Cognitive, Affective and Conative Store Loyalty Analysis on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: the Effects of Relational Benefits on Store Loyalty in Hairdressers

Loyalty concept is analyzed under different points of view such as brand, customer or store loyalty. Furthermore, due to the advancements in relationship marketing concept and the raising prominence of building relationship with the customers, this study focuses on the store loyalty aspect and aims to investigate the relationship between store loyalty and the customers’ relational benefits (social benefits, special treatment and confidence benefits) acquired from the service provided at the hairdressers. Hairdressing, in its nature, is a service which includes customized inter-relationship at the service encounter and includes attitudinal interactions. Hence, when analyzing the store loyalty, only one of the sub-dimensions of loyalty which is attitudinal loyalty is taken into consideration. To analyze the relationship between attitudinal store loyalty and relational benefits, a questionnaire is designed and applied on females in Izmir, Turkey. Descriptive and regression analysis is executed. The most important relational benefit is found to be confidence benefits and the results confirm most of the significant relationships between relational benefits and attitudinal store loyalty dimensions.