INMA_A01.QXD

which makes it difficult to build online relationships. Note, however, that online service

quality is also dependent on other aspects of the service experience including the offline

component of the service such as fulfilment and the core and extended product offer

including pricing. If the customer experience is satisfactory, it can be suggested that cus-

tomer loyalty will develop.

Reichheld and Schefter (2000) suggest that it is key for organisations to understand,

not only what determines service quality and customer satisfaction, but loyalty or repeat

purchases. From their research, they suggest five ‘primary determinants of loyalty’ online:

1 quality customer support;

2 on-time delivery;

3 compelling product presentations;

4 convenient and reasonably priced shipping and handling;

5 clear trustworthy privacy policies.

Figure 7.13 shows a more recent compilation of consumers’ opinions of the impor-

tance of these loyalty drivers in the online context. It can be seen that it is the after-sales

support and service which are considered to be most important – the ease of use and

navigation are relatively unimportant.

Of course, the precise nature of the loyalty drivers will differ between companies.

Reichheld and Schefter (2000) reported that Dell Computer has created a customer expe-

rience council that has researched key loyalty drivers, identified measures to track these

and put in place an action plan to improve loyalty. The loyalty drivers and their sum-

mary metrics were:

1 Driver: order fulfilment. Metrics: ship to target – percentage that ship on time exactly

as the customer specified.

2 Driver: product performance. Metrics: initial field incident rate – the frequency of prob-

lems experienced by customers.

CHAPTER 7· DELIVERING THE ONLINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Figure 7.13Customer ratings of importance of attributes of online experience

Source: J.P. Morgan report on e-tailing 2000

20

Price

Selection

Navigation

Product info

Ease of ordering

Privacy policies

Product content

Fulfilment

Support

0 10 30 40 50 60 70

% who care about attribute

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