E/M/46. Dissertation. Research customer loyalty in services industry

The enterprises of China, especially services firms, are confronted with the competitive circumstance which is increasingly furious in the movement of acceleration of global economy integration and Chinas access into the international commerce circulation. The importance of customer retention has been valued in the field of both academe and industry. Loyal customers are the source of competitive advantage, and that the bedrock of existence and development of any company. This study tries to put forward a series of tactics about customer loyalty for service firms base on the research of overseas and domestic scholars in this field as well as the operation experience of successful service firms. At first, this study defines the implied meaning of service loyalty and identifies a number of antecedents to service loyalty from both direct and indirect ways based on the review and critique of correlative research contributed by western scholars in the field of service marketing. Furthermore it advance the concept of customer perceived value to explain the antecedents to service loyalty. Secondly, it analyses how the consequence of customer loyalty can bring benefit to the company. Moreover, customer lifetime value and service recovery,both the most important concepts with service loyalty,are discussed in order to give reference to the marketing tactic formulation. In the end, a series of tactics about customer loyalty for service firms is proposed which is consisting of four constructs, namely: core customer identification, customer knowledge system and customer club. After the entry of WTO, the domestic service market will open to foreign capital step by step in various industries, so those immature domestic service firms are about to sustain more impact. The aim of this study is to promote the recognition and understanding of customer loyalty and its importance for service firms, and it also hopes that it will be helpful for those who set about the customer loyalty management in its company.