Towards understanding customer loyalty: An empirical study on emotional attachment
Abstract
Customer loyalty is considered to be one of the most important objectives of a firm today. However, despite all the efforts of companies, ‘loyal’ customers still seem to want to switch to competition. Researchers believe that this is due to the way we measure and classify loyalty. Three different methods have emerged, behavioral loyalty, attitudinal loyalty, and emotional attachment. Research points out that emotional attachment is the best, producing the greatest results for firms. Unfortunately, not much is known about what distinguishes emotionally attached customers from those with positive attitudes. This research seeks to clarify this distinction. The research was conducted through four case studies, through in-depth interview with 40 loyal customers in two cultural settings (individualist vs. collectivist). The research has found that there are a number of key factors that are important in identifying these two types of customers. Many of the factors are concurrent with past research; however, past research was not able to identify the intensity of these factors. Moreover, the research has also discovered factors that lead some customers to become emotionally attached, whereas others remain in ‘lower’ categories. The findings of this research are crucial to both managers as well as researchers. Managers can use this data to improve their understanding of the types of loyal customers within their organization, and thereby develop appropriate marketing strategies. For researchers, it builds a foundation for further research into this area to enhance our understanding of this phenomenon.
Keywords
References
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