Customer Frustration in Loyalty Programs - Research Paper Example

This research is analyzed based on the Sekarana and Bougie framework for research method. The paper is aimed at making a comparative statement and finding out how well the authors have or have not fulfilled each one of the steps mentioned within the steps presented in the figure below. The research also analyses how well each step of the research is connected to the next step of research. The research paper within this study is a business research. By business research, it means that the data gathered and the objective of the research is directed towards addressing and answering causes for a business issue (Rojas, n.d.).

The research paper identifies customer dissatisfaction in relation to loyalty programs carried out in almost all industries today. This is relevant for the use of marketing managers who are engaged in customer relationship management services. Loyalty programs are a recent development in the field of customer retention attempts and management of customer relationship. Hence, managers within the industry are increasingly providing rewards for customer loyalty in the form of specialized services and rebates with a view to maintain such loyalty of the consumer and maintain long term business relationships.

It has been studied that certain attempt of customer retention initiatives can have serious negative effects and such loyalty programs can be perceived to be discretionary and creating value driven differentiation among customers (Charmaz & McMullen, 2011). There are frequent complains in discussion forums over the web about the ill effects and poor management of such loyalty programs. Such dissatisfaction reduced customer loyalty and thereby economic loss. In this view, the frustration criteria of customer with their experiences in customer loyalty programs was selected based on the idea that dissatisfaction experience by customers might appear reasonable but the study