The effect of customer card programs

Abstract

In the service industry, loyalty cards represent an established phenomenon (e.g. hotel and airline industry). Developing this knowledge, the present study focuses on the role of loyalty‐card programs in establishing loyalty towards a retail store. The impact of store satisfaction and these loyalty‐card programs on store loyalty is tested empirically. Therefore, a survey was performed among 333 grocery store customers in Singapore and The Netherlands. The comparative findings demonstrate that these programs do indeed impact on attitudinal as well as behavioural store loyalty, as long as the number of alternative programs is limited and customers over time have not become accustomed to loyalty cards.