From : Elena Vignerte
To : Russel Lacey
MBA – MARKETING
Nov. 11 – 2014
CASE MEMO
Olympic Rent-A-Car US : Customer Loyalty Battles
CASE SUMMARY :
Olympic-rent-a-car is one of the US car renting company leader. The company was founded in 1976 by John Uelses, with a franchising model. The initial strategy of the company was to price lower than the main competitors. With a promotion, advertizing and franchizing strategy, the company reached to catch 7% of the market shares in 2012. By starting operating in the major airports, the company reached to extend by acquiring new smaller firms : in 2012 the company counted more than 460 rental locations across the USA and possessed a huge car fleet even if is still below the industry average.
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OPTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES:
To face to the customer loyalty and retention problem, the Olympic company has tried to implement different options. First of all, the company can change it customer loyalty program offer by eliminating blackout days, and offering more discount bonuses and free-rides.
Another aspect the company needs to take into consideration is about the company’s positioning. The company needs to take into consideration how customers perceive brand and related services to be sure they won’t go toward competitors offer even if they offer higher prices that Olympic does.
Many different alternatives exist to face the customer retention problem. One good alternative would be to use and develop a strong customer relation management strategy. With the information collected from the customer loyalty system, the company needs to develop a customer relation service. To improve the perceived value of the brand, the company should create a very developed customer service with a dedicated customer service number and an easy way to order cars. In the airports and main retail places, the company should develop a specific office/desk dedicated to the premium customers and those who have loyalty cards. So that, the consumers don’t lose time and can enjoy of a best quality service.
Another alternative to
The company knows the demands of the customers and they are well orientated in the service and the knowledge of the products and this is the element that makes them prosperous. Jean’s Rare Find Books belief in customer service and satisfaction enables a comfortable and peaceful atmosphere and in return produces a strong customer loyalty for the company. Customer satisfaction and customer retention externally and internally is measured by the perspective of the customers and thus implements the reason for the company’s prosperity. Customer perspective is a key factor on how the customer views the company.
There exist numerous marketing hypotheses and frameworks that aim to better understand why customer relationships, retention and satisfaction are so important. For example, marketers try to segregate the different types of customer loyalty, framing them under factors of ‘repeat patronage’ and ‘relative attitude’. Also, customer loyalty levels are ranked along a “loyalty ladder” that identifies the most profitable customers to whom the firm should target marketing strategies towards. Finally, customer satisfaction, a driver of loyalty, is summarised into a conceptual framework known as “customer response zones”. The firm has two major goals in mind when implementing this strategy. Freed (2014) states Qantas’s intentions to “…boost engagement with customers and revenue from its loyalty partners”. It aims to build a culture of engagement associated with positive and personalised experiences in dealing with the company.
Customer loyalty plays a very vital role in an organization’s success or not always, is a very interesting debate. It has been suggested at several literature that loyal customer generates ongoing revenue and they also assist in generating profitable business income to any organization. At the same time research also suggests that there are other views available in relation to the concept of loyalty. The important factor to understand is weather those factors lead to long term business profitability or not. In my opinion regardless of other considerations, customer loyalty plays a great input in the business benefits and revenue. Today’s literature review will put some light on both customer loyalty as well as other consideration. It will further emphases the importance of the customer loyalty aspect and its impact on the revenue of the firm by supporting the concept of customer loyalty.
The fundamental principle upon which relationship marketing is founded is that the greater the level of customer satisfaction with the relationship – not just the product or service – then the greater the likelihood that the customer will stay with us. The importance of retaining customers is that there is strong evidence that customer retention and
Second, the customers switching costs was small. Members were likely to drop out anytime they like or renew membership. According to statistics, about 30% of members dropped out after a year and 70% members renew their yearly subscription every year. Because of this situation, the competition between the exiting competitors had become more intense. As noted before, the company should provide diverse products and addition of new programs to get back members.
According to the text, on Olympic.org (2017), the Olympic Games are one of the most effective global marketing platforms reaching billions in over 200 countries and territories. Corporate partners help provide vital technical services, product support, Games staging, and operations of every organization within the Olympic Program (Olympic.org, 2017). Olympic sponsorships create images of brand goodwill, build awareness and communicate messages, and afford employee reward and client entertainment opportunities (Keller, 2014). These
Retention is a reflection of a customer’s willingness to remain with a particular company’s service or products and is useful to measure customer loyalty. The relationship
Top management of GoodLife was not happy with this figure as they are losing 40 percent of its customers annually. With an increase of 1 percent customer retention rate, the company will earn $35,000 of gross revenue. There are several problems and intermediate causes that lead to the low customer retention rate issue and the cause-and-effect relationship was shown in diagram 1. The major problems are low customer satisfaction, low brand equity and personal factors. Customer satisfaction in GoodLife is low mainly due to little or no personal relationship and equipment or facilities problems. GoodLife received dozens of verbal and written complaints or concerns every week dealt with equipments and staff problems. In addition, we have identified some intermediate causes that would lead to no personal relationship problem. For instance, shortage of database marketing and branding exercise might directly or indirectly induce this problem. Also, branding exercise was seen as an important factor that contributes to low brand equity as a good brand equity consists of both brand awareness and brand meaning elements. Overall, we think that no personal relationship was the central problem that would directly or indirectly lead to the issue of low customer retention rate. We must focus on this problem if we want to increase customer retention rate in GoodLife.
7. Consumer loyalty needs to be increased: - The main recommendation is to increase the good relationship with the consumer at all. The reason is that if there is a good relationship between the organisation and the consumer then the benefit will be to the organisation as good relationship sometimes helps to reduce expense on the other factors like huge expense that is done on the advertising of the brand of the organisation. In Asian markets, areas such as relationship building and a ‘benefit-the-country’ attitude are sometimes more important than investing enormous amounts on advertising (LaForet and Chen, 2012).
This research proposal aims to address the several customer retention strategies implemented by the famous food chain restaurant, Mc Donald. Bearing in mind the increased significance of enhanced customer relationships, this topic is worthwhile to be examined for gaining an insight about the different tactics and strategies used by large organizations to sustain the dynamic environment characterized by fierce competition.
Customer loyalty is much harder to obtain that customer service satisfaction. The most important first step is to satisfy the customer by meeting their expectations. Customers only give a company one chance and if they aren’t satisfied they will not do business with that company again, as well as tell others of their experience. The next step would be to exceed the customer’s expectations. If a business goes above and beyond to assist the customer they begin to build loyalty. The next step is to truly surprise the customer. In order to dominate the marketplace the company must find a way to make them selves stand out with their product or service, accompanied with phenomenal customer service. Once this has been done customer satisfaction and loyalty will be gained. “Acquiring a new customer can cost four or five times more than keeping a current customer” (Bestmark, 2013). So it’s essential to keep the current customer’s happy and coming back for more.
For businesses, the use of the trademark of the Olympic Games within the period can be effectively promoted to sales or corporate image, and it can make the brand reaching billions of people in over two hundred countries and city throughout the world. So that the IOC released a programme named “The Olympic Partner Programme” (TOP Programme). Its revenue generated by commercial partnerships can accounts for more than 40%
It is imperative to satisfy customers and give them an amazing experience at the company. While it cost less to sell to existing customers and companies can increase profit by selling to the same customers; if customers are satisfied, there is more chance they will come back for more services or products. Satisfied customers are a free marketing for the company. However, it is the opposite if customers are dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customer will tell 8 to 10 people about his or her experience (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004). If by any reason, representatives see that the customer is not satisfy, they should act fast and fix the problem. Furthermore, there is more chance for sale representatives to sell to an existing customer that to a new customer. A good strategy for customer retention is to reward good customers. Companies can easily do
The most important aspect of any company that is involved in medium to big projects, is the company’s relationship with its clients. It is so important that companies like BNSF Railways, which was awarded Customer Relationship Management Excellence Awards in 2006 by Gartner Inc. (Schwalbe, K., pp 56, 2010), boosted its sales by simply investing more in customer relationship management. To reinforce the importance of CRM, studies conducted by HUFS College of Business, Korea, suggests that implementation of a good CRM positively impacts the customer satisfaction (Adalikwu, C., pp 6684, 2012).
with the service seems to be insufficient for customers to remain loyal. Creating customer loyalty is