An Exploratory Study on the Scale Development for Perceived Attributes of Loyalty Programmes

Purpose of the study: The present study is aimed at developing the scale items for widely used loyalty programmes for customers i.e., membership programmes; reward-point system; and gift vouchers/coupons.

Design/ Methodology/ Approach: A convenience sampling technique (197 samples) was utilized for data collection. The data has been collected through a well-structured questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale. The relevant data was processed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using IBM-SPSS 20 and IBM-SPSS AMOS 26 software.

Research Type: Exploratory research study.

Findings: The study explored and confirmed the selected loyalty programmes’ attributes (scale items) perceived by the customers. All the attributes were explored according to the standard criteria and the items were confirmed well to their respective constructs. Also, these items held good to adequate values of various model fit measures.

Originality/ Value: This is an original contribution of the authors. From a scholarly perspective, this study expands the existing body of knowledge about customer relationship marketing by outlining different attributes of the loyalty programmes that customers may perceive. The scale would assist marketers in designing and evaluating their loyalty programmes’ performance with customers’ needs and expectations, and identify the potential intensity and defects of the programmes. It would assist them in enhancing the effectiveness of customer relationships networking, designing a competitive edge over competitors, establishing intent for (re) purchase, building long-term loyalty and word of mouth publicity. Consequently, customers will benefit from better deal options from competitive marketers.