A Comprehensive Study of Customer Satisfaction and Brand Loyalty

This research project delves into the multifaceted aspects of customer satisfaction and its profound impact on brand loyalty within a business context. It begins with a comprehensive literature review, exploring key concepts such as customer satisfaction, customer expectations and needs, and brand loyalty. The research identifies the significance of customer satisfaction in driving business success and explores various methods for enhancing it. Furthermore, it examines the impact of customer satisfaction on organizational brand loyalty, highlighting the importance of repeat customers, competitive differentiation, and overall business growth. The project employs a detailed research methodology, analyzing data through frequency distribution tables to provide insights into customer perceptions and preferences. The discussion section synthesizes the findings, focusing on themes related to customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and their implications for business strategy. The report concludes with actionable recommendations for businesses to improve customer satisfaction and foster stronger brand loyalty, ultimately leading to enhanced organizational performance and competitive advantage. The document provides valuable insights for students.

Research Project - Customer
satisfaction

Table of Contents
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
Customer satisfaction.............................................................................................................3
Customer expectation and needs............................................................................................4
Brand loyalty..........................................................................................................................4
Recognize the significance of customer satisfaction in business...........................................6
To identify various methods for increasing customer satisfaction.........................................8
Impact of customer satisfaction on organizational brand loyalty.........................................10
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................16
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS..........................................................................................25
Frequency Distribution Table...............................................................................................25
DISCUSSION................................................................................................................................51
Theme 1: Customer satisfaction along with their expectation and needs............................51
Theme 2: Concept of Brand loyalty.....................................................................................52
Theme 3: Significance of customer satisfaction in business................................................53
Theme 4: Various methods for increasing customer satisfaction.........................................54
Theme 5: Impact of customer satisfaction on organizational brand loyalty........................55
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................56
Conclusion............................................................................................................................56
Recommendation..................................................................................................................59
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................61
Appendix........................................................................................................................................64

LITERATURE REVIEW
Customer satisfaction
As per the view of Yi and Nataraajan (2018), Let first discuss what is customer and
satisfaction? Consumer are those people who make the final consumption of the goods and
services by paying the amount for it. Satisfaction means fulfilling the needs and wants of the
person. So together Customer satisfaction is defined as measurement techniques which is used by
the company to know how happy the consumer is when they purchase goods and services from
the organisation. Today's market is based in consumer, buyers are the king of market and every
organisation works to satisfy their consumer so that they can gain the market share. The
satisfaction level of the purchaser is being measure by various techniques like survey, face to
face interaction, filling the form etc. These all help the business to make the necessary
improvement about the product so that they can meet with the needs and wants. Satisfying the
customer is applied to all the sector whether it be a retail, wholesale or the company (El-Adly,
2019). Using various tool first company analysis the need of the buyer in the market and then
produce the product according to them. This is one of the vital process which helps to get the
indication about purchase intention and loyalty. If the consumer are satisfy with the purchase
them it will help the organisation to increase the brand loyalty. In turn it will enhance the growth
and revenue. One of the important tool theta can be used by every organisation is CSAT i.e. is
Customer satisfaction score survey. In this company can ask their customer to rate their
satisfaction level using a scale of 1 to 5. There are some of the advantages of customer
satisfaction as it will help to maximise the customer lifetime value, if the buyers satisfaction
level is high then it will help the company to gather the customer which will be lifetime loyal for
the organisation. It will also help the business to cut the cost which are required to incurred to
chase the new buyer. Lifetime customer will buy the goods and service for the specific business
again and again, this will help in increasing the return on investment which indirectly help the
business to gain more profit out of it. This also increase the sale of the company because if the
buyer are satisfy by the amount they paid then they will make their purchasing over and will also
increase the mouth publicity which will help the company to get new consumer and this directly
enhance the sale and will maximise the revenue of the company. The next benefit that can be
gained by this is maximising the brand image of the company. In recent era it is very important

to enhance the brand image because this will help the company to fight with the surrounding in
more effective and efficient manner. This not only help to gain opportunity but will assist in
gaining the competitive advantage from the competitor in such a way that it will become difficult
for them to compete (Rita, Oliveira and Farisa, 2019).
Customer expectation and needs
According to Seetharaman and et. al (2019), Customer expectation means the set of
behaviour that is expected by the consumer when they are interacting with the organisation.
Customer need means the things that is requires by them when the buy good. The basic
expectation and the needs of the buyers are price and the quality of the product. These two factor
plays a major role in the needs and wants of the purchaser. In this research he company the is
chosen is Kanaknidhi enterprise. The company produce the Mannequins, the mannequins that is
produced is for female, male and kids. The needs of the consumer from this company is
providing the model of different colour, size and fit. The consumer of these company will be the
the store who want to display their catalogue through using the fashion models. Customer
expectation are of different types like core expectation which means nucleus belief for the
product offer such as that they can easily communicate using the mobile phones or internet with
the manufacturer, as the company is suited in Gujarat so they need to be so profound that buyers
can easily interact with them. Next is Service expectation which means the experience that they
get when they buy the product. If the product is god but the service, they get while making the
purchase is also one of the type of customer expectation. So mannequins will provide the best
sale service to the buyers (Ma and Ren, 2018).
Brand loyalty
In the view of Atulkar (2020), Brand loyalty is the positive approach in the eye of the
organisation. The more the brand loyalty, the much market growth of the business. Brand loyalty
is defining as a technique which help to measure the level of attachment of buyer towards the
particular brand. Buyer who are loyal for the specific company then this will help the company
as purchaser will make a repeated purchase of the goods and services. The business makes a
huge investment in marketing so that they can maximise the brand loyalty and also increase the
brand awareness of the company. If the people are so loyal about the brand, then they will buy
the good in respect of the price and convenience. This will also help the company to gain the

competitive benefit in this dynamic environment. Brand loyalty is done by attracting the
consumer in making an innovative message, ideas, content so that they can target the specific
customer and in wide section. There is certain factor that influence the loyalty, these are:
Product quality: If business manufacture high quality goods and services then the
customer satisfaction will enhance which directly maximise the brand loyalty. As there are such
measures which helps the organisation to manage brand loyalty as for some customer’s quality is
regarded as the major aspect which lead the customers to manage their buying decisions.
Brand image: The more image of the brand the buyer will become more loyal toward the
company and will buy the product. Brand image helps the business in such a manner that
prominent edge can be received by the organisation in terms of gaining high customers. This is
analysed that brand image is the major aspect which is related with acquiring market image and
when an organisation is having significant brand image which means that the organisation will
have separate market edge.
Perceived value: The next factor which influence the brand loyalty is that the price that
is offered by the company and the amount paid by the buyer. Customer paying capacity is always
match to the value of the product. This will satisfy the customer purchasing power and will
enhance the trust (Kim, Choe and Petrick, 2018). The customers are related with gaining
perceived value in which the customers may take decision in terms of buying and this is the
aspect in which customers are associated with managing their needs and demands in appropriate
manner.
Switching Cost: This is also important as if the purchaser will get the same product in
cheaper price and the quality will match the brand product then they will switch to that
organisation. So it very important to pay attention on the price of the product from the
competitor. When customers are having zero switching cost then this is easier for the customers
to switch and this is regarded as the situation in which businesses may face issues. When
customers are not thinking regarding switching cost then they have higher brand loyalty towards
a brand. This is the scenario in which customers try to develop their belongingness towards the
brand and would be helpful in gaining benefits. This is stated that with the help of such
minimised switching cost but also retaining customers is one of the significant movement which
is related with managing customers and their needs.

There are various type of brand loyalty. Some of them are as follow:
Hard core loyal: These are those buyer who are so loyal to the company that they will
buy the product again from the same organisation and are strongly exponent towards the
business.
Spilt loyal: When the consumer are loyal for two to three brand and they have high
goods and service preferences.
Shifting loyal: These are those people who keep on switching from one brand to another.
They buy the branded product but from different companies.
Switchers: When the consumer are not loyal fro any brand and always look for the
product which is cheap in price.
Brand loyalty is very important in this fast changing environment, were taste and preference of
the buyers keeps on changing. There are certain benefits of brand loyalty as it will save the cost
which is required to be invested by the business to retain their buyers for longer time period. It
will also increase the marketing as mouth publicity of the company will automatically take place,
organisation need not to invest more of promotion (Joseph, Sivakumaran and Mathew, 2020).
Recognize the significance of customer satisfaction in business
According to Ilyas and et. al (2021),Customer satisfaction is keen so that the organisation
can retain the old buyers as well as can retained the new consumer for their goods and service.
Gone are the days when buyers purchase anything that is available. In the recent time the
consumer has wide option for the same product so it is very vital for the company to satisfy their
customer. They look for those product which is best in quality as well as they are satisfied by the
amount that they pay. If the buyers are satisfied with the product then company can get so many
benefits out of it. Some of them are:
Repeated customers: One of the significance of Customer satisfaction is that company
get the repeated customer. So if the buyers of the Kanaknidhi is satisfy by the goods and service
they offer then they will get the same consumer over and over. Kanaknidhi can know about the
satisfaction level of the buyers then they can know the buying round is through CSTS. This will
help the brand to know whether the consumer will buy in the future or not. This will also help to
retain there buyers from longer period of time. This Repeated customer will also act like an
assets for the Kanaknidhi (Huang, Lee and Chen, 2019). th

Competition differentiator: Today's era is so competitive. Every company fight to get
the number one position in the market. So in this huge competition customer satisfaction act as a
focal point for the brand. So if the customer satisfaction of Kanaknidhi is high then they can be
easily be differentiate from their competitors. This will also help the company to gain more
market share and increase the sale of the company. Competition differentiator will also help the
Kanaknidhi to be strong and be at the positions were no other company of Mannequins can
compete with them and customer will also prefer them among the other. Customer satisfaction is
highly important and significant for business organisation as it helps them in increasing their
sales and profitability. Competitors of an organisation love when other business provides bad
services as well as products, so they can swoop in along with convince customers to provide
them a try instead. Along with this, customers can feel a large difference between brands which
value their experience as well as brands that don’t. Therefore, customer satisfaction highly
significant for business organisation in attainment of competitive advantages as well as
maintaining strong brand position in marketplace.
Decrease the negative publicity: When the customer is unhappy with the brand product,
then they will give bad comments upon the goods and services of the company. So it is very
important for the company to satisfy their customer so that negative publicity of the brand cab be
eliminated. Customer satisfaction also act as promotional tool, the more happy the buyer, much
publicity can be done. One of the promotional activity that is done by them is mouth publicity. In
recent era mouth publicity is the key tool of marketing which help the company to gain more
customer and done marketing without incurring any cost (Park and et. Al, 2019). This is related
with managing market image and when an organisation is associated with significant publicity
aspects then this will lead into managing customer satisfaction.
Decrease customer churn: Customer churn means the degree of percent of consumer
that stop buying or using the company's goods and service for some time period. Customer
satisfaction plays a significant role were they reduce the customer turnover so that they market
share will remain same. For Kanaknidhi it is very important to minimise the churn because the
company manufactured those product were the competitor is low. So if it will increase then it
will affect their profit as well as their performance. This discontinue of the buyer is a great loss
for the brand and this will also decrease their image in the market (Slack and Singh, 2020).
When customers are happy with organisational offerings then this will lead the organisation to

manage their customer churning in which an organisation can manage customer satisfaction
level. With the help of customer satisfaction this is easier for the organisation to minimise
customer churning and this would be helpful in managing customers to longer duration of time.
Retention of the customer: Retaining the buyer for longer period helped the company to
achieve their goals and objective by enhancing the sale f the organisation. This not only help in
attaining the goals but also cut the cost which was required to gain more new purchaser for the
business. If Kanaknidhi will retain the buyer then this will help the company to cut the cost to 6-
7 times which is incurred to gain more new customers. This will also help the company to invest
that amount to improve the satisfaction level of the existing buyers in more better ways.
Customer loyalty: When the customer is satisfied by the product of the brand in terms of
quality and the price, then they will become loyal for the company. Customer loyalty is so
important that it help to grow in the future in more effective way. These loyal consumer will
make repeated purchase which will increase the sale and profit of the company. Loyal customer
are the main factor of the enhancing revenue for the organisation. So Kanaknidhi need to satisfy
their customer because it will help them to gain more loyal buyer for their mannequins and
increase the revenue which can be invested to expand their business in different parts
(Golovkova and et. Al, 2019). with the help of customer satisfaction this is easier for the
business to manage customer loyalty as this assists the business to take
Support pillars: One of the major significance of customer satisfaction for Kanaknidhi is
that it will act as a pillar at the time of uncertainty. If any crisis occurs while running the
company, theses purchaser will support the business as they care for the brand and will ready to
cope up the company from the threats. Because these satisfy customer trust the business and will
understand about any uncertainty. They will strongly cope up with the business and will do
whatever they can do for the organisation. In this fast changing environment, uncertainty can be
arose anytime so if customer will act as pillar then they can fight with the threat in more effective
manner (Zhou and et. Al, 2019).
To identify various methods for increasing customer satisfaction
As per the view of Hallencreutz and Parmler (2021), In this competitive market it is very
important for the brands to use various tools and techniques through which they can improve the
level of satisfaction of their buyers in great manner. The power of customer satisfaction is so
high that in this era they play a vital role for the company. Retaining the buyer and adding new

ones is beneficial for the business so that they can increase the production level and enhancing
the profit margin for there organisation. This profit that they can be used to do the market
research so that desire and wants of the buyer can be get according to the future need .
Some of the ways through which customer satisfaction can be improve are:
Understand the customer: The foremost factor that can be used by the company to
improve the level of satisfaction is that they should understand the buyers in more better way.
Understanding the consumer is very focal because the product is always consumed by the buyer
and if that is not made according to their desire then they will feel unhappy or unsatisfied.
Kanaknidhi should adopt this strategy as it will improve their understanding and will help them
to deliver the best experience to the buyers. Knowing the consumer help the business to connect
with them and make strong relationship and communication (Lucini and et. Al, 2020).
Provide Omni channel support: The next strategy that can be provide by the Kanaknidhi
is that they can deliver the Omni channel support to their buyers. In one of the study it is been
found that this is the best way to improve the customer satisfaction. This means the giving
service were the customer are, no need for then to make the physical appearance to
communicate. Omni Channel support will help the Kanaknidhi to streamline all the network like
text, email, phone, social media to make interaction. This strategy will boost the business
credibility. This will help the buyer to gain more insight about the brand profile and products.
Chatbots system: Kanaknidhi should designed their own chatbots so that they can provide
instant solution to the problem of the buyers. Instant reply is very important to satisfy the buyer,
if company does not do this then the customer will get frustrated and will make a bad reflection
of the business in their mind. Response time plays a vital role in satisfaction level. If this is
developed by the brand then the level of fulfilment will be high and they will become loyal about
the company's goods and services. There are so many option of chatbots like live chat, email,
customer support number and many more (Goshime, Kitaw and Jilcha, 2019).
Using customer etiquettes: It is very important for the business to use the proper norms,
ethics and values while they are making any transaction or communication with the buyers. It is
found that if proper ethics are not followed by the brands then the consumer will stop making
any purchase with the company. Kanaknidhi should use the proper etiquettes so that they can
improve the customer satisfaction. They will need to set some rule and regulation while they are

delivering services to the buyers. Some ethic are, language, using proper words and phrases,
listen properly, offering gratitudes and maintaing opacity.
Providing feedback option: having the feedback is one of the strategy that will help the
company to know about the brand products and service. This will also help to know the
satisfaction of consumer. If Kanaknidhi want to improve the level of customer satisfaction then
they need to provide an option to the purchaser so that they can give their view point. This
feedback need to be address by them in more effective manner because if the problem of the
buyer about the goods get solved then this will help them to build a strong relationship . This will
also develop a sense of belongingness (Zhang, Zhang. and Zhang, 2019).
Help the customer to help themselves: Another great factor that can be use to improve the
satisfaction level of the buyer is providing self service to them. This concept will work to
minimise the gap that arose between customer services. Kanaknidhi should designed there own
self service customer portal so that buyer can solve their problem by themselves. Some of the
self services tools are users forums, videos, tutorial guide and many more. This will help the
customer to gain the detail knowledge about the product use, date of manufacture, benefits of
using it and many more. This will help in enhancing the level of customer satisfaction toward the
brand and gain more market share.
Measuring the customer satisfaction: If the customer satisfaction is not measured on
regular basis then this will affect the performance level of the brand. It is very important for
Kanaknidhi to analysis the level on regular basis so that necessary steps can be taken by them to
improve the customer satisfaction. This will also help the brand to gain the opportunity and
remove the threats that are being placed. If this is done then it will give detail insights into the
business performance. There are so many tools that can be used to evaluate the degree some of
them are customer satisfaction surveys, customer satisfaction score, Net promoter scores,
Customer efforts score, social media monitoring and many more.
So theses all are the strategy that can be used by the company to improve the customer
satisfaction and gain the brand image (Solimun and Fernandes, 2018).
Impact of customer satisfaction on organizational brand loyalty
There is an positive relationship between the customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. If the
satisfaction level of the buyer increases then automatically the brand loyalty will enhance. The

quality and the price of the goods and services depends upon the customer satisfaction and in
return they are related to loyalty. In many of the research it is found that buyer satisfaction
influences the brand loyalty which in turn impact the profit of the company. If consumer are
satisfied by the goods and service they receive then they will become loyal, will make repeated
purchase. This repeatedly purchase increases the sale of the company. If the sale of the company
will enhance then the revenue will be increased. The company thus invest this in providing more
valuable product and enhance the fulfilment level. Not only this brand loyalty plays a major role
in enhancing the image of the company because it will create a good picture on other buyers
about the brand. One of the major impact of customer stratification is that if brand loyalty
increases then this will attract various investor towards the company which will ready to invest
their capital on the company. This will help the organisation to raise the fund and then use this
capital in different sector. They can use it for diversification and expansion. So if Kanaknidhi
satisfy their customer this will enhance the customer loyalty and in turn they can get capital
which they can use to expand their business In other part of the India. Kanaknidhi is the SMEs so
if they create a direct relationship between then then this will help them in great manner. The
company can also gain a large market share. In today's era if company want to earn more
revenue then they need to gain the market share because the customers are the ultimate
individual who is the assets for the company to earn great profit. Brand loyalty will also help
them to do modification in the goods and services because the buyer will definitely try the new
product that company produce. Sale plays a major role to run the brand for longer period of time
and this can be done only when the customer are loyal and will not switch to the substitute
goods. This will help them to reduce the switching cost and reduce the customer turnover. One of
the greatest benefit that can be get when the customer are satisfy and brand loyalty increase is
mouth publicity. The company does not need to invest more on gaining new buyers as automatic
publicity can be made by the loyal customer. Mouth publicity is the greatest source of marketing
and promotional activity.
Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty are regarded as two interdependent concept
which is regarded as the vital aspect within the business and would be helpful in changing
customer's purchasing intent as well. For an organisation their major objective is to manage their
market image in such a way that customer satisfaction can be attained by them which results the
business to grow and sustain to the longer period of time. In the current time market competition

is very fierce which means that businesses have to develop such specific methods in their
business by which they can deal with their competitors and acquire significant market edge as
well. Brand loyalty is defined as an association in which devotion of customer regarding
particular brand is examined. This leads the customer to make repetitive purchase from the brand
so that loyal customers can be developed by the organisation. Brand loyalty is related with
developing such measures in which an organisation may develop their edges in such way that it
can be helpful in managing resources and acquiring success as well. Brand loyalty is regarded as
one of the major element which helps the company to manage strong relationship with their
customers so that customers can be retained and significant image can be pertained in the minds
of customers. Brand loyalty is associated with repurchasing intent by the customers in which
repeated behaviour can be exerted by the customers.
Brand loyalty in the perspective of customers is related with psychological aspects in
which customers get to know about aspects of the organisation so that they can be attached to
business offerings and meet their own needs. This is need of the business that they create such
measures by which customers can be attracted and retained for longer duration. There are various
methods that can be used by the organisation in order to develop appropriate brand image into
the market and prominent in this is related with using significant marketing tactics. On the other
hand, with the help of managing brand image this is significant that to have involvement of
customers in which greater brand image can be developed. The company is associated with
managing brand image in such a way that brand loyalty can also be created and at the same time
this is related with examining performance and customer satisfaction as well. This is analysed
that customer satisfaction is directly linked with pertained brand image into the market which
leads the organisation to make strategies in proper way so that goal attainability can be rendered.
Brand loyalty is one of the essential measure which helps the brand to grow and acquire required
position into the market, in this manner such measures are to be used by the businesses so that
they can cover larger number of customer and maintain their pace into the market. Brands play
significant role in decision making of a customer and helps in attaining competitive edge as well.
This is one of the prominent move which is used by the organisation so that to cover number of
customers and to inhale higher degree of success. In order to build customer satisfaction brand
loyalty and brand image are two major aspects which are required to be maintained and could be
helpful for the business to attain required market edge. Customer satisfaction is the guiding