The Creation of Customer Loyalty - A Qualitative Research of the Bank Sector

The purpose of this dissertation is to find out which parameters service companies are using in order to create customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Theories that we have chosen to consider deal with relationship marketing, service quality, different types of loyalty, customer value, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, loyalty programs, customer clubs, monetary benefits and social bonds. From parts of these theories we have created a model that we claim show how companies in the service sector create satisfied and loyal customers. To test our model in reality we conducted a case study with three companies in the bank sector. After the case study we refined our model so it better reflects reality. Our findings are that the parameter called social bonds has a significant importance for the companies we have studied. Monetary benefits and loyalty programs are other factors that the companies use to create satisfied and loyal customers. None of the companies we have studied use customer clubs as a parameter to create satisfied and loyal customers. More research has to be done and some suggestions for this will be given