Customer Relationship Management within the Industry of Speciality Stores : How customer loyalty can be explained by satisfaction, trust and commitment

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to explain how satisfaction, trust and commitment impacts customer retention and word-of-mouth communication within the industry of Speciality Stores. The study takes off from a historical perspective where the development of marketing is presented, which ultimately leads to customer relationship management (CRM). The study raises the components of customer loyalty and the difficulties of how to build successful customer relationships within the industry of Speciality Stores. A survey questionnaire is conducted and distributed digitally to respondents that are customers of an anonymous company within the industry under investigation. The main findings in this study are that companies within the industry of Speciality Stores can achieve word-of-mouth communication through customer satisfaction and trust. The study also finds that the features of customer satisfaction have a stronger impact on word-of-mouth communication than the features of trust. This means that it is these features of the ones treated in this study that companies within the industry of Speciality Stores should enact in order to best achieve word-of-mouth communication among its customers.