1.
With what components of the consumer purchase behaviour model is customer satisfaction associated? How are customer expectations related to customer satisfaction?
Customer satisfaction is a post purchase feeling with the feedback loops to the prior stages in the consumer purchase behaviour model. It is determined through what a customer expected to get prior purchase and what they actually did get post purchase. From that, customers determine a value for the product which can impact on future sales for a particular organisation or product. For example, if a customer was to go to a garage that advertised that they were the best garage in town to fix up cars but, then did not back up on their advertisement, the customer may become dissatisfied because, they went to that garage expecting them to do the best service for their car in town but then did not. This will lose value for their services and become dissatisfied. This may impact on future sales as they may not trust this garage and lose loyalty and commitment in purchasing their services in the future.
2. What are the different “versions” of loyalty that may be considered relevant for the organisation? Do all of the organisation’s customers exhibit similar type loyalty to the organisation? Explain
The different versions of loyalties can be varied through a ladder. On the top of the ladder, you have emotional loyalty. These are the customers that are emotionally tied and are willing to go out of their way to become advocates for a particular organisation through various factors such as validation and chemistry. For example, someone might be emotionally loyal to a particular Nike shoe because their favourite sport star wears the exact same shoe.
The second top on the ladder would be attitudinal loyalty. These are the customers who prefer to buy from only one particular organistion because they believe that they are the right brand for them. So, they believe that they give the right value, do things correctly, offer the right ranges, produce the right ranges, satisfies their customer, etc. A good example could be a particular person buying only Nissan cars. They do it because they believe in the Nissan cars, they like the feel, they like the different sizes, they like the price and the aesthetics that a Nissan provides. Those are a few examples of why someone would have an attitudinal loyalty towards Nissan.
Moving down the ladder, there is behaviorally loyal customers. These are the customers that are simply purchasing for a organisation because they believe that it is the best option for value and product for them in the current market. They will discontinue being a loyal customer when another organisation offers a better valued product in the market.
Finally at the bottom of the ladder, we have the occasional customers. These are the one off customers who simply go into your store and purchases a product without the sense of loyalty. They do it because your store was there at the right time. A good example could be a purchase in a convenience store. The person might be wanting a bottle of coke and simply looked for the nearest store that sold coke.
Not all organisation’s customer exhibit similar type of loyalty. In every organisation, there would be customers who are emotionally loyal, attitudinal loyal, behavioral loyal or just occasional customers. This is dependent on a customer’s relationship with a particular organisation. For example, a hairdresser would have all types of loyalty customers. An emotionally loyal customer towards a hairdresser could maybe have emotional connections with a particular staff. They may have a good connection, chemistry or simply like the hairdresser a lot. Thus, the customer would go to only that hairdresser because they are emotionally tied with one of their staffs and would even act as an advocate for that particular staff. An attitudinal loyal customer for that