Authors:
Emiya Aruja
Data Impact Manager, Project Management Office, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust, England, Email: emiyaaruja@gmail.com
As countries emerge from the pangs of the pandemic, the rules of customer activation, engagement and advocacy are being rewritten. The researcher examines how functional and psychological benefits accrued from product attributes and the sales & service experience translate into loyalty for car buyers in an emerging market. There is a need for a comprehensive model examining the interrelationships between product, salesperson and dealer experience and brand loyalty. A structured questionnaire survey is administered to car buyers chosen through Systematic Random Sampling of customers from dealerships of a leading foreign car manufacturer. Subsequent analysis identifies customer satisfaction with the sales and service experience as being the most important variable influencing both dealer loyalty and brand loyalty, followed by satisfaction with product attributes. However, it is only when product satisfaction levels are low that other factors like after-sales & service experience and dealer loyalty become means for customer retention. Salesperson loyalty follows naturally from close the first customer-brand interactions while establishing dealer loyalty is a time-consuming process requiring multiple interactionsThe study takes a fresh look at the brand loyalty construct. Knowing that car buyers assign primary importance to product satisfaction, only in the absence of which other frills like service quality and dealer efficiency get noticed, can be of help to manufacturers in strategic planning. Additionally, the revelation that the salesperson- affinity is synonymous with product and dealer satisfaction for first time car buyers, forces dealers to revisit their human resource management policies.
Keywords: Dealer Experience, Brand Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Service Quality, Purchase Intention, Customer Experience
Received on: 02/02/2023, Revised on: 08/02/2023, Accepted on: 14/02/2023, Published on: 05/05/2023
SMS Journal of Business Management