Project Team: Ms. Martina Donnelly, Dr. Mary T. Holden ([email protected]), Dr. Patrick Lynch ([email protected])
This project was funded by Fáilte Ireland Scholarship Scheme. It had a lead time of 24 months, and was completed in September 2009.
The Project Aim:
The overall aim of this research was to identify and explore the major determinants in relation to building customer loyalty, specifically the customer experience variable. In this respect, the research objectives that emanated from the review of the literature are to:
• Examine the relationship between customer experiences and customer loyalty.
• Identify and examine current customer experiences with regard to functional, mechanic and humanic clues within the hotel sector in the South East of Ireland.
• Develop a detailed blueprint of the customer experience in relation to the hotel stay.
• Identify and explore the interrelationships that exist between the variables – perceived customer experience, service quality, customer value, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
• Develop a new and more dynamic loyalty-building model.
• To develop an extensive list of ‘best practice’ guidelines on managing loyalty-building customer experiences.
Methods:
The study utilised two phases of data collection – an initial qualitative phase followed by a second phase involving a quantitative methodology. The study collected data from both sides of a dyad: key informants from the hotel industry and the hotels’ customers. The study involved assessing three and four star hotels in the cities of Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny in the South East region of Ireland.
Engagement Activity:
This research project, given its multi case study design, and quantitative methodology involved significant and prolonged engagement with industry practitioners.
Impact:
Due to the lack of research and interest in this area, this study not only contributes substantially to extant academic knowledge, but also makes a significant contribution to tourism practice. Ultimately it bridges the knowledge gap by conceptualising customer loyalty through identifying a number of key determinants. Hence, a major theoretical contribution of this thesis is the fact that it both synthesises and builds on extant efforts to conceptualise and build loyalty. The main practical implication is that it provides best practice guidelines for building customer loyalty through the customer experience. Indeed, for destination managers it highlights the importance of focusing on each of the experience clues – functional,
mechanic and humanic – in order to create the total customer experience, a key determinant in building customer loyalty. Furthermore, this study also offers a methodological contribution of data collection in the form of blueprinting – a critical technique in illustrating the customer experience process. While this technique has been in existence for the last twenty years, it has not commonly utilised. Therefore, this study offers a guideline for future researchers in terms of this data collection technique.
RIKON 2013.