Vi, 207 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2001 in the subject Business economics - Customer Relationship Management, CRM, grade: very good, University of Innsbruck (Institute for Corporate Leadership), language: English, abstract: ... 1.1 Problem Statement For many years, successful neighborhood merchants, restaurants and pubs had real customer relationships. They knew their customers personally, understood what they wanted, and, as best they could, satisfied their needs through personalized service. As a result, they earned loyalty and a large share of their customers′ business. Some of the best examples of building customer loyalty can be found in those traditional small businesses. Now the question arises how customer relationships can be built in the world of E-Business. E-Business - the buying and selling of products and services over the Web - and its impact is comparable with the industrial revolution at the end of the last century. After hysteric times of E-Business startups and well known bursting bubbles the point of disillusion has come. Some internet companies recognize that traditional business concepts are not necessarily outdated. Acquiring customers on the international marketplace of E-Business is enormously expensive and unless those customers stick around and make lots of repeat purchases over the years, profit will remain uncertain. For lasting success companies have to intensify their efforts towards customer loyalty and customer relationship management. Without loyalty even the best-designed E-Business model will collapse. This leads to the following objective. 1.2 Objective The objectives of the thesis are -to combine the concept of customer loyalty with the characteristics of E-Business -show how companies can build loyalty with customer relationship management 1.3 Relevance of the Topic 1.3.1 Theoretical Relevance Concerning E-Business there exists plenty of literature mainly from a technical point of view. The drawback is that although loyal

With the emergence of the internet as a new business channel and its impact on the overall role of today's customers, existing models for the measurement of perceived quality, satisfaction and loyalty are worth revisiting. This is specifically important in light of the prominent progress of some of the new business concepts, particularly customer experience management, and the rising emphasis on customers' hedonic and emotional needs. This study attempts to bridge the gap in existing literature by examining the online customer experience in its entirety, attending within the study to both the utilitarian and hedonic needs of online customers and giving special attention to emerging aspects in the online environment, such as customer engagement in self-driven experiences. Therefore, the study includes a comprehensive review of a large body of knowledge, both in consumer behaviour and marketing literature as well as quality management literature, in addition to a scrutiny of 50 studies for different evaluation models in the online environment. This is in order to identify a list of attributes and factors that impact customer evaluations of online experiences. Upon the synthesis of the list of attributes and factors that impact customer evaluations of online experiences, an online blog was created as an environment for asynchronous focus groups. The online blog was beneficial in creating a deeper understanding of what online customers want and what impacts their experiences. Following, an online questionnaire was administered in two stages, once for measure purification purposes which received 90 pilot responses and once for mass data collection purposes which received 366 responses. As a result of this study, an integrated model for the measurement of online customer experience that emphasises the significance of the emotional component was proposed. The model consists of three components, each serve a specific measurement purpose. The XQual construct which consists of 7 attributes and 30 factors, is a performance measure of the experience in relation to specific aspects that address customers' utilitarian and hedonic needs. The satisfaction continuum consists of four factors and is an output measure for each experience or transaction with the online firm. The loyalty continuum consists of four factors and is an outcome measure that indicates customers' attitudinal commitment towards the online firm.

Loyalty is one of the main assets of a brand. In today’s markets, achieving and maintaining loyal customers has become an increasingly complex challenge for brands due to the widespread acceptance and adoption of diverse technologies by which customers communicate with brands. Customers use different channels (physical, web, apps, social media) to seek information about a brand, communicate with it, chat about the brand and purchase its products. Firms are thus continuously changing and adapting their processes to provide customers with agile communication channels and coherent, integrated brand experiences through the different channels in which customers are present. In this context, understanding how brand management can improve value co-creation and multichannel experience—among other issues—and contribute to improving a brand’s portfolio of loyal customers constitutes an area of special interest for academics and marketing professionals. This Special Issue explores new areas of customer loyalty and brand management, providing new insights into the field. Both concepts have evolved over the last decade to encompass such concepts and practices as brand image, experiences, multichannel context, multimedia platforms and value co-creation, as well as relational variables such as trust, engagement and identification (among others).

Today, most firms employ online and offline distribution channels. Customers combine both channels for information search and purchase. However, researchers and practitioners are still lacking insight concerning the creation of additional customer value, in terms of a seamless purchase experience, by combining the online and offline channels. Also, it is unclear if these channel integration activities can actually help multichannel firms obtain a strategic advantage over their online pureplay competitors. Jochen Binder investigates how, why, and to what extent an integrated online channel increases customer value and leads to higher willingness to pay, customer loyalty and purchase intention in a firm's online and offline stores.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The thesis offers solutions concerning the following questions: - Why is customer loyalty important for long term success of a company? - What are value adding characteristics of E-Business? - How is customer relationship management defined? - How does relationship management help a company in the changing marketplace of E-Business? - How can a company build customer loyalty? - How to follow a step-by-step process in order to build lasting relatinships with customers? - What do best-practice companies manage relationships (including over 10 short case studies and practical experiences) - How to use online communities for customer loyalty? - What does datamining mean in the context of CRM? - How to integrate customers for customization and product innovations? - Why does a database give you the necessary information for knowing your customers? - What is the link between customer satisfaction, differentiation, and long term economic success - What are tools to implement the new approach of customer relationship management? - How to install an complaint management system in E-Business in order to build loyalty? The main objectives of the thesis are show how companies can build loyalty with customer relationship management to combine the concept of customer loyalty with the characteristics of E-BusinessCompanies in E-Business already realize that focusing only on customer acquisition is not enough for lasting success and are therefore intensifying efforts towards customer loyalty. According to recent studies only a small part of the companies know how many visitors they have on their Websites. And only some of them know the number of frequent/loyal buyers. A lack of customer knowledge and relationships with customers can get dangerous, especially in a scenario, where the competitive offer is only one click near by. The benefits of customer loyalty are directly measurable, knowing that the costs of taking care after loyal customers are many times below those of customer acquisition. From a practical point of view the aim of the thesis is to show how companies can build loyal online-customers in order to develop long-term business relationships. Drawing from international management literature, focusing on recently published articles in order to take into consideration the developments in the changing marketplace of information technology. Successful online companies and their practical experience should [...]