Customer Loyalty: The Roles of Perceived Value and Satisfaction from Electronic Customer Relationship Management Features

By

[Name of the Author]

[Name of the Supervisor]



Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

Research aims & objectives:

1)To gain better understanding of the consumers' perceptions of satisfaction and value from e-CRM features at a transaction cycle (i.e. pre-sale, sale and post-sale stages).

2)To explore the simultaneous impacts of satisfaction and perceived value derived from e-CRM features towards customer loyalty of a website.

3)To uncover any relationship and/or linkages between e-CRM features and customer loyalty.

The research objectives above are aimed at answerngi the following guiding research question: How can electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) features be designed effectively in enhancing customer loyalty? The findings obtained will be compared to the generalised review of the literature critically so as to provide the best possible answers to the following sub-questions, which are open-ended to allow exploring the topic effectively.

The sub-questions:

1. How do the pre-sales, sales and post-sales features of e-CRM affect satisfaction and value perceived by a customer?

2. How do satisfaction and perceived value from e-CRM features influence customer loyalty towards a website?

Research Interest:

I have worked in an international airline more than 10 years in Asia and witnessed e-commerce changing the marketing strategy in the region in recent years, which has transformed the people in the way of buying air tickets from traditional travel agents to the formation of e-ticketing. In view of this, it is important for companies to enhance customer loyalty by developing and implementing better e-CRM features as a business strategy in order to maintain competitive positioning in the intensified market of cyberspace and get competitive advantages against the rivals.

Recent studies highlight the importance of e-CRM in enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty, however how e-CRM features affect customer satisfaction (Feinberg & Kadam, 2002a and Khalifa & Shen, 2005) and perceived value, which in turn leads to e-retention / e-loyalty is still not clear and needs further research. The proposed study not only aims to contribute to the pool of knowledge about “e-retention” and “e-loyalty” but also attempts to reduce the gap by investigating how e-CRM, perceived values, customer satisfaction and e-loyalty are related in the setting of business-to-consumer e-commerce.

After all, it is of both business and personal interest for the proposed project as it may contribute academically and practically. Academically, the findings may help marketers understand the customers' needs and expectations as well as the connections between customer satisfaction and perceived value from the e-CRM features towards customer loyalty, which can form a basic framework for further studies. Practically, it may also contribute a beneficial application to other online business because the data given by various customer groups can add values in reassess e-CRM initiatives for managers, in designing and implementing more effective customer retention and acquisition strategies.



Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Sanayei, Ansari, & Ranjbarian (2010:130), an effective marketing approach of a technology adoption model (TAM) as an e-CRM system must be easy for customers to use and must incorporate features that the passengers perceive as valuable and useful. ...