Quality of Service, Product Quality and Customer Satisfaction in the Malaysian Retail Industry for Customer Loyalty: An Empirical Study.

Abstract

The aspect of customer loyalty is considered to be one of the important factors driving an organization’s longevity in today’s marketplace, as loyal customers show the desire to buy more the willingness to pay higher prices and engage in spreading the favourable word of mouth. Customer loyalty, along with customer satisfaction, is a consequence of three factors, especially service and product quality. Compared to existing customers, it is a commonly recognised notion that firms pay higher costs for marketing to new customers as the acquisition of new customers is perceived to be ten times more expensive than maintaining existing customers. It can be seen, despite understanding this, which many companies are still struggling to effectively maintain their customers. In view of this scenario, the current research upholds the objective of investigating the connections that take place in the context of the retail industry in Malaysia in the midst of the factors indicated above and consumer loyalty. Many hypotheses were built from a theoretical model for this reason, and the process that was applied to test them was also highlighted. Later on by means of questionnaires, the suggested hypotheses were checked. The findings of the empirical study revealed that service quality, product quality, and consumer satisfaction are three distinct constructs that are combined to measure customer loyalty, indicating that service and product quality have a comparatively greater effect on variable customer loyalty. It is suggested that future initiatives should be aimed at evaluating the effect on consumer loyalty of customer relationships, customer preferences and engagement, as well as extending research to other sectors in order to gain greater insights.