Service Quality And Customer Loyalty In A Chinese Context: Does Frequency Of Usage Matter?

by : Mandy Lei and Lancy Mac

(ANZMAC 2005 Conference: Services Marketing, pp. 138-145)

Abstract
It is commonly known that good quality service results in long-term customer loyalty (Zeithaml et al, 1996). This study seeks to investigate the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in the context of Macau, a small city in South China. Based on an empirical study of 387 valid responses, it is found that tangibles, assurance, empathy and responsiveness are important determinants of customer loyalty in the transport service sector.
Besides improving service quality, the public bus service providers should also consider offering differentiated service as it is found that frequency of usage of bus services does moderate the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty. A differentiated offer which meets high and low frequency users’ preferences will improve the overall customer loyalty and thus ensure long term profitability.
Keywords: service quality, customer loyalty, differentiation strategy

Background
Maintaining customer loyalty is one of the essential elements determining a company’s success or failure (Philips et al., 1983; Zeithaml et al., 1985; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990). Hence, companies strive to build good relationship with their customers. In addition, providing superior quality service is a critical factor in improving profitability (Reichheld & Sasser, 1990; Ghobadian et al., 1994). On the contrary, poor service quality is one of the main reasons why customers switch to competitors (Philips & Hazlett, 1997).
Therefore, long-term success of a service company is essentially determined by its ability to acquire and maintain a large and loyal customer base (Wong & Sohal, 2003). Developing and maintaining customer loyalty or creating long-term relationship with customers is the key to survival and growth of service firms (Duff, 1998; Griffin, 1995; Kandampully, 1988; Reichheld, 1996). The relationship between customer loyalty and service quality has been widely investigated (Oliver, 1980; Bearden & Teel, 1983; Zeithaml et al., 1996) and many found strong positive relationship between the two (Yi, 1991; Anderson & Sullivan, 1993; Boulding et al., 1993).....

Artikel lengkap dikompilasi oleh/hubungi :

Kanaidi, SE., M.Si (Penulis, Peneliti, PeBisnis, Trainer dan Dosen Marketing Management).
e-mail ke : kana_ati@yahoo.com atau kanaidi@poltekpos.ac.id

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