The effect of relationship marketing on customer loyalty - A case study about Starbucks in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

Abstract

This research is carried out to examine four main factors of relationship marketing affecting on the customer loyalty in Starbucks, HCMC, Vietnam and discover the relationship of it towards customer satisfaction. Structured, close ended questions are used to collect primary data from the respondents. A five point Likert scale ranging from “totally disagree” to “totally agree” is used to measure the level of the level of the application of relationship marketing towards customer loyalty through customer satisfaction. A questionnaire is distributed to 300 respondents (including 154 online forms and 146 offline forms at ten branches of Starbucks Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. Those four key factors result in customer satisfaction at Starbucks Vietnam in HCMC market, concluding Customer Trust, Customer Service, Customer Communication and Customer Conflict Handling from both negative and positive sides. For the same aspect, the customer satisfaction also has a positive correlation influencing their Customer Loyalty factor. Managers of Starbucks Vietnam can understand more about customer wants and needs so as to satisfy them in effective ways, which will indicate their loyalty towards this brand. Moreover, Starbucks can also foster their profit margin as well as facilitate their reputation in HCMC market in specific and in Vietnamese market in general. Moreover, these days, there are so many coffee shops recently shut down, both domestic chains and foreign chains. Therefore, this research can support those entrepreneurs who are going to open coffee shops or even the owners of some existing brands in Vietnamese market so that they can take see how and why Starbucks has gained customer loyalty. The influence of customer satisfaction towards customer loyalty should be significantly considered. From this, managers of Starbucks Vietnam can put emphasis on satisfying customers and meet or exceed their expectation.