Improvements

According to the case company statistics, more than 80% of the marketing messages are based on the discount offers. These messages are meant to attract new customers. However, the loyal customers of the company, interviewed in the research process, said that they liked the friendly atmosphere in the salon and the ease of the communication with the represantatives of the brand. The author of this thesis thinks that the marketing department of the company could implement new marketing efforts based on the insights from the customers’

points of view.

Figure 11. Positive factors of the case company by the customers’ opinion One of the questions in the interviews was to wish the improvements for the case company. The customers pointed attention at the creation of a loyalty system and improvement of the inside look of the studio. However, the interviewees couldn’t formulate how they wanted the loyalty system to look like. The case for them is the attention by the brand to them as loyal customers. This fact illustrated the importance of this research and the outcomes of it. The interior factor was planned to be improved, the plan of the reconstruction was scheduled and marked as a part of the loyalty program.

The overall insights about the imrpovements which the loyal customers notice and appreciate are listed below:

• Employee training – to improve the professional and communicational skills of the hairdressers and administrators of the studio.

• Renovation of the interior – to increase the customer’s satisfaction by the visual decor. The concept can be based on the regular improvements with little budget: changing the color of the walls, printing out the best pictures of the works of the hairdressers and putting them on the walls, little interior details.

• Customer loyalty program – to show the loyalty from the brand towards its customers. The customers want to be rewarded for their loyalty and the company wants to keep the loyal customers. The implementation of the loyalty program is a win-win approach.

In the theory part of this thesis the different types of customer loyalty were discussed. The sustainable level of loyalty is the attitudional loyalty when a customer buys from a particular firm not just because of the locational or price factors but due to the specific attitude she has about the firm. The investigation of this research showed that the loyal customers, interviewed by the author, had the attitudional loyalty because they apprciated the friendly atmosphere and the communication process with the hairdressers. In the author’s opinion, this fact showed the improtance of the employee trainings in the field of communication.

This type of trainings must be appreciated as an important part of the customer loyalty program.

5 Conclusion and discussion

The goal of this study was to create the concept of the customer loyalty program for the case company. To do so, the investigation about the loyal customers of the company was implemented. The outcomes from the investigation in combination with the outcomes from the theory part became the basis for the primary goal of the thesis. The concept of the loyalty program was created.

The results of the interviews with the loyal customers of the case company showed the high level of the loyalty provided by the customers. The participants

of the interviews introduced their ability to stay loyal even if they meet an unpleasant experience with the company’s services. This fact showed a high level of trust which is one of the basic layers of the relationships between the customers and the brand. The loyals were asked about the specific features of the company which affected their loyalty. The outcomes were – communication with the representatives of the brand and the diversity of prices. One of the conclusion made by the author of this thesis was that the employee training was an important part of the customer loyalty program. As the loyal customers marked the communication with the hairdressers as the positive factor, the employee training in the field of communication was comparely more important than the hairdressing professional skills training.

The outcomes of the theory part showed that thr creation of the customer loyalty program was a comprehensive and a long-term process. It touched all the deparments of the company. The internal communication must be orgnaized at a high level of data sharing with maximum reduction in delays and data confusion.

The brand’s representatives who have the direct contact with the customers must be well prepared and trained. The information about the customers must be collected and stored with a high level of commitment and trust.

The basic concept of the customer loyalty program implemented in this research is the result of the combination of the theory and empirical parts. The scenario of the empirical part was made due to the most valuable insights from the theory part. The first step was to define the goals and metrics of success for the customer loyalty program. The second step was to examine the specific features of the company which affected positively the level of satisfaction of the loyal customers. The third step was to analyze the results of the interviews with the loyal customers. The last step was the creation of the customer loyalty program for the case company. The concept is only the basic model. Futher surveys, calculations and instruments are to be implemented in the case company.

The empricial part of this thesis had several delimitations. The target group for the interviews was comparely narrow – 17 loyal customers. The qualitative research method lead the examination of the loyalty phenomena. The participants of the interviews marked what affected their level of satisfaction

within the case company. For the future development of the customer loyalty program it is advised to implement a quantitative customer survey to define the customers into segments based on their needs and expectations. This is important due to the statistics of the company showing that the total number of the customer per month is 5500 people in average.

Figures

Figure 1. Theoretical framework of the study, p. 9

Figure 2. The IDIC model (Peppers & Rogers 2017), p. 12

Figure 3. the Expectation-Confirmation Theory (Kristensen et al. 1999), p. 16 Figure 4. Elements of a customer loyalty program concept (Butscher 2002), p. 20 Figure 5. Figure 6. Pareto framework (Williams 2014), p. 26

Figure 6. Traditional approach of customers segmentation (Williams 2014), p. 27 Figure 7. The communication chart. Based on the sources: Butscher (2002) and Peppers & Rogers (2017), p. 33

Figure 8. Diagrams of customer's touches (Mann et al. 2017), p. 36 Figure 9. The diagram of the return frquency, p. 42

Figure 10. The preferences in receiving an information flow, p. 44

Figure 11. Positive factors of the case company by the customers’ opinion, p. 45 Figure 12. The chart of the brand-to-customers touches, p. Ошибка! Закладка не определена.

Tables

Table 1. Examples of metrics of a customer loyalty program, p. 24

Table 2. Customers differentiation based on the value provided for the company, p. Ошибка! Закладка не определена.

Table 3. Customer differentiation based on the repurchase frequency, p.

Ошибка! Закладка не определена.

Table 4. The benefits for the customers, p. Ошибка! Закладка не определена.

Table 5. The margin without the customer loyalty program, p. Ошибка!

Закладка не определена.

Table 6. The margin with the customer loyalty program, p. Ошибка! Закладка не определена.

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Appenix 1. Interviews with the customers (English version) 1(2)

Appenix 1. Interviews with the customers (English version) 2(2)

Appenix 2. Interviews with the customers (Russian version) 1(2)