Loyalty Programmes in Hotels - Dissertation Example

As the essay stresses in a Loyalty Program, customers accumulate assets, points or rewards by accumulating their purchases from a focal firm which can be exchanged for goods or services, though not always associated with the firm. Usually this takes the form of points that can be exchanged for gifts, free product, or aspirational rewards such as air miles. According to the paper findings the objective of loyalty programme is not just to create satisfied customers, because satisfied customers may or may not be loyal.

The purpose of loyalty programmes is in fact to build such relationships with customers (through constant interaction and communication) that they repeatedly opt for a specific product, despite available choices and even in the face of less expensive choices. Loyalty programs aim at building true loyalty (both attitudinal and behavioural ) . Loyalty Programs have three additional objectives. While there are several interpretations that exist on what customer loyalty means, for the purpose of this research it is assumed that loyalty is something that makes a customer purchase the same service/ product or brand more frequently and inhibits the customer from choosing other available options.

Most firms design their loyalty programs by firstly conducting surveys, focus groups ,and researches to determine the core aspects required in their loyalty programs in order to create a long lasting relationship with the customers. Last two to three years have seen the emergence of a lot of firms that take up the task of designing customized loyalty programs for other firms (Joshi, 2009).They also assist the other firms in finding the customer satisfaction levels with the current loyalty programs by means of