when a firm
provide better services than their pre-purchase expectations. Customer trusts also emerge
when customers perceive positive service quality from a firm, and believe the service firm
would bring preferable outcomes for them. In mobile telecommunication industry which
belongs to service industry, service quality is an important indicator to assess a service
provider’s performance. Offering a high quality service is considered to be a visible way to
create customers trust and satisfaction, as well as obtaining competitive advantages and
building a long-term relationship with customers.
Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed based on the above discussion:
H1a: High service quality perceived by customers is positively related to customer satisfaction.
H1b: High service quality perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.
2.2.2 Price Perception
Price is the monetary cost for a customer to buy products or services. It is the critical
determinant that influences customer buying decision. Customers usually select their service
providers strongly relying on perceived price. How much consumers are willing to pay differs
due to their different needs and wants. Thus, the price perceptions to the same service
products may differ among individuals. Higher pricing perceived by consumers might
negatively influence their purchase probabilities (Peng and Wang, 2006). Price perception is
also thought to be related to price searching (Lichtenstein et al., 1993). Consumers are likely
to be attracted by perceived high-quality services at perceived competitive prices during the
searching process.
Oliver (1997) suggested that consumers often judge price relating to service quality, and
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accordingly generate satisfaction or dissatisfaction, depending on the equity principle. If a
consumer perceives price as fairness, he or she is willing to conduct this transaction with the
service provider. Based on previous studies, Cheng et al. (2008) proposed that price
perception can be measured by two dimensions: one is reasonableness of prices, which
reflects the way that price is perceived by customers comparing to that of competitors.;
another is value for money, which implies the relative status of the service provider in terms
of price. In general, high-quality services are considered to cost more than low-quality
equivalents (Chitty et al., 2007)
Many researchers have pointed out that price perception influences customer satisfaction and
trust (Oliver, 1997; Peng and Wang, 2006; Cheng et al., 2008; Kim et al., 2008). Customer
often switch mainly due to some pricing issues, e.g. high price perceived, unfair or deceptive
pricing practices (Peng and Wang, 2006). Therefore, in order to increase customer satisfaction,
it is essential for service firms to actively manage their customers’ price perceptions, e.g.
carrying out attractive pricing, offering reasonable prices mix, lower prices without
decreasing quality, etc.
Based on above discussion, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H2a: Fair price perceived by customers is positively related to customer satisfaction.
H2b: Fair price perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.
2.2.3 Brand Image
Brand concept has been frequently discussed in marketing literatures. Brand building is not
only an important driving force for marketing physical products, it is also a vital issue for
service firms. Brand image was defined by Keller (1993, p3) as the “perceptions about a
brand as reflected by the brand associations held in consumers’ memory.” It is thought as the
perception or mental picture of a brand formed and held in customers’ mind, through
customers’ response, whether rational or emotional (Dobni and Zinkhan, 1990). According to
Grönroos (2000, p.287), “A brand is not first built and then perceived by the customers.
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Instead, every step in the branding process, every brand massages, is separately perceived by
customers and together add up to a brand image, which is formed in customers’ minds”.
Therefore, brand image is consequence of how a customer perceives the relationship with a
brand over time (Ibid).
The concept of relationship marketing within services displays the importance of one-to-one
relationships between businesses and customers as well as relationships between consumers
and the brands (O’Loughlin, Szmigin, and Turnbull, 2004). The development of a brand
relationship with customers is based on a series of brand contacts experienced by customers
(Grönroos, 2000). What customer perceives the brand image during such experience is critical
issue for a service firm to realize. Furthermore, customers is likely to form brand image in
mind from inexperience ways, such as word of mouth from other consumers, a company’s
reputation in public, marketing communication, and so on. A positive brand image make it
easier for a firm to convey its brand value to consumers, also generates favorable word of
mouth among people; contrarily, a negative image affect people in opposite direction; a
neutral or unfamiliar image may not cause any damage, but it does not increase the
effectiveness of communication and word of mouth either (Ibid). The more customers
consider a brand valuable, the more sales can be expected to be achieved (Ibid).
Therefore, a positive brand image is supposed to meet customer’s expectation and offer more
benefits to customer, which may lead to customer satisfaction and trust. Two hypotheses are
thus proposed as follows:
H3a: Positive brand image perceived by customers is positively related to customer satisfaction
H3b: Positive brand image perceived by customers is positively related to customer trust.
2.2.4 Value Offers
Customers will judge the value of consumption after contrasting benefits gained from
products and services with their costs (Zeithaml, 1988). Service firms provide superior value
through enhanced offers can improve customer satisfaction by increasing the customer’s
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perceived benefits and reducing the sacrifice so that customer retention is improved (Ravald
and Grönroos, 1996).
Ravald and Grönroos (1996) described the effect of value-adding strategies in long term
relationship (show as figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2. The Effect of Value-Adding Strategies in a Long Term Relationship
Source: Ravald and Gröonroos (1996)
According to figure 2.2, It is clear that companies execute certain value-adding strategies can
increase customer’s perceived benefits and reducing customer’s perceived sacrifices, which in
turn stimulate customer repurchasing activities and remain in the same service provider. In a
long-term relationship, customer perceived value offered is related to both episodes and
expectations (Ravald and Grönroos , 1996). When customer’s expectations are satisfied, they
will feel safety, credibility, and security as perceived value in this relationship, which all
together increase trust and then enhance customer’s loyalty (Ibid).
Therefore, companies should concern about customer’s value from customer’s point of view,
and thoroughly understand customer’s value chain in order to be able to reduce
customer-perceived sacrifice (Wilson and Jantrania, 1995). Increasing the customer benefits
means adding something to the core product that the customer perceives important, beneficial
Increasing the benefits/ reducing the sacrifice
Stimulate repurchasing activity
Relation
Safety Credibility Security
Trust
Loyalty
Mutually profitable relationship
for supplier and customer
Episode
value
Relationship
value
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and of unique value (Ibid). In telecommunication sector, it is essential for operators to offer
something valuable to customers in service interaction process, such as reward refund
activities and promotional offers, in order to gain customer satisfaction and trust, which are
expected to enhance customer loyalty.
Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H4a: The value offers perceived by customers is positively related to customer’s satisfaction.
H4b: The value offers perceived by customers is positively related to customer’s trust.
2.3 Relationship Quality
Relationship Quality (RQ) emerged from the field of Relationship Marketing (RM). Due to
the importance of relationship marketing in today’s businesses, relationship quality is
essential for assessment of relationship strength and the satisfied degree of customer needs
There are others important tactics such as commitment and customer behavior, which
could influence customer loyalty, have not been discussed in this study. Thus further
research needs to contain more desirable tactics, in order to gain better insight.
� In this research, it uses the survey research method. The research make sampling for the
undergraduate students and master students who study in Halmstad University in Sweden.
Inevitably, the survey findings will not be generalized cross other group of population. It
will bring limitation to complete a deeper research about the impact of customer
relationship marketing tactics on customer loyalty. Further research could expand the
survey in order to reduce the sample errors.
� The items for each construct stated in the questionnaire were adapted from previous
articles or developed by the researchers without pre-testing for reliability and validity
before conducting the research. Some of the items might be ambiguous or hard to
understand, this would cause invalid data collected, which definitely influenced the
research results.
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Appendix :Questionnaire
Dear Participants,
We are conducting a survey of Swedish mobile telecommunication markets. In the
following questionnaire, we would like to know your attitudes and behaviors related to
satisfaction and loyalty about the Swedish mobile service provider you are using
presently. This survey is a part of our master thesis, and your kindly help is crucial for
our successful completion of this research project. Your responses will be anonymous;
data will be combined and analyzed as a whole. Please attempt to answer all the
questions and click one appropriate box that best suits your perspective for each
statement.
Your participation in the study will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for
your time and assistance.
Individual Characteristics
a) Your Gender: Male Female
b) Please fill in the name of the mobile telecom operator you are using now? (e.g. Tele2, Telia and so on ) _____________________________
Service quality
1. This mobile telecom operator follows up in a timely manner to customer requests. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
2. The frontline employees of this operator are always willing to help me. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
3. The response to consumers’ complaints are always taken quickly. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
4. This operator is consistent in providing good quality service. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
8. The pricing policies of products and services from this operator are attractive. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
9. The calling rate offered by this operator is reasonable. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
10. This operator is offering flexible pricing for various services that meet my needs. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
11. I will continue to stay with this operator unless the price is significantly higher for the same service.
12. I consider that this operator’s reputation is high. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
13. I have a good feeling about the operator’s social responsibility. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
14. The operator delivered a good brand image to its customers. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
Value Offered
15. The promotional offers from this operator were worth the money. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
16. It was easy to get benefits from the promotional offers. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
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17. The proposed rewards from this operator were what I wanted. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
18. It is highly likely that I will achieve the proposed reward. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
Trust
19. This operator is reliable because it is mainly concerned with the consumers’ interests. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
20. The billing system of this operator is trustworthy. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
21. The reputation of this operator is trustworthy. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
22. The policies and practices of this operator are trustworthy. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
23. The service process provided by this operator is secure. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
Satisfaction
24. I am satisfied with the overall service quality offered by this operator. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
25. I am satisfied with the professional competence of this operator. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
26. I am satisfied with the performance of the frontline employees of this operator. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
27. I am comfortable about the relationship with this operator. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
Switching costs:
28. I feel that switching to a new operator causes monetary cost. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
29. To switch to a new operator; I should compare all operators (on account of services, coverage area, billing, etc.)
33. I intend to continue using mobile services from this operator for a long time. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
34. If I want to change a new telecom service, I am willing to continue selecting this operator. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
35. Even if another operator’ price is lower, I will go on using this provider. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
36. I am willing to say positive things about this operator to other people. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
37. I will encourage friends and relatives to use the services offered by this operator. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
38. To me, this operator clearly is able to provide the best service. 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 neutral 2 disagree 1 strongly disagree
Thanks for your assistance! It is greatly appreciated!