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.