Perceived benefits of customer loyalty programs: validating the scale in the Indian context

Abstract

The article endeavors to validate the scale developed by Mimouni-Chaabane and Volle (2010) that measures perceived benefits of customer loyalty programs in the Indian context. On running exploratory and subsequently confirmatory factor analyses based on the responses collected from loyalty program members from two Indian cities and across different industries, the researchers opine that in the Indian context, the scale has to undergo changes. The original scale developed and tested on French loyalty program members had sixteen items that measure five perceived benefits namely, monetary savings, exploration, entertainment, recognition and social. It was found that in the case of India, the number of items remain intact. However, the entertainment benefits dimension and the recognition benefits dimension merged to form a singular dimension which the researchers name as ‘ego pleasure’. The authors believe that this research will benefit the managers in devising strategies for particular segments of their loyalty program members. In addition, it opens up the possibility of further testing the scale in different cultural contexts.Loyalty, perceived benefit, customer loyalty program (CLP), scale, Indian loyalty market.